Diagramming: Mind Maps, Decision Trees, and More

Gone are the days of long, dull text and endless lists.

With a plethora of modern tools at our disposal, presenting information in a visually appealing way takes mere seconds, yet it can dramatically enhance understanding and communication.

Some time ago, I posted on LinkedIn (here ) a few topic examples where a mindmap or tree diagram could be a great option to present information.

Let's dig in by walking through a few relevant examples to showcase the many diagramming tools available out there.

Consider this list of books, which I’ve kept short specifically for the purposes of this example:

Petroleum Geology

1. "Principles of Petroleum Geology" - William C. Krumbein and L. L. Sloss
2. "Elements of Petroleum Geology" - Richard C. Selley
3. "The Geology of Hydrocarbons" - Norman J. Hyne

Petroleum Engineering

1. "Petroleum Engineering Handbook" - Larry W. Lake (Editor)
2. "Fundamentals of Reservoir Engineering" - L. P. Dake
3. "Modern Petroleum Technology" - Richard A. Dawe

Petrophysics

1. "Petrophysics: Theory and Practice of Measuring Reservoir Rock and Fluid Transport Properties" - Djebbar Tiab and Erle C. Donaldson
2. "Fundamentals of Petrophysics" - Shenglai Yang
3. "The Petrophysical Handbook" - Gordon C. Wiggins

Let's present this list in a more visually appealing diagram. For this first example, we'll use a platform called 'Miro.'

Go to miro.com and sign up for free. Then, choose 'mindmap' from the extensive library of diagram options available. It's so intuitive and user-friendly, you'll have it figured out in just a couple of minutes:

For the second example, let's use a tool called LucidChart (same deal… go to lucidchart.com and sign up for free).

This time, instead of selecting a template, let's manually draw a simple decision tree from scratch on an empty, infinite canvas—one box at a time.

Decision trees are excellent tools for illustrating the proper framework under which important decisions should be made. They are also great for calculating the value of information. For example, should we acquire seismic data? Should we install a compressor? Let’s assign a real economic value to all options and make informed decisions.

Beyond mind maps and decision trees, take the time to explore the libraries of these platforms. They are loaded with a plethora of templates that will greatly aid in conveying information effectively and visually appealingly.

Here’s the LucidChart template library :

And here’s Miro’s Template Library :

These platforms offer incredible value. I guarantee that as you browse through these libraries, you'll find gems that will simplify both your life and work.

Other popular choices include Canva , Mural , Whimsical , among many others.

All of these tools are now integrating AI capabilities into their platforms, making your job even more exciting.

But now, ChatGPT might be all you ever need. I assume you have it open by your side at all times by now, don’t you?

Now, take a look at this page where I walk you through the process of generating a mindmap for the ‘Joe, INC’ business plan (you might find it useful and decide to apply it yourself!)

You can see on the above pages that, when I ask ChatGPT for a mind map in Markdown format, this is the block of text I receive as output. Markdown is a lightweight markup language that formats plain text into styled text, often converted to HTML, and is popular for writing documentation and online content.

The beauty of this is that it can easily be turned into an interactive mind map tree, as I show on the page mentioned just above. (this page ).

Now let me show you a couple more tricks.

This is an image you can easily find by Googling ‘reservoir formation damage mechanisms’:

You can leverage the image recognition capability of ChatGPT and turn this into text, without breaking a sweat; simply paste the image into ChatGPT and ask:

Prompt:

‘Turn this in to sectioned text list’

Output:

Cool, eh? You can use that block of text and include it in your reports, etc.

Now let's go the other way around... Say you already have this block of text outlining your formation damage mechanisms. You can find a Custom GPT in the public library and build a diagram out of this text.

Go to https://chatgpt.com/gpts and search: ‘diagrams’:

We choose the first one offered in the search results, and now we can ask away in the chat window:

Prompt:

‘Turn this into a diagram’

Output:

You can even paste your hand-drawn diagrams or ones created in Excel or PowerPoint with basic boxes and convert them into something appealing for a report or presentation.

Take this example:

Now let’s choose the ‘Whimsical Diagrams’ GPT from the library and ask:

Prompt:

‘Turn this into a diagram’

Output:

There you go. Have a play with these tools. They are incredibly user-friendly and easy to learn.