XPlanar is a tech twist on the word Explainer. “Explain” comes from the latin planar, which means flat or to flatten. “Explaining” is taking a complex idea and flattening it to a more understandable state. Like imagining a circle as a polygon with infinite sides, being reduced to a hexagon.
This is the inspiration for the logo of the company. A semicircle on top, and a semihexagon on bottom, composing the X of the first letter of the company name. The world is a vast and complex space, and we only interact within certain contexts and with limited information. We can't know everything, but we can know anything. We need to choose which information is relevant to our task, and gain that knowledge so we can execute successfully.
Arc of Infinite Complexity
Some information is more useful in our quest to make decisions and have our will exerted on the world. Maps are not the territory, we only need as much detail for our specific context. This phrase has be used as metaphor in other fields, but is literally true in geospatial applications.
Polygon of Definable Nature
…In that Empire, the craft of Cartography attained such Perfection that the Map of a Single province covered the space of an entire City, and the Map of the Empire itself an entire Province. In the course of Time, these Extensive maps were found somehow wanting, and so the College of Cartographers evolved a Map of the Empire that was of the same Scale as the Empire and that coincided with it point for point. Less attentive to the Study of Cartography, succeeding Generations came to judge a map of such Magnitude cumbersome, and, not without Irreverence, they abandoned it to the Rigours of sun and Rain. In the western Deserts, tattered Fragments of the Map are still to be found, Sheltering an occasional Beast or beggar; in the whole Nation, no other relic is left of the Discipline of Geography.
"What a useful thing a pocket-map is!" I remarked."
That's another thing we've learned from your Nation," said Mein Herr, "map-making. But we've carried it much further than you. What do you consider the largest map that would be really useful?"
"About six inches to the mile."
"Only six inches!" exclaimed Mein Herr. "We very soon got to six yards to the mile. Then we tried a hundred yards to the mile. And then came the grandest idea of all ! We actually made a map of the country, on the scale of a mile to the mile!"
"Have you used it much?" I enquired.
"It has never been spread out, yet," said Mein Herr: "the farmers objected: they said it would cover the whole country, and shut out the sunlight ! So we now use the country itself, as its own map, and I assure you it does nearly as well."
