Napkin Blueprints
When Logic Found Its Voice
July 15, 2025
by Mish'al K. Samman
Twenty years ago, I was asked to explain wide area networks and redundant telecom servers for worldwide communications.
Sounds simple enough, right?
But somehow... as I built my spreadsheets, drew my diagrams, and pieced it all together, I started talking about Star Wars. Then Star Trek.
“How would a message travel across the stars?” I asked.
“What if you didn’t know where you were… or where you were going?”
The class laughed.
The presentation was a hit.
And my professor ... who also happened to be the dean of the Telecom department ... told me to never do that again.
Too “unprofessional,” he said.
And yet… it was the most popular presentation I gave during my entire graduate program.
Here’s what I think he missed:
Presentations aren’t just about facts.
They’re about understanding.
And the human brain remembers stories.
It remembers connections.
It remembers feeling something click.
I wasn’t trying to be clever. I was trying to explain something real... in a way that made people feel it.
And maybe, just maybe ... that’s when I started realizing the storyteller in me had been there all along.
In grad school, I found myself coding modules like scenes. I’d write the logic, sure... but I’d see it unfold like dialogue.
Almost as if I was writing characters into the code, tracing the narrative through lines of syntax.
And weirdly… it worked.
My inner monologue would test ideas, debate logic, explore “what ifs”... in real-time.
Not perfectly. But fluidly.
I wasn’t separating the engineer from the performer anymore.
They were the same person.
Maybe that’s why I ended up loving improv so much later in life.
Maybe that’s why today ... years after being told to “cut the creativity” ... business schools have invited me back to teach students how to pitch their ideas through storytelling.
Because numbers don’t move people.
Meaning does.
If I’ve learned anything, it’s this:
We talk about logic and creativity like they live on opposite ends of the universe.
But the truth is, there’s a bridge between them.
A hybrid. A harmony. A vast and beautiful grey space.
That’s where most of us live anyway ... not in the extremes, but in the space between.
The spectrum between what’s efficient… and what’s human.
And I think that’s the most logical thing I’ve ever believed.
About the Author
Mish’al Samman is a writer, performer, and lifelong fanboy who began his career covering comics, film, and fandom culture for Fanboy Planet in the early 2000s. With a voice rooted in sincerity, humor, and cultural observation, his work blends personal storytelling with pop-culture insight. Whether he’s reflecting on the soul of Star Wars or exploring identity through genre, Mish’al brings a grounded, human perspective to every galaxy he writes about.