I thought this section from a satirical piece about Silicon Valley’s self-styled intellectuals applied just as much to social theorists as figures like Peter Thiel. Why do social theorists use diagrams? How coherently are they integrated into arguments? How skilfully do they tend to deploy them?
the importance of a chart is inversely proportional to its necessity to the argument: the less necessary a chart is to make yourself understood, the more important it is to include that chart in your text. Let’s summarize that thought in a chart of its own:
https://thebaffler.com/salvos/how-to-become-an-intellectual-in-silicon-valley-timms
Mark Carrigan 