THINKER'S ALMANAC - December 8

Why is a bodhi tree, a type of fig tree, known as the “tree of enlightenment”?

Subject:  Enlightenment - Buddha and the Bodhi Tree

Event: Bodhi Day

 

We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves. -Buddha

Siddhartha Gautama (560-380 BCE) was a prince who lived in northern India.  In line to be the next king, Siddhartha lived a life of wealth and luxury. In his twenties, however, he became discontented and left home to seek enlightenment.  He spent six years living a life of austerity and meditation; however, he still did not find the enlightenment he was looking for.  

 

Finally, one day he resolved to sit under a bodhi tree and not get up or leave until he had achieved enlightenment. At dawn, on what traditionally is celebrated on December 8, Siddhartha experienced the Great Awakening and became Buddha (which means “the enlightened one”).

                                                                Image by Amazon_Green from Pixabay 

For the next forty-five years, Buddha taught his disciples what he had discovered while meditating under the bodhi tree, his Four Noble Truths:  first, that suffering is an innate and unavoidable part of life; second, that desire and craving are the cause of suffering; third, that letting go of desire and craving is the key to overcoming suffering; fourth, that following the Middle Way -- a path that is neither overly indulgent nor overly ascetic -- is the prescription necessary for overcoming suffering.  The Middle Way is also known as the Eightfold Path:  right understanding, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration (1).

 

In his book The Happiness Hypothesis, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt points out Buddha’s brilliant metaphor for understanding our divided self, the tension within our mind between our chaotic desires, our emotions, and our conscious, rational self.  To illustrate this, Buddha asks us to imagine our mind as a wild elephant:

In days gone by this mind used to stray wherever selfish desire or lust or pleasure would lead it.  Today this mind does not stray and is under the harmony of control, even as a wild elephant is controlled by a trainer. (2)

 

Later in his book, Haidt explains this metaphor into his well known elephant and the rider metaphor (See THINKER’S ALMANAC - September 22 ).

 

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  What is the significance of the bodhi tree in Buddhism, and what are the Four Noble Truths?

Challenge - Buddha’s Words of Wisdom:  Do some research on quotations by Buddha.  When you find one you like, write it out.  Then, explain why you think it provides wisdom and insight.

ALSO ON THIS DAY:

December 8, 65 BC: Today is the birthday in 65 BC of Roman lyrical poet and satirist Horace.  On this day we express our gratitude to Horace for a single word -- sesquipedalian, which means “a long word” or “a person known for using long words.”  Horace penned his verse in Latin.  In his Ars Poetica (The Art of Poetry) he wrote the following:  Proicit ampullas et sesquipedalia verba, which translates, “He throws aside his paint pots and his words that are a foot and a half long.”  Combining the Latin roots sesqu- (one and a half) and ped (a foot), this adjective provides the perfect slightly exaggerated image for words that are wide.  Like many English words derived from Latin, especially many of the longer ones, sesquipedalian was borrowed in the seventeenth century (1).

Sources:

1-Bassham, Gregory. The Philosophy Book. New York:  Sterling, 2016: 24.

2-Haidt, Jonathan. The Happiness Hypothesis. Basic Books, 2006: 2. 

3-http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-ses1.htm

THINKER'S ALMANAC - December 7

Why is Pearl Harbor Day a good reminder of how to correctly evaluate decisions and how to correctly set goals? 

Subject: Outcome Bias - The Attack on Pearl Harbor

Event:  Pearl Harbor Day, 1941

 

The good life is a process, not a state of being. It is a direction not a destination. -Carl Rogers

This day in 1941 is known as “a date which will live in infamy.”  It is the day that sparked the United States’ involvement in World War II when the Japanese unexpectedly attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

                                                                    Image by WikiImages from Pixabay 

On what was a quiet Sunday morning, hundreds of Japanese fighter planes descended on Pearl Harbor just before 8:00 AM. and destroyed nineteen vessels and over 300 planes.  More than 2,400 Americans were killed in the surprise attack.

After what was the worst disaster in American military history, officials immediately began searching for answers as to how it happened.  Although there had been signs of a possible attack by Japan before December 7, the problem was that there was too much intelligence, and much of it was conflicting.  The conventional wisdom before the attack was that Japan was incapable of mounting such an operation so far from its home shores; instead, an attack on the Philippines seemed a much more likely target.  Nevertheless, many looked at the intelligence and saw signs that should have caused U.S. military leaders to anticipate the attack and to evacuate the base (1).

