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I’m not sure aphantasia is the issue here. I have aphantasia but I find good architecture diagrams useful, and I regularly draw them. I don’t need to be able to

I’m not sure aphantasia is the issue here. I have aphantasia but I find good architecture diagrams useful, and I regularly draw them. I don’t need to be able to visualize them with my eyes closed to use them - instead, just look at the diagram. They’re intended to be referenced, that’s why they’re useful. As such, I’m not sure that “memorizing relationships” is their goal. As the OP article says, communication is one goal. But also, drawing a diagram is a lot like writing - it forces you to think about what you’re documenting and often uncovers points that need to be addressed. Bullet points can’t really capture what a diagram can - you need to represent other relationships in addition to the simple hierarchical structure that bullet point provide. If you use a diagramming tool with a DSL, you’ll see this in the diagram definition - it starts to become difficult to read a non-trivial diagram in textual form, because of relationships between different parts of the text. I’m not suggesting that you should find diagrams useful, but I think that what you’re looking for from them may not be their main purpose.

necovek 3y ago
Yeah, I don't claim aphantasia is the reason I don't find them generally useful: it's just that what some people might get (work back from a diagram on their mind to relationships) is not there as one potential benefits of diagrams. But no, what I am saying is that diagrams can't capture what a textual description can (for me[1]): like I struggled to accept that anyone can find diagrams useful for years, believe me that a diagram defined with a nice diagramming DSL works better for me. Or, you know, bullet points: I can put those into my working memory and work with that. Maybe it's my history as well: started with DOS and reluctant to switch to Windows having only used 3.11 for Internet, so after a short stint in NT, moved full time to Linux, doing everything with DSLs: printer escape sequences, AT commands, plain TeX for typesetting... — this is all early to mid primary school. [1] Obviously, as there are textual representations of diagrams, they are an equivalence class.

necovek 3y ago

Yeah, I don't claim aphantasia is the reason I don't find them generally useful: it's just that what some people might get (work back from a diagram on their mind to relationships) is not there as one potential benefits of diagrams. But no, what I am saying is that diagrams can't capture what a textual description can (for me[1]): like I struggled to accept that anyone can find diagrams useful for years, believe me that a diagram defined with a nice diagramming DSL works better for me. Or, you know, bullet points: I can put those into my working memory and work with that. Maybe it's my history as well: started with DOS and reluctant to switch to Windows having only used 3.11 for Internet, so after a short stint in NT, moved full time to Linux, doing everything with DSLs: printer escape sequences, AT commands, plain TeX for typesetting... — this is all early to mid primary school. [1] Obviously, as there are textual representations of diagrams, they are an equivalence class.