Spherical Cow Revisited

 I find some authors are generous; they gift me with a bunch of spherical cows. Let me explain.

A spherical cow is a picturesque mental model, an interesting metaphor.

If I want to explain velocity to a novice student and decide to do it through problem, I may ask if a cow travels three miles an hour, how far does it travel in twenty minutes. In this problem, we (my student and I) are only concerned about a cow getting from point A to Point B; we are not concerned, for example, about the complexity of how the cow’s limbs move.

The cow, for the intents of this discussion, may as well be a dot or a sphere!

Gifted authors provide metaphors equivalent to spherical cows; metaphors so simple to understand that the concepts they stand for are more digestible.

This morning, I was listening to John C Maxwell talk about leadership shift. He cited a violinist who gets promoted to a conductor as an example. Her world has shifted for good and she has to adapt fast. No longer is she only responsible for her instrument; she is now responsible for an entire orchestra.

That is a simple model, elegantly crafted metaphor to demonstrate the mindset shift required to be a leader.

I am glad that our celebrated writers, our mentors, have embraced such ‘spherical cows’ as staples of their craft.