The attack on Pearl Harbor is a classic case study in outcome bias:  the tendency to evaluate a decision based on its results rather than on its process.  It was easy to cherry pick from the plethora of intelligence after the fact and find evidence that an attack was imminent; however, because so much of the data was contradictory, a decision in real time was very difficult to make (2).

The lesson of outcome bias is to avoid judging a decision purely by its result. Randomness and chance play a big role in how things happen, and if we leap to judging things based on outcome rather than process or other external factors, we might miss important insights.   Imagine, for example, you take an important test such as the SAT and do poorly.  If you judge yourself solely on the result, it leaves little room for improvement.  If you focus instead on what you can learn from the process, you’ll be better prepared to improve your performance next time.

When setting goals, it is especially important to distinguish between process and outcome.  For example, you might set an outcome goal of achieving a certain score on the SAT; however, in pursuit of this goal, it is important to consider process goals:  specific acts or tasks that you need to complete in service of reaching your goal.  For example, setting an outcome goal of running a marathon in under four hours means little if you don’t have specific process goals.  How many miles, for example, are you going to run per week in training? What specific things should you consider regarding your diet and sleep schedule?

 

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  What can the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 teach us about evaluating decisions and setting goals?

Challenge - Process Versus Product:  Do some research on quotations about the theme of process versus product (outcome).  Pick a quotation you like, write it down, and explain why you think it is insightful.

ALSO ON THIS DAY:

December 7, 1928:  Today is the birthday of linguist and social critic Noam Chomsky, who was born in Philadelphia in 1928.  Chomsky spent more than 50 years as a professor at MIT and has authored over 100 books.  Chomsky has been called “the father of modern linguistics” and is one of the founders of the field of cognitive science.  Despite all of his accomplishments, Chomsky is perhaps best known for a single sentence:

 

Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.

 

Published in his 1957 book Semantic Structures, Chomsky’s famous sentence illustrates the difference between two essential elements of language:  syntax and semantics.  Syntax relates to the grammar of a language or the order in which words are combined.  Semantics, in contrast, relates to the meaning of individual words.  Chomsky’s sentence illustrates the difference between syntax and semantics, showing that a grammatically or syntactically correct sentence can be constructed that is semantically nonsensical.

Sources:

1-Miller, Nathan. “Why Was the Surprise Attack At Pearl Harbor Such a Surprise?” The Baltimore Sun 1 December 1991.

2-Dobelli, Rolf. The Art of Thinking Clearly. New York: Harpercollins, 2013: 58-60.

THINKER'S ALMANAC - December 6

How did a Missouri attorney win his case without arguing any of the facts in his case?

Subject:  Rhetoric/Pathos - Vest’s “Eulogy for a Dog”

Event:  Birthday of George Graham Vest, 1830

 

When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but with creatures of emotion.-Dale Carnegie

George Graham Vest, who was born on this day in 1830, served four terms as a U.S. Senator representing Missouri.  Although Vest was known as one of the Senate’s most powerful orators, his best known speech was presented as a part of a court case when he was practicing law in Sedalia, Missouri, in 1869.

Vest was representing a man whose dog, a hunting dog named Old Drum, had been killed by a sheep farmer.  Vest’s client was suing for $150 damages.  The words that became immortal were the words of Vest’s closing argument.  Imagine you were sitting in the jury box, as you read Vest’s summation:

                                                                Image by Péter Göblyös from Pixabay 

Gentlemen of the Jury: The best friend a man has in the world may turn against him and become his enemy. His son or daughter that he has reared with loving care may prove ungrateful. Those who are nearest and dearest to us, those whom we trust with our happiness and our good name may become traitors to their faith. The money that a man has, he may lose. It flies away from him, perhaps when he needs it most. A man's reputation may be sacrificed in a moment of ill-considered action. The people who are prone to fall on their knees to do us honor when success is with us, may be the first to throw the stone of malice when failure settles its cloud upon our heads.

The one absolutely unselfish friend that man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him, the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous is his dog. A man's dog stands by him in prosperity and in poverty, in health and in sickness. He will sleep on the cold ground, where the wintry winds blow and the snow drives fiercely, if only he may be near his master's side. He will kiss the hand that has no food to offer. He will lick the wounds and sores that come in encounters with the roughness of the world. He guards the sleep of his pauper master as if he were a prince. When all other friends desert, he remains. When riches take wings, and reputation falls to pieces, he is as constant in his love as the sun in its journey through the heavens.

