At its core, drawing is a problem-solving tool. Scientists are often avid doodlers. “The process of drawing something helps you somehow to stay connected,” Fields-Medal-winning mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani she explained in a 2014 interview. “I am a slow thinker, and have to spend a lot of time before I can clean up my ideas and make progress.”
Even if you’re not tackling hyperbolic geometry, drawing is useful for our daily affairs from giving directions, taking meeting notes, outlining an presentation, or making grocery lists. It fosters close observation, analytical thinking, patience, even humility.