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Tag: rationalism

How to Expand Your Cognitive Toolkit

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In this video Stephen Fry calls himself an empiricist. I’m often entertained by Stephen Fry, and empiricism is probably the most useful system of thought invented by human beings to date, but calling yourself an empiricist is akin to calling yourself a wrench.

What do you do when you need to drive a nail through some wood? You could use a wrench, but it’s not the best tool for the job.

Systems of thought are tools. Depending on the problem you want to solve or the goal you want to achieve, you’ll need to use multiple tools in your cognitive toolkit.

This is an idea I keep coming back to. In this 2010 post I looked at empiricism, rationalism, and subjectivism. In this follow up post I wrote about intuition and network analysis as thinking modes, and the third post in the series looks at evolutionary algorithms for problem solving. A more recent post summarizes a number of thinking modes in the context of flexible, persistent problem solving.

Cognitive flexibility is important because it allows us to approach problems and goals in different ways, and pick the best tool  for the job (or use multiple tools, the right one for each part of the job).

But how do you switch modes? Sometimes it’s straightforward, sometimes less so. The list below includes tactics (questions, actions, etc.) for cognitive mode switching (in no particular order). I’ve noted what I think is the core mode in brackets, but many of these tactics could apply to multiple modes. If this list gives you more ideas, please add them in the comments.

Stubborn and Clever Beats Most Problems

Friedrich Nietzsche, Temescal hipster

Friedrich Nietzsche, Temescal hipster

How many times are you willing to try solving a problem before you give up?

Human beings are incredibly intelligent, compared to most other animals. We’re used to solving a problem on the first try. We see a problem, a solution leaps into our mind, and we take action. I watch my 5-year-old daughter effortlessly solve problems every day. Electronic tablet on dad’s dresser, out of reach? Get chair. Problem solved.

From a little kid’s perspective, problems are either easy to solve, or impossible. If a solution doesn’t instantly spring to mind (or success doesn’t happen on the first try), most kids will quickly jump to “I can’t do that.” A parent’s job, of course, is to instill the sense of a possible solution in a child’s mind. Try again. Think about it. Try ten times if you need to. Try a different approach. Be stubborn (persistent). Be clever (creative).

Persistence and creative problem solving determine success and life satisfaction to a large extent. But neither come naturally. Almost all children, and most adults, get discouraged and give up after a few tries. Or even a single try.

So how do you teach persistence? And not just persistence, but creative, varied approaches to problem solving? Because it’s not enough to just pound away at a problem with the same inefficient, poorly planned approach. Stubbornness alone won’t get you very far. If you want to your child to have a rich, satisfying adulthood, you want to to encourage both stubbornness and cleverness. Of course, this will make your job as the parent difficult, especially during the teenage years. Who wants a stubborn, wily teenager? Sounds like a nightmare. But those same personality traits may serve them well in adulthood.

Creative Problem Solving — Using All The Tools in the Box

Right now I’ve got a few difficult problems in my life. One family member is recovering from a psychotic episode, and experiencing cognitive difficulties; he is unable to keep track of time, money, and material objects. Another family member has negligible income, has run out of savings, and is recovering from a major illness. These problems are complex and shifting; when they are “solved” they don’t stay solved. At times I feel overwhelmed and frustrated by these “emergencies in slow motion.”

But another, more dispassionate, part of my mind, sees things differently. The problems have more variables, but that doesn’t mean they’re not solvable. If one approach doesn’t yield results, a different strategy might work better. For example, a problem might be approached in one or more of the following ways:

Empiricism: What approaches have worked before, for other families?

Rationalism: Using my ability to reason, what approaches can I imagine that should work?

Subjectivism: How do my own thoughts and attitudes influence the problem (and what exactly am I perceiving as a problem)?

Intuition: What’s my gut feeling about the best way to proceed?

Network analysis: What role is everyone playing, and how do we influence each other, and how can we help each other and improve our communication?

Massive iterations with feedback: Just keep trying stuff, and adjusting behavior based on the results of each failed attempt, until something works.

(I’ve written in detail about each approach in posts such as this one.)

These are just some of the tools we have in our cognitive tool kits. In practice I don’t formally attempt each approach separately. I just keep asking myself questions, trying to trigger new lines of thought.

As a family, we’re supporting each other and doing pretty well. And people are getting the help they need. There are lights at the ends of the tunnels.

How To Teach Persistence and Creative Problem Solving

Stubbornness and cleverness might be genetic. I don’t think there’s anything my parents could have done to not have a stubborn child. But persistence (a more evolved form of stubbornness) can be taught. How? Praising effort, instead of success. Rejecting “I can’t do that.” Emphasizing that 10 or even 100 failed attempts is not embarrassing, but normal. Breaking down problems into smaller, more approachable chunks.

Being a good role model is maybe even more important. How do I approach the problems in my own life? How does the family solve problems together?

The silver lining of any problem is that in facing it we become stronger, more resilient, and more resourceful (both individually and collectively). Not in a “That which does not kill us, makes us stronger” sense (strokes left Nietzche paralyzed on the left side, and much weaker), but in the sense that confronting difficulty is good exercise. We don’t choose what knocks us down, but to some extent we can choose when and how to get up. Often, we may find ourselves better positioned than before.

A Multi-Modal Approach to Solving Extremely Difficult Problems — Part II

Maybe you thought we were getting something other than a cautious centrist pragmatist empiricist in the White House?

In my first post in this series I discussed the empirical, rational, and subjectivist approaches to problem solving.  The recent tax debate has highlighted these different approaches and their pitfalls.  The Democrats argue that there is no empirical evidence that tax cuts for the rich stimulate the economy.  The Republicans make various “rational” arguments that cutting taxes “across the board” will lead to increased spending by everyone (the rich included), and will thus stimulate the economy.  Up in Alaska, Sarah Palin takes the extreme Subjectivist approach — a sprightly gung-ho attitude is what this country needs to get us out of the doldrums.

Obama leans towards empiricism.  What evidence do we have for taking a particular course?  What has worked in the past?  In some ways this is a thoughtful and intelligent approach to decision making.  In other ways it’s driving forwards while looking out the rear window.  Patterns that we perceive in looking at past events may or may not show up in the future.  The “empirical fool” thinks “This has happened before, so it will likely happen again.” Well, maybe.  But if the system is ruled by chaos and flux, probably not.

A Multi-Modal Approach to Solving Extremely Difficult Problems — Part I

Plato and Aristotle ... solvin' some problems.

Most problems are easy to solve.  The solution leaps into your head the instant you understand the nature of the problem.  In the course of our day we might solve a dozen, or even a hundred smallish problems (unclogging, plugging in, restarting, mediating, debugging, delegating, etc.).  It’s one thing our giant brains evolved to excel at.

But every once in awhile we run into a real doozy — a problem so difficult or intractable that it truly stumps us.  Maybe we’re half a million in debt, with no income to speak of.  Maybe we have a chronic illness that has proven resistant to medicine and lifestyle changes.  Maybe the behavior of a client, significant other, or family member has escalated to red alarm level — they’re destroying us or themselves and they’re out of control.  Maybe we’ve invaded a country on false pretenses and now we’re stuck there and it’s costing us lives and billions of dollars.  No easy solution springs to mind.  What’s the best approach?

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