Why We Do It
Because it works!
New Yorker cartoonists have been coming up with ideas this way for 95 years. They come from our experience, which we use to understand what other people would think and feel in analogous experiences. Or even totally new experiences, which we can construct in our minds by putting together other things we have experienced.
People are generally pretty good at that, because our brains all work basically the same. The secret, if it’s a secret at all, is to facilitate making the right neural connections to visualize the situation, reframe it for better understanding, and then resolving any incongruities.
That may sound like a difficult and abstract challenge, but there is one thing we all understand that activates and connects all those cognitive functions. A New Yorker cartoon!
DRAWING, METAPHOR, and HUMOR are the core elements of a cartoon, and each of those creates what scientists call functional connectivity between the separate pairs of the three large-scale neural networks necessary for higher order or creative thought. And it does it more or less automatically.
All the details of the science gets to be a bit much. So we have distilled it into an image that expresses the key dynamics in a simplified way we can use. After all, that’s what cartoons do. Still, if you are interested in more about the science, you can read a short-ish piece about that here.
Now, before you blurt, “I’m no artist!” or “I’m not funny!” get this: you don’t have to be! If you can write your initials, you can draw well enough. If you can laugh when you can’t find your keys, only to realize they’re in your other hand, your humor is intact. And, metaphor? You’re human, ain’tcha? Humans are metaphor beings. We’ll show you how to weave all that together, to generate insight, empathy, and clarity around the issues that matter most to you.
It’s the THINKING that matters! It’s how you solve problems, build cohesion, express vision, and help yourself and others connect over a common purpose.
It’s a skill you can deploy anywhere, anytime. At your desk, in the middle of a meeting, on the train. With the most familiar and available tools imaginable.
We looked at all the science-y stuff, because it was necessary for reverse engineering what New Yorker cartoonists have been doing for nearly a century, so that non-cartoonists could reap the cognitive benefits in their own work, be it sales, economics, climate science, or video game design. But we cartoonists have always done it for a much simpler and more practical reason.
Because it works!