If fortune drives the master forth, an outcast in the world, friendless and homeless, the faithful dog asks no higher privilege than that of accompanying him, to guard him against danger, to fight against his enemies. And when the last scene of all comes, and death takes his master in its embrace and his body is laid away in the cold ground, no matter if all other friends pursue their way, there by the graveside will the noble dog be found, his head between his paws, his eyes sad, but open in alert watchfulness, faithful and true even in death. (1)

Vest won the case, but more important than that fact is how he won the case.  Notice how his closing argument makes no specific references to the specific facts of the case; he doesn’t even mention Old Drum by name.  Instead, his speech is pure pathos -- pure appeal to emotion.  By focusing on one theme, canine fidelity, he is able to stir the emotions of the jury.  Vest’s genius is the use of words to transform one dog, Old Drum, into every unconditionally faithful dog that anyone has ever had the pleasure to know.  

As the philosopher David Hume said, “Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them.” Vest’s speech is a classic example of how a writer might achieve success by jettisoning reason altogether and going all in with emotion.  

Vest’s strategy of pure pathos is risky.  All it takes is one juror to cry foul.  After all, a key aspect of any court case should be a foundation of facts and evidence that support a claim. 

 

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  What was Vest’s strategy for persuading the jury in his closing argument?

Challenge - Canine Quotations:  What is the best thing that anyone has ever said about dogs?  Do some research on dog quotations.  Then, pick the one you like the best, write it out, and explain why you like it.

Sources:

1. Safire, William. Lend Me Your Ears:  Great Speeches in History. “Senator George Graham Vest Offers a Tribute to the Dog.” 174-176.

THINKER'S ALMANAC - December 5

Why do some people mistakenly believe that Benjamin Franklin was the president of the United States?

 

Subject: False Memory - The Mandela Effect

Event:  Death of Nelson Mandela, 2013

 

In my country we go to prison first and then become President. -Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela, the former president of South Africa, died on this day in 2013.  Before he died, however, a number of people were under the incorrect presumption that he had died while being held as a political prisoner in South Africa in the 1980s.  

                                                            Image by Ben Kerckx from Pixabay 

One person who realized her error was Fiona Broome.  In 2009, she was at a conference and realized that she was not alone in her belief that Mandela had died in prison.  Many of the people she talked to at the conference shared her memory of Mandela’s death.  

Shocked by the phenomenon of so many people being so wrong about a shared memory, Broome decided to publish a website to document other instances of what she called the Mandela effect.

Just as individuals can form false memories, groups of people can form collective false memories.  Psychologists believe this happens because of a concept known as “confabulation”: the process by which we produce false memories unconsciously without any intention of deceiving anyone. As we attempt to recall a memory, we cannot recall everything, so we confabulate by filling in the gaps of our memory with details that feel correct but that are not entirely accurate.  When we confabulate, we’re not lying; instead, we generate false memories without any intent to deceive anyone, genuinely believing we have recalled the memory correctly.

For example, many people remember the famous Darth Vader line from The Empire Strikes Back as “Luke, I am your father.”  However, Vader actually says “No, I am your father.”  It’s a small difference; however, thanks to the Mandela effect, the wrong version of the movie line has become the standard line that people quote.

Try this trivia question:  Was Alexander Hamilton ever President of the United States?  

The answer is no; however, many will falsely claim that he was.  This makes sense when you think about how our memories are organized.  We encode our memories using categories and associations called schemas.  Since Hamilton fits well in the Founding Fathers/Presidents category of our memories, we might mistakenly believe that he actually was president.  This is the same false cognitive leap that some people make with Benjamin Franklin:  because he played a large role in the founding of the United States, because he is a distinctive voice in American history, and because we see his face on U.S. currency, we might believe he was president.  Franklin, however, never served as president.

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  What is the Mandela Effect, and why is it named after the former South African president?

Challenge - What’s in a Name?: Another well-known psychological effect, named for a famous person, is the “Benjamin Franklin Effect.”  Do some research on the specifics of this effect.  Explain what it is and what it has to do with Benjamin Franklin.

ALSO ON THIS DAY:

December 5, 1901:  Today is the birthday of Walt Disney, who was born in Chicago in 1901.  In 1928 he introduced the world to Mickey Mouse in the animated feature Steamboat Willie.  Disney revolutionized animation, mixing sound and color to produce full-length feature films based on classic children’s stories like Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.  For Disney, fantasy on the big screen was not enough.  He also pioneered the fantasy-themed family vacation when he opened Disneyland in California in 1955 (2). Disney was a man who paid attention to details, and he knew that the appearance of his characters as well as their names mattered.  In the 1930s, for example, when Disney was adapting the Brothers Grimm’s Snow White, he made a list of 47 potential names for the dwarfs, which included Awful, Baldy, Dirty, and Hoppy (3).  In case you can’t remember the names that made the final cut, they are Bashful, Dopey, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, Sneezy, and Doc. As a film producer, Disney won 22 Academy Awards, far more than anyone else.  Disney died in 1966, but his name lives on.  The Walt Disney Company, the small animation company he founded on October 16, 1923, has grown into the world’s second largest media conglomerate.

