Externalize mental models as spatial diagrams rather…
Externalize mental models as spatial diagrams rather than prose to force explicit specification of entities, relationships, and structural gaps that language can skip.
Why This Is a Principle
Grounded in Structural Correspondence in Mental Models (mental models have structural correspondence to reality), Externalization Exposes Hidden Structure (externalization exposes gaps), and Dual Coding Theory: Verbal and Visual Channels (spatial relationships resist text representation). Diagrams enforce structural completeness prose does not.
Source Lessons
Externalize your mental models
A mental model you cannot draw is a mental model you cannot examine. The models that govern your decisions most powerfully are the ones you have never made visible — and therefore never inspected, never tested, and never improved.
Writing is thinking, not recording
The act of writing generates new thoughts rather than merely documenting existing ones. Writing is not transcription — it is the primary mechanism through which vague intuitions become precise understanding.