1973: The first thing I remember learning is that things move in predictable ways. I knew this before I learned the alphabet. I am very curious and I wanted to understand why things moved in predictable ways. This led me to experiment with light, color, vibration, and motion when I was six to ten years old.

1982: Based on my experiments with marbles and ramps, I wanted to see if I could design a machine that would spin around for a long time. I knew it would stop spinning because I could hear the sound of the marbles in my mind. I knew the sound of a marble on a ramp was the sound of friction. I didn’t know the word for “friction” but I knew what it meant and how it worked. I built it in my basement out of go-kart parts, playing cards, metal marbles, and a magnet. More details are here: https://businessvisualization.com/mapping-an-energy-and-information-system/

1977: I did experiments with marbles and ramps so I could learn how things moved over time. This taught me the concepts of: position, velocity, acceleration, friction, and momentum. I didn’t know the words for these things but I knew what they meant. I could see these relationships in a visual-spatial model.

1976: I asked my dad for a stopwatch when I was six. I wanted to see if I could use the watch to improve my sense of time and timing. I practiced measuring time for hours until I could accurately measure 300 seconds within two seconds. This enabled me to understand the rates of heat transfer and velocity in various objects.