Sources:

1-Cuncic, Arlin. “What Is the Mandela Effect?” Verywellmind.com 17 September 2020.

2-Gottlieb, Agnes Hooper, Henry Gottlieb, Barbara Bowers, and Brent Bowers. 1,000 Years, 1,000 People: Ranking the Men and Women Who Shaped the Millennium. New York: Kodansha International, 1998.

3-http://www.listsofnote.com/2012/03/47-dwarfs.html

THINKER'S ALMANAC - December 4

How did a 1960s folk-rock group end up employing King Solomon as their lyricist?

Subject:  Wisdom/Lateral Thinking - Solomon’s Judgment

Event:   The Byrds song “Turn, Turn, Turn” hits number one, 1965

On this day in 1965, a song with lyrics written by an ancient king of Israel became a number-one hit.  The song was “Turn, Turn, Turn,” by the folk-rock group the Byrds. 

The song’s music was written by the American folk singer Pete Seeger in 1961.  Seeger said that he had just gotten a letter from his music publisher, saying that he was having trouble selling Seeger’s protest songs.  Frustrated and angry, Seeger took out a Bible, turned to some verses in the third chapter of the Book of Ecclesiastes, and improvised a melody; within fifteen minutes he had a demo of the song that he sent off to his publisher.  The publisher loved the song and quickly sold it to the folk group the Limelighters, who recorded a version featuring the banjo.  The song did not become a hit, however, until the Byrds recorded their own arrangement, featuring their unique folk-rock style.

Of course, the writer of the song’s lyrics was not alive to see the song’s success, nor did he earn any royalties.  The writer was, however, royal.  He was King Solomon, the king of Israel, who built the First Temple in Jerusalem in the ninth century B.C. Solomon was known in his life for his massive wealth, but also for his prodigious wisdom.

The classic tale used to illustrate Solomon’s perspicacious judgment is found in Old Testament, I Kings 3:16-28. The wisdom shown by Solomon might also be called Lateral Thinking, a problem-solving approach that uses counterintuitive thinking, imagination, and creativity to arrive at out-of-the-box solutions:

Two women came before King Solomon, desiring his judgment on a vital personal matter.  The two women lived in the same house and each gave birth to a baby boy within days of each other.  The first woman explained to Solomon that the second woman’s baby had died in the night, three nights after it was born.  The first woman further claimed that the second woman crept into her room at night and exchanged her dead child for her living baby. Upon hearing the first woman’s story, the second woman countered, saying that the living child was hers, that the first woman was making up the story, and that it was actually her baby who died.

After hearing the conflicting testimonies of the two women, Solomon pondered how to tell which one of the women was lying and how to determine the child’s true maternity.

Next, Solomon issued an order to his courtiers:  “Bring me a sword.  Divide the child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other.”

                                                        Image by CCXpistiavos from Pixabay 

Upon hearing this, the first woman begged the king not to kill the child and to instead give the baby to the second woman. The second woman approved of Solomon’s solution, saying, “Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it.”

King Solomon now issued his final judgment, awarding custody to the first woman, saying, “Give her the living child, and in no wise slay it: she is the mother thereof.” 

Solomon’s judgment in this case clearly showed his wisdom and insight.  After hearing the pleas of the first woman to spare the child’s life, he knew she must be the true mother.  This was then confirmed by the second woman’s cold acceptance of the plan to slice the baby in two.  Obviously this case was decided long before DNA testing, but as Solomon revealed, his psychological insight was as good as, and much quicker than, any DNA test.

 

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  How did Solomon show his wisdom in the case of the two women and the baby?

Challenge - Counterintuitive Solutions:  Solomon’s decision to slice the baby in two was clearly a counterintuitive approach to solving the problem; nevertheless, in hindsight, we can see its wisdom.  Common sense is important, but it’s also important to see the sense in thinking that does not necessarily fit the mold.  What is another example of a situation in which counterintuitive thinking made sense?  Do some research and find a case that illustrates how pure logical thinking is not always the place to begin when problem solving. 

