

This list is by no means exhaustive, of course. Let’s take a look at some common use cases.

Mind maps are like the Swiss Army knife of visual thinking - a flexible, multipurpose tool that can do a lot of different jobs.

While a mind map has one central theme, a concept map illustrates how a variety of different topics or ideas are connected, with no tiers or levels. The key difference is that mind maps are hierarchical, while concept maps are not. Both are diagrams that use nodes and links to visualize how ideas are connected. You may hear people conflate mind maps with concept maps, and it’s easy to understand why. (In practice, most mind maps won’t be quite so symmetrical - and that’s okay!) This sample mind map outlines key aspects of a product launch in a simple, structured way. They encourage lateral thinking, pushing you to explore and investigate a topic from every angle. The inside-out structure makes it easy to get all your thoughts and ideas down in one place and draw connections between them. What makes mind maps so powerful is not just the diagrams themselves, but also the process that goes into creating them. This structure helps you see a broad overview of the concept, understand its complexities and connections, and make decisions effectively. They are hierarchical in that the most important ideas are the closest to the center, and each subsequent tier rolls up to the one before it. They feature one main idea as the central point of the diagram, with subtopics branching out and connecting to supporting ideas - and so on. Mind maps themselves are pretty straightforward.
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Mind maps, popularized in the 1970s by pop psychology writer and TV host Tony Buzan, are diagrams that allow you to visualize the relationship between a series of concepts and ideas. Mind map definition: A mind map is a diagram that allows you to visualize how related ideas and concepts are connected to one another.
