Most people simply do not expect reality to make sense
More precisely, different people are probably using different definitions of “make sense”… and you might find it easier to make sense of if you had a more detailed understanding of the ways in which people “make sense”. (Certainly, it’s what helped me become aware of the issue in the first place.)
So, here are some short snippets from the book “Using Your Brain For A Change”, wherein the author comments on various cognitive strategies he’s observed people using in order to decide whether they “understand” something:
There are several kinds of understanding, and some of them are a lot more useful than others. One kind of understanding allows you to justify things, and gives you reasons for not being able to do anything different.…
A second kind of understanding simply allows you to have a good feeling: “Ahhhh.” It’s sort of like salivating to a bell: it’s a conditioned response, and all you get is that good feeling. That’s the kind of thing that can lead to saying, “Oh, yes, ‘ego’ is that one up there on the chart. I’ve seen that before; yes, I understand.” That kind of understanding also doesn’t teach you to be able to do anything.
A third kind of understanding allows you to talk about things with important sounding concepts, and sometimes even equations.… Concepts can be useful, but only if they have an experiential basis [i.e. “near” beliefs that “pay rent”], and only if they allow you to do something different.
Obviously, we are talking mostly about “clicking” being something more like this latter category of sense-making, but the author actually did mention how certain kinds of “fuzzy” understanding would actually be more helpful in social interaction:
However, a fuzzy, bright understanding will be good for some things. For example, this is probably someone who would be lots of fun at a party. She’ll be a very responsive person, because all she needs to do to feel like she understands what someone says is to fuzz up her [mental] pictures. It doesn’t take a lot of information to be able to make a bright, fuzzy movie. She can do that really quickly, and then have a lot of feelings watching that bright movie. Her kind of understanding is the kind I talked about earlier, that doesn’t have much to do with the outside world. It helps her feel better, but it won’t be much help in coping with actual problems.
Most of the chapter concerned itself with various cognitive strategies of detailed understanding used by a scientist, a pilot, an engineer, and so on, but it also pointed out:
What I want you all to realize is that all of you are in the same position as that … woman who fuzzes images. No matter how good you think your process of understanding is, there will always be times and places where another process would work much better for you. Earlier someone gave us the process a scientist used—economical little pictures with diagrams. That will work marvelously well for [understanding] the physical world, but I’ll predict that person has difficulties understanding people—a common problem for scientists. (Man: Yes, that’s true.)
Anyway, that chapter was a big clue for me towards “clicking” on the idea that the first two obstacles to be overcome in communicating a new concept are 1) getting people to realize that there’s something to “get”, and 2) getting them to get that they don’t already “get” it. (And both of these can be quite difficult, especially if the other person thinks they have a higher social status than you.)
Is the rest of it insightful too, or did you quote the only good part?
There are a lot of other good parts, especially if you care more about practice than theory. However, I find that personally, I can’t make use of many of the techniques provided without the assistance of a partner to co-ordinate the exercises. It’s too difficult to pay attention to both the steps in the book and what’s going on in my head at the same time.
More precisely, different people are probably using different definitions of “make sense”… and you might find it easier to make sense of if you had a more detailed understanding of the ways in which people “make sense”. (Certainly, it’s what helped me become aware of the issue in the first place.)
So, here are some short snippets from the book “Using Your Brain For A Change”, wherein the author comments on various cognitive strategies he’s observed people using in order to decide whether they “understand” something:
Obviously, we are talking mostly about “clicking” being something more like this latter category of sense-making, but the author actually did mention how certain kinds of “fuzzy” understanding would actually be more helpful in social interaction:
Most of the chapter concerned itself with various cognitive strategies of detailed understanding used by a scientist, a pilot, an engineer, and so on, but it also pointed out:
Anyway, that chapter was a big clue for me towards “clicking” on the idea that the first two obstacles to be overcome in communicating a new concept are 1) getting people to realize that there’s something to “get”, and 2) getting them to get that they don’t already “get” it. (And both of these can be quite difficult, especially if the other person thinks they have a higher social status than you.)
Would you recommend that book? (“Using Your Brain For A Change”)
Is the rest of it insightful too, or did you quote the only good part?
There are a lot of other good parts, especially if you care more about practice than theory. However, I find that personally, I can’t make use of many of the techniques provided without the assistance of a partner to co-ordinate the exercises. It’s too difficult to pay attention to both the steps in the book and what’s going on in my head at the same time.