Why Mind Mapping is Awesome

1. You can see where you could do better

1.1. Lack of breadth/depth in a mind map serves as a good indicator if where you could focus more effort to gain understanding of a topic

1.1.1. It shows where your knowledge gaps are.

2. Be present

2.1. You can work on a branch using as much breadth or depth as you want

2.2. You can stop working on a branch whenever you want and come back to it later

2.2.1. This is a clear advantage over the traditional way of taking notes in a notebook, where writing the next line means you can't really go back to that line to write a paragraph about a relevant topic.

3. Fluidity

3.1. You are able to constantly evolve the structure of information to better suit your needs

3.1.1. Re-organizing branches to structures that make more sense

3.1.1.1. It's very powerful to be able to move an entire branch of information to a different place

3.1.2. Deleting nodes/branches that may not have been as useful as you first thought

3.2. You are able to revise the mind map and edit it over time to a form that provides more and more clarity

4. It scales

4.1. There is practically no limit to how much information you can store in mind maps

4.2. Use different files/sheets to compartmentalize the maps

5. Maps can be collaborative

5.1. Not only a collaboration of knowledge, but also time, effort, and unique experiences and perspectives

5.2. Very useful for organizations

6. This isn't even its final form

6.1. There is still more room for existing mind mapping software to improve!

7. It reinforces memory via visual structure

7.1. The mere act of filling out a mind map serves as an effective way to reinforce memory

7.2. The tree structure of mind maps is not much different from the structure of neural circuits in the brain

7.3. You organize the information the way that you think is most suitable to your understanding

8. The information is persistent and always available

8.1. The information is always there just in case you need it later

8.2. You can sync and access mind maps across devices

8.3. You can save different versions and revisions of a mind map file, if you wanted to

8.4. You can always build more and more upon previous knowledge

9. Cross-referencing

9.1. Suppose you're filling out a mind map and taking notes about one topic/branch, and then you suddenly have a need to jump to a completely different topic/branch. You can jump back and forth between topics/branches without losing track of where you were. This enables distractions to be useful.

9.2. You can use hyperlinks! Links to the internet, or to very specific nodes in your mind maps.

10. You can share maps

10.1. Imagine the explosion of skills and expertise if more and more people could share complex structure of knowledge amonst each other.

10.2. Imagine if educators would share mind maps with their students instead of powerpoint slides. There would be a more united understanding of the pertinent topics -- and more opportunities for students to gain depth/breadth of knowledge of the subject.

11. You can use maps to manage broad topics such as languages and technical topics

11.1. A lot of value for multi-disciplinary professionals

12. My personal recommendation for mind mapping software:

12.1. XMind 8 Pro - XMind - Mind Mapping Software