THINKER'S ALMANAC - February 24

What method for simplifying and distilling a subject down to its essential elements did an economist discover while talking to a stranger in a bar?

Subject:  Distillation and Simplicity - The Two Things Game

Event:  “This Column Will Change Your Life:  The Two Things,” 2012

Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe. -Albert Einstein

On this day in 2012, The Guardian newspaper published an article entitled, “This Column Will Change Your Life:  The Two Things.”

The column begins with an anecdote about the economist Glen Whitman.  In 2002, Whitman was sitting in a bar and struck up a conversation with a stranger.  Upon discovering that Whitman was an economist, the stranger asked, “So, what are the Two Things about economics?”  Whitman wasn’t sure what he meant by “Two Things” so he asked for clarification.  The stranger replied:  “You know, the Two Things. For every subject, there are only two things you need to know. Everything else is the application of those two things, or just not important.”

                                                    Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay 

Getting the picture, Whitman thought for a moment and replied with his Two Things about economics:  “One: incentives matter. Two: there’s no such thing as a free lunch.”

That brief conversation in a bar in 2002 began Whitman’s quest for other Two Things from other fields, such as philosophy, marketing, finance, and computer science.  The idea behind the Two Things game is to distill and to simplify.  To do this experts must re-examine what they know and go back to basics.  This helps them see their field with new eyes.   Experts within a single field seldom agree on their Two Things; nevertheless, what they come up with is always interesting and illuminating, both to insiders and to outsiders.

At his website, Whitman has collected numerous examples by posing the Two Things question.  Here are a few examples of the answers he’s gotten from various fields and areas of expertise:

The Two Other Things about Marketing:

-Find out who is buying your product.

-Find more buyers like them.

The Two Things about Advertising:

- Get people’s attention

- Overwhelm them with charm.

Two Things about Trial Lawyering:

- 90% is just showing up (borrowed from Woody Allen’s philosophy of life).

- When you are winning, keep your mouth shut.

The Two Things about Neuroscience:

-Neurons strengthen or weaken signal strength between connected synapses.

-If you think you’ve found the part of the brain that controls _________, you’re probably wrong.

The Two Things about Writing:

- Include what’s necessary.

- Leave everything else out.

The Two Things about Editing:

- Know the rules.

- Pay attention. (2)

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  What is the Two Things Game, and why do people play it?

Challenge -  Two Things Game:  What would you say is the area or field in which you have the most expertise?  What are the two things that people need to know about that area or field?  Select an academic discipline, an area of interest (such as a hobby, sport, or pastime), a profession, a specific person, place, thing, or idea that you know well.  Then determine what the Two Things are that everyone needs to know about it.  Assume that your audience knows little about your topic, and write an explanation that goes with each of your two things. 

ALSO ON THIS DAY:

February 24, 1955:  Steve Jobs was born on this day. He said, “I would trade all of my technology for an afternoon with Socrates.”  Bicycle for the mind - See Shortcut 154-56

Sources:

1-Burkeman, Oliver. “This Column Will Change Your Life:  The Two Things.” The Guardian 24 February 2012.

2-The Two Things by Glen Whitman

THINKER'S ALMANAC - February 16

After taking a test and getting it back, what will a person with a growth mindset do differently than a person with a fixed mindset?

Subject:  Fixed/Growth Mindset - John McEnroe

Event:  Birthday of John McEnroe, 1959

Today is the birthday of tennis great John McEnroe. He was born in 1959 in Germany, where his father was serving in the U.S. Army.  McEnroe is remembered not only for his masterful play as a singles champion but also for his many victories in doubles and mixed doubles. His most memorable matches came at Wimbledon in the 1980s, where he battled Bjorn Borg.

Although he won many major tennis titles and spent several years as the number one ranked tennis player in the world, John McEnroe is best remembered for his words and antics on the tennis court. Smashing tennis rackets and challenging umpire decisions, McEnroe became one of the most volatile and boisterous athletes ever.

Perhaps his best known line was one shouted in the direction of an umpire at Wimbledon in 1981: “You cannot be serious!” This line became so often associated with McEnroe, that he used it for the title of his 2002 autobiography (1).

                                                            Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay 

Another book that features McEnroe is Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by psychologist Carol S. Dweck. In her book, Dweck uses McEnroe as an example of an individual with a fixed mindset.  People with a fixed mindset view character, intelligence, and ability as fixed and unchangeable.  As a result of this mindset, they often value looking smart or talented over actually being smart or talented.  Since they see intelligence and talent as fixed, they don’t see effort and persistence as valuable qualities.  Furthermore, they often fear failure as a judgment upon their person rather than seeing it as a learning opportunity. 

