Flying Logic

Yesterday I found Flying Logic and I've been oscillating between thinking that it is the logic mapper to end all logic mapping, and that it's simply too obscure to ever use.

Everything about it, from the documentation, to the (empty) forum, to the web site, to the wiki, to software itself seem to imply the latter. They harp on how this product makes complex planning a cinch, as long as you're modeling something trivial like the odds of you being able to open a locked door, or something complex like (apparently) whether the nested preconditions and courses of action "B," "C," …, "Z" are enough for you to be able to do "A."

The second video on their videos page was their only saving grace for me. It is a complete, from scratch walkthrough of creating a graph to help you weigh the choice of getting a degree. It's not an easy question, and they show how Flying Logic makes it a less daunting one to answer. They show the process, in a way that makes it seem like it could eventually come naturally. After watching that video, I decided that maybe the software was worth a shot.

After my experience with it tonight, I've decided that while it may not be here to stay (can I justify the purchase?), it certainly has its uses for normal people. Tonight I used it to plot an argument for my philosophy paper. It was creepy to watch myself drag and drop, rename, and reorder the blocks until I was looking at an argument I could actually commit to paper. After the initial hump of staring at whitespace, the process had actually started to flow…

An Example: Course Selection

I used this Flying Logic 'spreadsheet' to choose my courses. It is less read-only than it seems, since the connecting lines highlight end-to-end when you click them, and nodes that all connect to the same place seem to cluster fairly well.

I chose courses by adjusting the spinners for each course. I could tell how good a selection was by watching how the "Joy," "Schedule Conflict," and various "Requirements" spinners reacted.

Posted Nov 01, 2007, in the late, late night. Updated updated Nov 25, 2007, in the afternoon: Added an example.

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