This is Pragmatic Follow-Up Part A for Episode 23, Maximum Erasability.
I just wanted to touch base quickly on the whiteboards discussion that I had with Seth Clifford.
And I had some interesting feedback from Nick Radcliffe.
And Nick brings up another rather interesting series of observations regarding the uses of a whiteboard
whiteboard from a non-collaborative context, which is something that I sort of touched
on briefly in the episode, but I didn't go into much depth. So I think it's definitely
worth just quickly talking about. One of the problems with whiteboards is size. So it's
fairly easier to get a smaller whiteboard, but the larger the whiteboard in size, I find
that that helps as Nick has said in his feedback, is that the larger the whiteboard, the greater
of the area that the thinking and sketching area and the sheer size of the whiteboard
actually will help when you're coming to focus ideas because you're not as constrained by space.
Having a large canvas can make a big difference because the more information you hold then the
more interconnections between that information you can draw and sum it all up in a single view.
So I completely agree with that sentiment and I think it's a very interesting way of thinking
about it. The other issue that he raises is colors. It may sound a little bit
strange but I agree that the more colors that you have the better
because you can sort of diversify your context. I hated going into meeting rooms
where there's just one color. It's either blue or black usually because
normally when you buy the pens you'll get the four different color dry erase
markers and you usually got black, red, green and blue. So bottom line is
is that I would expect those four as a minimum.
But as always seems to be the case,
the lighter colors seem to get dark
because of, as I said in the episode,
people drawing over the darker lines, it destroys the tip.
And for whatever reason, you end up getting stuck
with the dodgy blue or the dodgy black marker.
So I think the color seems,
and as Nick points out in his feedback,
colors sort of seem more natural on a whiteboard
and they can add a little bit of depth,
which is really good.
Beyond that, he also mentions one of his extra peeves was anyone that leaves around discovering
that there's a marker that doesn't actually work and they put it straight back in the
tray or on the table instead of throwing it away and getting another one.
And of course, that leads to that situation where you got to go and find some more, which
we did sort of talk about.
But the bottom line is, yeah, I really do hate that.
It's like if the pen doesn't work, chuck it out.
So yes, I'm into that one, Nick.
Thank you.
And he also points out a trick that I didn't mention on the show but I was aware of and
definitely bears mention.
If you do, someone has used a permanent marker on a whiteboard, what you can do is you can
get a dry erase marker and you can essentially draw over the top of it.
So if you sort of squiggle over the top in a thicker line, the chemical that they use
in the dry erase marker is a solvent that stops it from permanently staying on the board.
And by doing that you are essentially applying that same solvent to the permanent marker
and that will tend to lift the permanent marker off the board.
My only word of caution, because I've done that many times, but my only word of caution
doing that is that it will contaminate the marker you're using so you really do need
to match the colour and that's something that Nick points out as well in his feedback.
So if you've got a black permanent marker, use a black dry erase marker to erase it.
Thank you very much Nick for that feedback, much appreciated.