Dweck certainly is not arguing that McEnroe was not a successful, talented athlete; he was, after all, the number one ranked player for four years.  The issue with McEnroe, however, is that he could have been much better. For him, talent was the main thing.  He didn’t embrace opportunities to learn new things.  He hated to lose and always saw it as a negative rather than as a stepping stone to future success.  Instead of looking for lessons from a lost match, he looked for excuses, which is reflected in his constant focus on being a victim of the bad calls made by the umpires of his matches.  McEnroe won seven Grand Slam titles, but even he would probably agree that a less fixed mindset would have resulted in many more.

In contrast to those with a fixed mindset, people with a growth mindset view character, intelligence, and ability as qualities that change over time and that improve through conscious effort and persistence.  Instead of fearing failure, people with a growth mindset are able to embrace failure, learn from it and use it as a springboard for future success. 

As an example of an athlete who embodies the growth mindset, Dweck turns to basketball legend Michael Jordan.  Jordan was famously cut from his high school team, but instead of quitting basketball, he dedicated himself to proving himself worthy to play for the varsity.  When he won the NCAA basketball championship as just a freshman at North Carolina, he didn’t rest on his laurels.  He was always the hardest working player in practice, putting in extra effort to improve his weaknesses.  When he began his career in the NBA, he was one of the league’s leading scorers, but his team was not winning championships. Today we see him as a perennial champion, but he didn’t win his first championship until his seventh year in the NBA.  In those seven years, he put in countless hours of work to become more than just a great scorer.  He worked on becoming a better passer, a ball handler, and a better teammate.  He knew that there was no way he could win a championship by himself, so not only did he need to make himself better through effort, he also needed to help his teammates improve.

To test your own mindset, try this thought experiment.  Imagine you are in a class, and you have just taken a quiz with fifty multiple choice questions.  The quizzes are immediately scored and all posted on the classroom wall.  Obviously, you would probably first look at your own score, but which tests would you look at next.  Would you be drawn to the quizzes of the students who scored higher than you or the quizzes of those who scored lower?  According to Dweck, students with a growth mindset will seek out the quizzes with higher scores, looking for possible ways to learn from those who scored higher and seeking strategies to improve their deficiencies.  In contrast, students with a fixed mindset focus on the quizzes with lower scores than their own; because they don’t see intelligence as something that can be improved with effort, they seek consolation in the fact that others scored lower than they did (1).

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  What is the difference between a fixed mindset and a growth mindset, and how can you assess which you have?

Challenge - Game, Mindset, and Match:  Research some quotations by successful people about the role that hard work, effort, and persistence have in being successful.  Identify the one you like the best, quote it, and explain why you like it.

Sources:

1-Dweck, Carol S. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. New York: Random House, 2006.

Reading Check:

-What kind of behavior reveals John McEnroe’s fixed mindset?

-When a person with a growth mindset gets a test back, what do they do?

THINKER'S ALMANAC - December 16

What does it mean to think that nothing is indubitable?

Subject: Epistemology - Russell’s New Decalogue

Event:  Bertrand Russell’s essay “The Best Answer to Fanaticism - Liberalism,”1951

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts. -Bertrand Russell

On this day in 1951, British philosopher Bertrand Russell wrote an essay in The New York Times entitled “The Best Answer to Fanaticism - Liberalism.”

Liberalism, according to Russell, is not a belief; instead, it is a disposition or attitude toward belief.  He credits John Locke as liberalism’s “great apostle” because he argued that all people should be capable of living at peace and that it was not necessary for everyone to agree.  Instead, Locke argued that all opinions should be treated as fallible and any belief should be open to question.  

Russell called into question those who argue that the truth is already known.  These people hold the opposite view of liberalism because their purpose “is not to discover truth but to strengthen belief in truths already known.”

                                                                Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay 

At the core of Russell’s argument is how to approach old ideas versus new ideas.  His conclusion is that all ideas should be welcomed, but at the same time, all ideas, whether old or new, should be subject to scrutiny and debate.  To help facilitate the liberal outlook, the correct epistemological attitude, Russell ends his article with what he calls a “new decalogue,” a kind of ten commandments of epistemology, in other words, ten rules that will help bring all of us closer to the truth:

1. Do not feel absolutely certain of anything.

2. Do not think it worthwhile to produce belief by concealing evidence, for the evidence is sure to come to light.

3. Never try to discourage thinking, for you are sure to succeed.

4. When you meet with opposition, even if it should be from your husband or your children, endeavor to overcome it by argument and not by authority, for a victory dependent upon authority is unreal and illusory.

5. Have no respect for the authority of others, for there are always contrary authorities to be found.

6. Do not use power to suppress opinions you think pernicious, for if you do the opinions will suppress you.

7. Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.

8. Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent than in passive agreement, for, if you value intelligence as you should, the former implies a deeper agreement than the latter.

9. Be scrupulously truthful, even when truth is inconvenient, for it is more inconvenient when you try to conceal it.

10. Do not feel envious of the happiness of those who live in a fool’s paradise, for only a fool will think that it is happiness.

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  What is the purpose of Russell’s New Decalogue?

 

Challenge - The Best of the Ten: Read through Russell’s ten rules.  Pick the one rule that you like the best, and write a paragraph explaining why you feel that the rule is important for people who are trying to find the truth.

 

ALSO ON THIS DAY

December 16, 1906: On this day in 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt wrote a letter to a friend explaining a recent political defeat.  Roosevelt, who won fame as a Rough Rider in the Spanish-American War and served two terms as president from 1901-1909, was not used to defeat.  He broke up monopolies, championed federal regulation of railroads, spurred the conservation of natural resources, and began the construction of the Panama Canal.  As the leader of the Progressive Movement, however, there was one reform that Roosevelt could not make happen:  spelling reform. In addition to being an age of reform, the 19th century was also a time when public education was being expanded and democratized in America.  Roosevelt, along with other education advocates, viewed spelling reform as a practical and economical way to improve education.  After all, English orthography is plagued with words that have more letters than necessary as well as inconsistent and capricious spelling rules. In March 1906 the Simplified Spelling Board was founded and funded by industrialist Andrew Carnegie.  Its mission was to reform and simplify English spelling.  On August 27, 1906, President Roosevelt issued an executive order that 300 words from the Simplified Spelling Board’s list of revised spellings be used in all official communications of the executive department.  Some of the examples of changes are as follows:

 

blessed to blest

kissed to kist

passed to past

purr to pur

though to tho

through to thru

 

On December 3, 1906, Roosevelt wrote his annual message to Congress using the new spelling.  He became an easy target for criticism, however, as can be seen in the following sentence from a newspaper editorial:

[Roosevelt] now assales the English langgwidg, constitutes himself as a sort of French academy, and will reform the spelling in a way tu soot himself.

On December 13, 1906, soon after it received Roosevelt’s annual message, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution rejecting the new spellings and urging that government documents be written using “the standard of orthography prescribed in generally accepted dictionaries of the English language.” At this point Roosevelt decided to surrender.  He withdrew his executive order, and wrote a letter to his friend Brander Matthews, who was also the chairman of the Simplified Spelling Board, admitting defeat:

I could not by fighting have kept the new spelling in, and it was evidently worse than useless to go into an undignified contest when I was beaten. (2)

Sources:

1-Russell, Bertrand.  “The Best Answer to Fanaticism -- Liberalism.”  The New York Times 16 Dec. 1951.

2-Thomas V.  Teddy Roosevelt, Rough Ride Over Spelling Rules. The Wall Street Journal 16 April 2015.

THINKER'S ALMANAC - September 29

How did a psychologist’s boyhood memories of playing chess springboard a lifetime study of happiness?

Subject: Happiness - Flow

Event:  Birthday of Hungarian-American psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihaly, 1934

While happiness itself is sought for its own sake, every other goal – health, beauty, money or power – is valued only because we expect that it will make us happy. -Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

From its beginnings in ancient Greece, one primary purpose of philosophy has been to help people live fulfilling lives. The Greeks used the word eudaimonia, which translates to the English words “fulfillment” or “happiness.”

Plato’s prescription for achieving eudaimonia began with reason.  Thinking is hard work, but it is necessary to think carefully and logically, seeking knowledge, but most importantly seeking to “know yourself.”  Long before the field of cognitive psychology was invented, Plato understood that good thinking required an understanding of the human tendency toward bad thinking: errors, prejudice, and superstition.  Plato knew that people were often led by their emotions, feelings, and instincts rather than their reason.  Furthermore, rather than thinking for themselves, people let the crowd do their thinking by adopting popular opinions, what the Greeks called “doxa.”

                                                        Plato - Image by Michael Kauer from Pixabay 

To know yourself, you must think for yourself, which means being skeptical and applying reason to both our thoughts and our emotions.

One modern person who exemplifies Plato’s method is the Hungarian-American psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced Chick-SENT-me-hi), who was born on this day in 1934.  Csikszentmihalyi's contribution to the human quest for eudaimonia is what he calls flow: a state of optimal experience in which an individual is fully and passionately immersed in an activity.  To achieve this flow state there must be a just right balance between the challenge of the task and the skill of the performer.   Furthermore, in the flow state an individual becomes so absorbed in their activity that they lose themselves in it;  self-consciousness and time disappear.

