I hate flowcharts

[alexiscartwheel]

Seriously, why are there so many flowcharts in my reading? LIS people are apparently in love with drawing diagrams of their theoretical models and I DON'T GET IT!

I'm sure this must be some sort of learning style mis-match thing, but it makes me feel very stupid. I just see boxes and arrows that I can't decipher. What's wrong with just writing about what's going on instead of just drawing a bunch of arrows?

ETA: Also, there are too many acronyms and abbreviations to keep straight. Then even the words don't have meaning. Argh.

ETA2: I forgot about xkcd's Guide to Understanding Flow Charts. I wish the ones in my articles were this simple! Yeah, back to work or whatever.

Comments

[ex-jo-blogs.livejournal.com]

I am so with you on annoying diagrams of theoretical models.

[stubefied-by-gd.livejournal.com]

My theory is that one day, someone important somewhere discovered they liked flowcharts, and whenever anyone submitted anything to them, they said, "Needs more flowcharts," which led all those people to believe that flowcharts were necessary, so that when they became lecturers and bosses, they encouraged those below them to add flowcharts to everything as well, and it spread like a virus until flowcharts were everywhere because everyone was told they needed them.

Yes, some people are visual learners, and yes, some things are kinda flow-chart-y in nature. But when you see a flowchart where a simple numbered list would suffice, it is kinda annoying. Boxes (even strangely-shaped ones) do not necessarily make everything better!

[kit-the-brave.livejournal.com]

My reaction to flow charts in my required reading is pretty much, "Yay! Half a page I can skip!"

[mysticalchild_isis]

But "Let's go drink" is generally the best advice when it comes to flow charts.

[d4ni.livejournal.com]

I think Laura Roslin would tell you that your flow charts would be about 100 times more exciting if you just cut the corners off all the pages.