Also on This Day:

-December 4, 1656:  On this date in 1656, French philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal wrote a letter in which he expressed one of the central paradoxes of writing:  it’s faster and easier to write a long composition than to write a short one.  Pascal expressed the paradox as an apology to his reader:  “The present letter is a very long one, simply because I had no leisure to make it shorter” (2). According to Ralph Keyes in his book The Quote Verifier, Pascal’s quotation has been falsely attributed to Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Johnson, Henry Thoreau, Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain, and Voltaire (3).  The popularity of Pascal’s sentiment reveals both how much writers value brevity and how difficult it can be to obtain.  Being clear, concise, and cogent is hard work.

Sources:

1. 1-”Turn, Turn, Turn (To Everything There is a Season”) Songfacts.com

2-http://www.ccel.org/ccel/pascal/provincial.xviii.html

3-Keyes, Ralph. The Quote Verifier, 120

THINKER'S ALMANAC - December 3

Before it was discovered that mosquitoes were the culprit, what did people think was the cause of yellow fever?

Subject: Illusion of Knowledge - Yellow Fever

Event:  Birthday of epidemiologist Juan Carlos Finlay, 1833

In 1881, epidemiologists -- disease detectives -- were searching for the cause of yellow fever.  Conventional wisdom at the time was that it had something to do with unsanitary conditions and unhealthy air.  

One doctor, however, had a different hypothesis.  He was the Spanish, Cuban epidemiologist named Juan Carlos Finlay, who was born on this day in 1833.  Finley noticed a correlation between the presence of the Culex mosquito and yellow fever.  It seemed that the warm weather that brought the Culex also inevitably brought yellow fever.  However, when the weather cooled and the Culex disappeared, so did yellow fever.

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Finlay tested his hypothesis by having mosquitoes first bite patients with yellow fever and then bite healthy patients.  The healthy patients, however, failed to get sick.  Based on this evidence, Finlay’s hypothesis was disregarded.

One American doctor, however, remembered Finlay’s mosquito hypothesis when yellow fever broke out where he was working in Mississippi.  Henry Rose Carter noted a pattern of yellow fever outbreaks aboard ships that arrived at port in the southern United States.  Initially, there might be some cases, but then there appeared to be a period of around two weeks before other cases developed.  This caused Carter to hypothesize that there might be a short incubation period.

In 1901, Carter was reassigned to Havana, Cuba, as a quarantine officer.  There, he was able to persuade his superior, Water Reed, to put his mosquito hypothesis to the test.  Two of Reed’s assistants, Jesse Lazear and James Carroll, agreed to use themselves as guinea pigs.  They first had mosquitos bite patients with yellow fever.  They then waited for twelve days before letting the mosquitoes bite them.  Confirming Carter’s hypothesis, both Lazear and Carroll came down with yellow fever, and unfortunately, Lazear’s case was so severe that he died.

The work of all these doctors to discover the cause of yellow fever confirms what the historian Daniel Boorstin about learning: “The greatest obstacle to knowledge is not ignorance; it is the illusion of knowledge.”  Lazear’s initial hypothesis seemed crazy; after all, how could such a tiny insect be the cause of the death of so many people?  It seemed much more plausible that the cause must be the unhealthy conditions revealed by the stench in the air.

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  How did Henry Rose Carter build on the work of Juan Carlos Finlay to determine the cause of yellow fever?

Challenge - Heroes of Epidemiology: Do some research on epidemiologists who have made great contributions to public health.  Identify one person, and explain his or her specific contribution.

ALSO ON THIS DAY:

December 3, 1857:  Today is the birthday of the Polish writer Joseph Conrad.  Born in 1857, Conrad did not learn to speak and write English until he was in his twenties.  Despite the fact that English was his second language, Conrad is considered one of the greatest novelists in the English language.  A master prose stylist, Conrad influenced numerous writers, including Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and D.H. Lawrence.

 

In his autobiography, published in 1912, Conrad talked about the importance of diction in writing.  In the following words on words, he reminds us that words make their strongest impression on a reader when they are selected not only for their sense but also for their sound:

 

He who wants to persuade should put his trust not in the right argument, but in the right word. The power of sound has always been greater than the power of sense. I don’t say this by way of disparagement. It is better for mankind to be impressionable than reflective. Nothing humanely great—great, I mean, as affecting a whole mass of lives—has come from reflection. On the other hand, you cannot fail to see the power of mere words; such words as Glory, for instance, or Pity. I won’t mention any more. They are not far to seek. Shouted with perseverance, with ardor, with conviction, these two by their sound alone have set whole nations in motion and upheaved the dry, hard ground on which rests our whole social fabric . . . . Give me the right word and the right accent and I will move the world (2).

Sources:

1-Klein, Gary. Seeing What Others Don’t. London: Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 2013.

2-http://www.bartleby.com/237/8.html