Re: Quality of source material from Development

Subject: Re: Quality of source material from Development
From: Andrew Plato <intrepid_es -at- yahoo -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2001 15:12:06 -0800 (PST)

> In a very succinct nutshell, there are two types of thinkers, "mappers"
> and "packers". Mappers think in a fashion similar to a relational
> database (Oracle) whereas packers think in a fashion more nearly akin to
> an old heirarchial database (DBIII). These divergent thought processses
> are the source of major communication problems.

Yeah, and the Green Bay Mappers just doesn't sound right.

I've heard this described as "compartmentalizers" vs. "connectors".
Compartmentalizers want to organize ideas, concepts, and information into
small, digestible packages. Connectors seek out patterns and focus on
explaining the relationships between different pieces.

I won't beat around the bush - I think mapping is far superior mode of
analyzing information. If you can map out a complex concept, you'll have
it licked and you can leverage that map for application elsewhere.
Compartmentalizers tend to be great at organizing stuff, but terrible at
making sense out of all that stuff.

To put it in writing terms: mappers make good writers, packers make good
editors. The problem comes when packers try to write. They break down all
the information into bite sized chunks that make absolutely no sense when
read as a whole. Its the fundamental flaw in information mapping theory
and the reason why so many technical manuals are so bad. There was nobody
asking questions like "what does this do?" "why does it do that?" and
"what does this affect?"

Andrew Plato

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