13 Oct 2020
Just Scribble While You Work

In 2015, there was a picture taken of Putin listening to Obama give a speech.  When the photo was zoomed, it was clear that notes he was writing during the speech were just scribbles.  It made its way around the internet and, this being an election year, it’s making a comeback on Facebook in 2020.

Facebook, in addition to a place for people to publicly imitate Chicken Little, allows people to post things without understanding what they are looking at. A lot of people posted this picture with text that was mocking. If you’ve ever tuned into a Russian TV station on the internet (yes, I know most of you haven’t), he does this quite often when he is listening to people giving speeches. And while it may seem counter-intuitive, it’s actually very smart. In fact, many American presidents have been known to do it as well during speeches.

I often do this as well, especially in classes where the material didn’t peak my interest or the material was too mundane.  I was also one of those students who had no problems taking tests, which I attribute in part to this practice of doodling.

Harvard Health has a fascinating blog post on this subject, which I encourage you to read. It may actually give you a new technique to deal with some of the effects of working from home.

The Thinking Benefits of Doodling (Harvard Health).