Hi folks, thanks for your support here. To keep up with new sketches, please subscribe to the newsletter at sketchplanations.com/subscribe To do the best job I can, I'm cutting back on the number of platforms I'm posting to, so I won't be sharing new sketches here. Thanks again 🙏

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Weekly hand-drawn explanations of ideas from science, psychology, creativity and life. Click to read Sketchplanations, by Jono Hey, a Substack publication with tens of thousands of subscribers.

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Box breathing can help us focus on the present, reduce stress and anxiety by lowering cortisol levels, and generally relax and be calm. Box breathing involves four steps repeated in sequence, each for an equal count: Breathe in Hold your breath Breathe out Hold your breath

John Wooden’s 8 Laws of Learning

"Only if we understand can we care. Only if we care will we help. Only if we help shall all be saved." — Dr. Jane Goodall The irresistible logic, sense and emotion of anadiplosis.

What would you see if you tried to travel alongside a light wave at the speed of light? And suppose you held a mirror in front of you, what would you see in it? This puzzle is known as Einstein's mirror and is a question he asked himself in his teens 🤯

There is no 'away'.

On trying new things. This cycle was reinforced for me recently in the book The Amazing Generation by @jonathanhaidt.bsky.social and @catherine-price.bsky.social

Forcing function A forcing function is an external stimulus that makes you get to where you want to be. One of the simplest and most effective behaviours that you can try to help you level up is to keep creating forcing functions for yourself.

I’ve met very few people who can’t relate in some form to the Diderot Effect: a spiral of consumption. New episode on all podcast players or here: podcast.sketchplanations.com/the-diderot-...

Yesterday was a rare blue moon — 2 full moons appearing in May

Little openings: small moments that invite connection

We all know that racing drivers overtake on the inside — it's the shorter, faster route. It was only relatively recently that I found how useful it can be on a long drive, too, not for racing but for using the bend on a multilane road for easier, safer overtaking.

Understanding El Niño El Niño is complex and varied, and the effects are widespread. I don’t profess to cover everything here. ENSO does not follow a perfectly regular cycle. Events vary in timing, strength and duration, and not every El Niño is followed by a La Niña. More in the newsletter.

Meh. Blah. Can't be bothered? Not excited about the future? Perhaps you're languishing. Adam Grant's NYT article, There’s a Name for the Blah You’re Feeling: It’s Called Languishing , resonated with so many people as the coronavirus pandemic drew on.

Can’t open a jar? Here are my personally tried and tested methods of escalation. And other #firstworldproblems #lifehacks

Do not be angry with the rain; it simply does not know how to fall upwards. — Vladimir Nabokov

“I will study and get ready and perhaps my time will come.” —Abraham Lincoln I take from Lincoln’s quote: - Work hard. - Do my best. - Stay humble. - Prepare if I can. _ Look out for opportunities. - Don’t rush it. Be patient. - Don’t be too hard on myself if things come slowly or not at all.

I am a part of all that I have met. — Alfred, Lord Tennyson, from the poem "Ulysses"

In the latest episode we talked about one of my favourite quotes on entrepreneurship from Twitter co-founder Biz Stone. Now is also a good time to try the Sketchplanations podcast (on all the usual places) as, not so long ago, we turned off all ads. podcast.sketchplanations.com/how-to-becom...

Thermocline More on the newsletter and site if you're curious.

I'm not a very good writer, but I'm an excellent rewriter. – James A. Michener, Writer's Handbook For somebody who draws a lot, I find I have a lot of books about writing.

What do you get if you have a lake on an island with an island on it? A recursive island. Canada, with its vast archipelagos and watery lowlands, seems to have an abundance of higher-order islands.

Earth is a big magnet 🤯 The magnetic field is produced by some remarkable result of the convection of molten hot iron alloys in the core of the Earth.

Moravec's Paradox and others

“Live a big, interesting life. Think, share your thoughts. We need a world like that. We don’t need a world with a bunch of bobbleheads doing what they’re told by so-called experts.” — Former nuclear submarine captain, David Marquet Listen: podcast.sketchplanations.com/submarine-le...

Sneezes And Coughs ‘Tis the season for these powerful things. Turns out sneezes can travel up to 8 m, coughs up to 6m and they can linger in the air for up to 10 minutes. All the more important to make sure you’re doing your Dracula sneeze into your sleeve.

An Eminem rhyming masterclass from the 60 mins show where he said: "People say that the word orange doesn't rhyme with anything, and that kind of pisses me off because I can think of a lot of things that rhyme with orange."

Exciting to have some new amazing photos of Earth and the moon. Here are some moon sketches. Thank you Artemis II

The McNamara Fallacy: Measuring what is easy to measure, ignoring what is hard to measure. From the social scientist, Daniel Yankelovich

The frog boil metaphor illustrates how it's easy to miss small changes that build up over time until it's too late. The scenario, as told, is that of a poor frog who would leap away from hot water but, if put into cooler water that is gradually warmed, won't respond in time to getting boiled.