I do agree that there’s a bird/frog distinction in intellectual personality types. (I’m less sure about the beaver.) Some people gravitate towards “Big Idea” insights which are essentially metaphorical. “We can describe X in terms of Y” is what I mean by metaphorical thinking—for example, the idea that we can describe social interactions in terms of graph theory, or that we can describe the shape of a surface in terms of groups. The relevant ability here is seeing one concept in light of another concept. If birds are basically metaphorical thinkers, it makes sense that they have varied interests (the better to see connections) and that they have some feeling for the arts (where metaphorical thinking is common.)
I’m a metaphorical thinker (though it’s premature to say I have a research style of my own, I do think I can safely say that my brain likes doing some things better than others.) Doing concrete problem-solving work is very important, and I don’t think anybody can safely neglect it, but I’m probably in the “bird” zone temperamentally.
I haven’t met that many “beavers” and I don’t have as clear an idea in my mind of the type. It seems to me that a lot of “frogs” are also interested in puzzles. A puzzle (whether for work or entertainment) is something where metaphorical thinking won’t help, and usually neither will an algorithm; a puzzle has a sudden, insightful solution. Codes and languages seem more “beaver-ish” to me, in the sense that you use algorithms to deal with them.
I haven’t met that many “beavers” and I don’t have as clear an idea in my mind of the type. It seems to me that a lot of “frogs” are also interested in puzzles. A puzzle (whether for work or entertainment) is something where metaphorical thinking won’t help, and usually neither will an algorithm; a puzzle has a sudden, insightful solution. Codes and languages seem more “beaver-ish” to me, in the sense that you use algorithms to deal with them.
Your comment is similar to Oscar’s I guess. I think (but am not sure) that interest in logic puzzles is correlated with interest in algorithms (perhaps for subtle reasons) even if the process of solving a logic puzzle is different from the process of implementing or analyzing an algorithm.
I think this is interesting. Voted up.
I do agree that there’s a bird/frog distinction in intellectual personality types. (I’m less sure about the beaver.) Some people gravitate towards “Big Idea” insights which are essentially metaphorical. “We can describe X in terms of Y” is what I mean by metaphorical thinking—for example, the idea that we can describe social interactions in terms of graph theory, or that we can describe the shape of a surface in terms of groups. The relevant ability here is seeing one concept in light of another concept. If birds are basically metaphorical thinkers, it makes sense that they have varied interests (the better to see connections) and that they have some feeling for the arts (where metaphorical thinking is common.)
I’m a metaphorical thinker (though it’s premature to say I have a research style of my own, I do think I can safely say that my brain likes doing some things better than others.) Doing concrete problem-solving work is very important, and I don’t think anybody can safely neglect it, but I’m probably in the “bird” zone temperamentally.
I haven’t met that many “beavers” and I don’t have as clear an idea in my mind of the type. It seems to me that a lot of “frogs” are also interested in puzzles. A puzzle (whether for work or entertainment) is something where metaphorical thinking won’t help, and usually neither will an algorithm; a puzzle has a sudden, insightful solution. Codes and languages seem more “beaver-ish” to me, in the sense that you use algorithms to deal with them.
Your comment is similar to Oscar’s I guess. I think (but am not sure) that interest in logic puzzles is correlated with interest in algorithms (perhaps for subtle reasons) even if the process of solving a logic puzzle is different from the process of implementing or analyzing an algorithm.