Sketchplanations

How to remember if it's a Stalactite or Stalagmite (or stalagtite or stalacmite): Stalactites Cling tight to the Ceiling of a cave. Stalagmites Grow on the Ground

How do you remember the difference between stalactites and stalagmites in a cave? And how do you spell them?

A simple mnemonic that’s helped me is this:

Topography and bathymetry and their etymology

Topography and bathymetry: overland and underwater cousins

Bathymetry is like topography flipped upside down.

Bathymetry is the study of the ocean depths, underwater features and terrain. It's everything from the water's surface downwards rather than upwards.

A short article for paid subscribers on my favourite sketches of 2024. This time: The Writer's in the Writing, the Artist's in the Art:
open.substack.com/pub/sketchpl...

Sketchplanations - Simplifying complex ideas in sketches The famous moral dilemma: switch the tracks or not? Imagine you’re the driver of a runaway trolley whose brakes have failed. Ahead on the track, five people are working and will be killed if you do…

More about the Trolley Problem at sketchplanations.com/the-trolley-...

Prints! www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/1724...

The Heavy Man variant of the Trolley Problem

Or suppose that you were on a bridge above the track when you saw the train on its way to crash through the five people working on the track.

There’s no switch—but next to you stands a very heavy man. If you push him off the bridge, his body would stop the trolley and save the five.

The Mafia variant of the Trolley Problem

Suppose once again you were the bystander at the switch passing the track in this deadly scene. This time, however, you see that the five people on the track are not workmen but hardened criminals. What's more, they've tied an innocent person to the other track.

The Bystander at the Switch Variant of the Trolley Problem

You’re no longer the driver. This time, you’re simply passing by when you see a runaway trolley heading toward five people. The trolley is driverless, and you’re standing next to a switch that could divert the train to another track—where one person would be killed instead.

The Trolley Problem original variant

The start of the famous moral dilemma of The Trolley Problem.

Second cousins once removed illustration: a family tree is displayed with YOU in the middle where the relationships with all those around you is labelled.

Second cousins once removed.

Even when you’ve figured out how family relations work, families, in just a few generations, can get surprisingly complex. I won’t pretend this one doesn’t require a little study.

Looking back in time as we look to the stars: A visual explanation of how light from the Moon, Sun, stars, and galaxies shows us the past because light takes time to travel.

Looking Back in Time
The farther you look, the farther back in time you see

So, as you look up in the sky, it's also like looking at a map of different times. Crazy.

There are several theories for how they form but in general strong winds of cold dry air from one side likely interact with warmer humid air on the other. Look out for them next time you're in the mountains.

Banner cloud on the Matterhorn showing strong wind of cold dry air on one side and warmer humid air on the other producing the cloud in a banner shape

Banner cloud

Banner clouds can form on the side of a high or exposed peak and seem to stick to the mountain face like a banner, even on an otherwise cloudless day.

John Muir quote illustration: I only went out for a walk, and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in — John Muir quote

"I only went out for a walk, and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in."
— John Muir

Is there some "out" that you can make your "in" this week?

Totally agree! Very difficult to assess.

Also known as the bacon and eggs principle, it's from the old joke (sometimes told as a short story), "In a bacon and eggs breakfast, the chicken is involved, but the pig is committed."

Chickens and pigs illustration: also known as the bacon and eggs principle, shows a bacon and fried egg breakfast with an egg for the chicken's involvement and a cleaver for the pig's

Chickens and pigs is a metaphor for who's got skin in the game. Or to leave metaphors behind, who's involved in a project vs who is fully committed.

Another favourite half word
sketchplanations.com/halfalogue

Halfpinion: considering only the benefits or the costs

The reality is that most actions have benefits and costs. A halfpinion is a handy term for when someone is ignoring one half of a topic.

When you only consider one side of an issue, often just the benefits, you don't have a full opinion, you just have a halfpinion.

A bellini is a refreshing cocktail made with peach nectar and prosecco. A blini is typically a bite-size pancake often served with smoked salmon or caviar due to its Russian origins. Both are delicious in very different ways and yet sound almost exactly the same (like a homophone).

Bellini or blini illustration: a glass of a bellini—a prosecco and peach cocktail—shown next to blini—small Russian pancakes with smoked salmon and caviar

While both are excellent starts to an evening, it's easy to mix up a bellini with a blini, if only because you might mishear one for the other.

What's the difference between a bellini and a blini?

Outro cover artwork

A new piano track out on all platforms

Listen: ditto.fm/outro-jono-hey

The cover artwork is from the first camp on our climb of Volcán Tajumulco, Guatemala, from 2009. One of the more spectacular views I've had the pleasure of enjoying.

Hope you enjoy it!

Congested equilibrium and how suppressed journeys and latent demand build-up means you can't build your way out of congestion

From congested equilibrium comes the maxim in travel planning circles: "You can't build your way out of congestion."

I learned about this and the trials and challenges of travel planners in the book Good to go? Decarbonising Travel After the Pandemic by Professor David Metz.

A busy street showing how the pollution varies in different locations compared to a back street which is much cleaner

Pollution is highly localized: take the back streets

Erving Goffman's metaphor of Life As Theatre: Front Stage - Back Stage
sketchplanations.com/front-stage-...

Also see:
Don't Compare Your Back of House with Others Front of House
sketchplanations.com/front-of-hou...

Calm Like a Duck quote: Calm on the surface but under the water I'm paddling like hell

Michael Caine: Ducks look calm as they glide along the surface of the water but they're paddling like hell underneath. When you're doing your preparation right, it sometimes looks so good that people watching you make the mistake of assuming it's all...effortless. In my experience, it never is.

Production has to be a loop. Known often as the circular economy. Sketch of a loop/production loop

Think cradle to cradle

From Michael Braungart and William McDonough’s groundbreaking book Cradle to Cradle (you should buy it just to feel the book itself). Production and use need not be a straight line. It has to be a loop. Known often as the circular economy.

To scale, you first have to do things that don't scale, advice from Paul Graham and Brian Chesky of AirBnB for scaling companies shown with a founder packing boxes themselves like Jeff Bezos of Amazon

One of the seeming contradictions in a company's journey is that, as Paul Graham, founder of Y Combinator, points out, to get to scale, you first have to do things that don't scale.

AirBnB's Brian Chesky: Do it until it hurts, then automate it away.

More at: sketchplanations.com/do-things-th...

Why we cringe, and why it can be a good thing The upside of awkwardness

Melissa is a journalist and author of the entertaining and insightful Cringeworthy: a Theory of Awkwardness
www.theverge.com/2018/2/13/16...