I’ve always been interested in the intersection of art and science; a conjunction that led to a degree in photographic science and engineering from the Rochester Institute of Technology.  While photographic science didn’t  provide the bridge between art and science I thought it might, it did provide a broad grounding in science and engineering that has served me well.

Moving to Boston in 1984 I worked at several local technology companies – Eikonix, Howtek, Sequel Imaging – designing electro-optical imaging equipment for defense and pre-press applications.  I had also, however, acquired from my father, George Clemens, a self-employed engineer and inventor, the notion that inventing was a natural career option. Thus I was also studying business and pursuing various inventions and entrepreneurial projects.  While never commercially successful, these projects produced some great prototypes in human-powered transport, light sculpture, electronic musical instruments, and auditory display software.

In the summer of 1994, while pondering what business might combine my interest in art and science in a more creative and reliable way than inventing, I had the initial inspiration for Idiagram, posing myself the question “what do ideas look like?”.  In it’s original conception I was just interested in how we might apply visual representation – indispensable to the design and engineering of physical things – to the conceptual domain of more abstract ‘ideas’ – where verbal language is usually the sole form of representation.

While ‘idea visualization’ is itself a fascinating area, it inevitably drew me to much deeper questions about what exactly ‘ideas’ are, how we tell good ones from bad ones, and how we use them to our advantage.  I realized that while visualization is a fascinating tool, it is only a tool and not and end in itself; the goal is not just to create descriptive pictures but to use those pictures to improve human reasoning. 

The current focus of my work is on improving our rationality in the face of complexity.  This expanded goal has led me from my original focus on visual representation to a broad interest in human reasoning that ranges through philosophy, epistemology, the philosophy of science, humanism, complex systems science, cognitive science, evolutionary psychology, reflective psychology, organizational learning, strategic planning, and decision making.

Integrating the insights from these diverse fields into a coherent theory and practical problem-solving process underlies my consulting work, and this interplay of theory and process drives my two complementary goals:

1) to help my clients make progress on the difficult decisions and communication tasks they face

2) to develop the theory and practice of visual modeling, and to synthesize a comprehensive yet practical account of problem solving, decision making, and communication.