Sketchplanations - A weekly explanation in a sketch

Sketchplanations in a book! I think you'll love Big Ideas Little Pictures

Sketchplanations podcast photo of Rob Bell, Tom Pellereau and Jono Hey

Prefer to listen?
Try the podcast

Like Sketchplanations?
Support me on Patreon

Explaining the world one sketch at a time

What's the difference between an americano and a long black picture

An americano and a long black: the difference

What's the difference between an americano and a long black coffee? I'd often wondered. Both seemed to be espresso and water. Not everyone will give you the same answer in a coffee shop if you ask them. But my understanding is the difference between an americano and a long black comes down to the order of adding your water to your espresso — an americano — or adding your espresso to your water — a long black one. If you’re making your own americanos or long black at home, you may notice that a long black seems to make a more satisfyingly luxurious-looking coffee as it does a better job of preserving the crema on top. Other coffee-related sketchplanations: Make Vietnamese coffee How to make Irish coffee Half-caff coffee Espresso, filter, americano and the redeye. Perhaps I should speak to someone about this. More what's the difference sketches…What's the difference between an americano and a long black coffee? I'd often wondered. Both seemed to be espresso and water. Not everyone will give you the same answer in a coffee shop if you ask them. But my understanding is the difference between an americano and a long black comes down to the order of adding your water to your espresso — an americano — or adding your espresso to your water — a long black one. If you’re making your own americanos or long black at home, you may notice that a long black seems to make a more satisfyingly luxurious-looking coffee as it does a better job of preserving the crema on top. Other coffee-related sketchplanations: Make Vietnamese coffee How to make Irish coffee Half-caff coffee Espresso, filter, americano and the redeye. Perhaps I should speak to someone about this. More what's the difference sketches

17 Mar 2016

Know your dashes: the hyphen, en dash and em dash

— and much nicer than using parentheses (). And —to go the full mile —why not use an en dash when you’re separating your page numbers 1–5 or months May–Sep next time? Didn’t spot that? - hypen – en dash — em dash Most writing tools and OSes have tricks to do these automatically for you.…

9 Mar 2016

Bloody marys

The bloody mary (vodka), ruddy mary (gin), virgin mary (alcohol-free) and the bull shot (beef broth instead of tomato). Has the added advantage of almost seeming like it’s something healthy to get. I always seem to end up ordering them on flights. Happy days.…

2 Mar 2016

Contranym

A contranym is a word that can be its own opposite. Contranyms — like a heteronym, portemanteau, palindrome and semordnilap — are neat things to look out for. Like how you can dust something to pick up dust from a surface and dust that surface to remove dust from it. So versatile. Or perhaps confusing. I learned this from Kathryn Schulz’ excellent article, What part of “No, totally” don’t you understand, about how “no, totally” came to mean “yes.” …A contranym is a word that can be its own opposite. Contranyms — like a heteronym, portemanteau, palindrome and semordnilap — are neat things to look out for. Like how you can dust something to pick up dust from a surface and dust that surface to remove dust from it. So versatile. Or perhaps confusing. I learned this from Kathryn Schulz’ excellent article, What part of “No, totally” don’t you understand, about how “no, totally” came to mean “yes.”

25 Feb 2016

Pace layers

Pace Layers is the brilliant observation of Stewart Brand that different aspects of the world change at different speeds. So, Fashion and art change and cycle faster than Commerce, which changes faster than Infrastructure, and in turn, Governance, Culture and finally, Nature. The outer layers tend to innovate faster and so pull along the slower-changing layers. At the same time, the slower layers also stabilise the faster layers, reducing the chances of chaos. At the boundaries, you get constructive turbulence, say, between self-driving cars and Governance or between legislation trying to keep up with the growth of electric scooters. Or how the growth in video streaming (Commerce) needs Internet Infrastructure to come along with it. As a framework for thinking about big, complex things, I find it quite handy. Also see: Time hierarchy The Overton Window…Pace Layers is the brilliant observation of Stewart Brand that different aspects of the world change at different speeds. So, Fashion and art change and cycle faster than Commerce, which changes faster than Infrastructure, and in turn, Governance, Culture and finally, Nature. The outer layers tend to innovate faster and so pull along the slower-changing layers. At the same time, the slower layers also stabilise the faster layers, reducing the chances of chaos. At the boundaries, you get constructive turbulence, say, between self-driving cars and Governance or between legislation trying to keep up with the growth of electric scooters. Or how the growth in video streaming (Commerce) needs Internet Infrastructure to come along with it. As a framework for thinking about big, complex things, I find it quite handy. Also see: Time hierarchy The Overton Window

17 Feb 2016

Give gifts others can give

As giving makes people happy, what better way to make someone happy than to give something they can give to others. Not all the time maybe, but I reckon it’ll be a hit.…

11 Feb 2016

Search·Categories·Archive