Originally Posted By: zmjezhd
I read a book on mind maps once

Do you have a title or author? There's a good book which discusses (amongst other things) how diagrams (like trees) developed in European books: Walter J. Ong Ramus, Method, and the Decay of Dialogue: From the Art of Discourse to the Art of Reason 1953.

No. Too long ago that was. I borrowed it from my Swiss boss at the time. Decay of dialogue? Sounds interesting. Is it about the death of aesthetics in dialogue? Does it say why rhetorical devices are more or less dead? Regarding mind maps, do google mind maps... That was pretty much what the book was about. I am not sure the mind maps haven't been subconscoiusly inspired by the shape of the neuron. There is no reason why the node should be so spider shape or the base of the branches so thick. So that's how your thoughts look like a neuron.