Words to think by

Understanding is a kind of ecstasy.

(Carl Sagan)

Removing barriers to understanding

How do we become motivated to understand?

How do we become interested in understanding ... oh, I dunno, any idea, something, anything?

How do we become interested in learning?

Is that several questions? Perhaps. I think of them as variations on one theme.

The words "persuade" and "influence" are in that pile of Legos I dumped on the floor recently. The question, "How does persuasion work?" is one of the underlying themes of my writing here. It seems to me we often think about persuasion as an additive process. We provide facts, figures, and information. We build a case. Sometimes we try to make the process overwhelmingly additive. We blast information from a fire hose. We try to bury each other under piles of words.

This just occurred to me now, while writing this post: Sometimes persuasion seems more like a process of elimination, a process of removing barriers.

Sometimes (perhaps often?) persuasion occurs when we remove barriers to understanding.

So maybe we should ask ourselves the question this way:

How do we remove barriers to understanding?

Scattering many pieces, dumping my bucket of Legos

When I was a kid I often built things from Lego blocks. I kept my unassembled Legos in a gallon-sized plastic bucket. Whenever I began a new Lego building project, I would sit down and dump the entire bucket of blocks all over the floor in front of me. Scattering a gallon of Legos takes up considerable floor space, but it seemed the easiest way to find the pieces I wanted to assemble. That, and they made a satisfying whoosh, roar, and clatter as they tumbled out.

I knew folks who took a similar approach to assembling large picture puzzles. I have several essay projects that I intend to construct here eventually. Since I consider this blog as a staging area for my other web site, I thought it might be helpful to dump my bucket of Legos here so that we can easily find the building blocks for future essays. So, here we go: (Whoosh! Roar ... clatter)

Vision
Strategy
Tactics

Perception is reality?
Probably not.
But it can be difficult to perceive the difference.

cognitive dissonance
projection
locus of control

social psychology
in-group / out-group
Lord of the Flies

Maslow's hierarchy of needs

self-image
self-esteem

a need to feel competent

No one wakes up in the morning with a plan to be stupid.
We all believe we're doing the right thing at the time we do it.

retroactive justification

Ego

I am right / you are wrong

People who say they are "open-minded" usually are not.
People who say, "My door is always open", often say they are also open-minded.
People who say, "You don't have to like me, you just have to respect me" don't really know how liking or respect actually work.

Dialog

non-violent communication

E-prime

frames
memes

Tipping Point

On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog.
On the Internet, nobody knows if you're a 14 year old boy.
Or a 40 year old man.
Or 40 going on 14.
Nobody knows -- but one often suspects.

authentic
mature
becoming aware
conscious participation
Trying not to participate is a form of participation.

The most basic task of every human is to be human.

How hard can that be?

Paolo Lugari once asked,

"Why do you people make everything so difficult?"

If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you.

If you really make them think, they'll hate you.
Everybody thinks those two statements make them look good.

open-minded
open door

Defending a castle of belief
Swimming in a lake of information

Learn
Understand
Profess
Persuade

(No, I wasn't impressed by Freakonomics.)

economic theory
economic reality
Kurt Vonnegut's Galapagos

Belief

high-maintenance beliefs
low-maintenance beliefs
habits

values
attitudes
habits
decisions
behaviors

coasting on auto-pilot

Mother Culture
Strict Father

exploitation
abusive relationships

disparity by design

egalitarian
altruism
prosocial behavior
evolutionarily stable strategy

Ants know how to live like ants.
Bees know how to live like bees.
Some fish swim in schools, but they don't attend school to learn how.
Humans evolved as a social species.

Strategic ignorance
Look for a bigger picture.
There's usually a bigger picture.

community
connection
Gaviotas
tribe

Urban Tribes
Ethan Watters

Robin Dunbar

What do the Amish understand that the rest of us do not?

conspicuous reduction
voluntary simplicity
preventing involuntary simplicity

The Fifth Discipline
lessons from the beer game

control
power
influence
steering a sled

rolling snowball

feedback loops

anthropology
psychology
climatology

riverboat gamblers
learn the rules of the game
see the mechanism
then turn the system inside-out

possibility
confidence
imagination
probability

side effects
unintended consequences

There are always consequences.
Be careful what you wish for.

Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want.

middle climber syndrome

Policy makes a poor substitute for sound judgment.


We probably look pretty silly from the point of view of an anthropologist from Mars.