To illustrate his own experience with flow, Csikszentmihalyi recounts his own experience as a 10-year-old in Hungary during World War II.  He and his family were interned by the Italians in a refugee camp.  To pass the time he played chess against adult players.  Immersing himself in the games, he discovered, allowed him to forget all his troubles (1).

For Csikszentmihalyi, happiness comes not from acquiring property, earning a lot of money, or relaxing on a sunny beach; instead, true happiness -- ecstasy even -- is achieved through the intrinsic desire to engage and immerse oneself in a challenging, exhausting activity.  Based on his interviews with more than a thousand people, including actors, athletes, doctors, and artists, Csikszentmihalyi concludes that happiness is not about extrinsic rewards, but is about intrinsic motivation: “A person can make himself happy, or miserable, regardless of what is actually happening 'outside,' just by changing the contents of consciousness.”

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  What is flow, and how does it relate to happiness?

 

Challenge - Get Lost in the Flow:  What is the activity that allows you to enter into the flow state?  Describe the activity.  How are you able to lose yourself in it, and why does it bring you happiness?

ALSO ON THIS DAY

-September 29, 1967:  On this date in 1967, The Beatles worked to complete the recording of the song I Am the Walrus.  Known for their innovative work in the studio, the group on this day did something truly unique, blending the conclusion of their new song with a BBC recording of Shakespeare’s King Lear.

 

In addition to the Bard, The Beatles also drew inspiration from two other poetic sources.  One was Lewis Carroll's poem “The Walrus and the Carpenter,” which inspired the song’s title and its plentiful use of nonsense lyrics.  The second was a playful nursery rhyme that they remembered from their childhood in Liverpool:

 

Yellow matter custard, green slop pie,

All mixed together with a dead dog's eye,

Slap it on a butty, ten foot thick,

Then wash it all down with a cup of cold sick.

 

This bit of rather grotesque verse inspired the colorful lyric:  “Yellow matter custard, dripping from a dead dog’s eye.” 

-September 29, 1999:  The television series West Wing premiered an episode named for one of the most prominent of all logical fallacies: “Post Hoc.” See THINKER’S ALMANAC - October 1.

-September 29, 2009:  Padgett Powell published a novel made up entirely of questions.  It’s called The Interrogative Mood A Novel? Each sentence in the 160-plus page novel is a question.  In the novel Padgett asks roughly 2,000 questions without giving a single answer.

Sources:

Flaste, Richard.  “The Power of Concentration.” The New York Times  8 Oct. 1989.

Preview for September 30: Can you buy a mnemonic device at a hardware store?

THINKER'S ALMANAC - September 28

How did the closing argument in O.J. Simpson’s 1995 murder trial illustrate an important rhetorical principle?

Subject: Cognitive Fluency - The Rhyme As Reason Effect  

Event:  Murder Trial of O.J. Simpson ends, 1995

On September 28, 1995, the O.J. Simpson murder trial was finally wrapping up after 11 months.  Of the millions of words presented to the jury, it was just seven words proclaimed on this day that stood out.  Defense Attorney Jonny Cochran was speaking to the jury about a key piece of evidence, a pair of gloves found at the scene of the crime.  Earlier in the trial when the prosecution requested that Simpson put on the gloves, it appeared that the gloves were too small for Simpson’s hands.  Cochran was reminding the jury of this fact during his closing argument, saying “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit.”  A few days later, as the entire nation watched, the jury announced their verdict:  not guilty.

                                                                Image by Arek Socha from Pixabay 

What if Cochran had said, “Mr. Simpson is not guilty because the glove did not fit”?  Is it possible that the way something is said can be just as important as what is said?

To test this Psychologist Matthew McGlone did a study in 1999 where he presented unfamiliar aphorisms in either rhyming or non-rhyming form.  (“Woes unite foes,” for example, versus “Woes unite enemies.”)  The study showed that even though the meaning of the two aphorisms was essentially the same, people labeled the rhyming ones as more accurate than the non-rhyming ones.  When participants in the study were asked whether or not rhyme influenced their choice, they overwhelmingly answered no.  The results showed that what makes sense to us can be unconsciously influenced by our sense of sound.

This study also affirmed what the poet John Keats said in his poem “Ode to a Grecian Urn” in 1819:  “Beauty is truth, truth beauty.”  In other words, the more elegantly something is said, the more inherently true it appears.  Based on the results of his study, Matthew McGlone dubbed this cognitive bias the rhyme-as-reason effect, also known as the “Keats Heuristic.”

The impact of rhyme can be seen in the following everyday expressions.  As you read each one, think about how the sound of each expression contributes to its sense:

Fake it ’til you make it

See you later, Alligator

Good night, sleep tight

You snooze, you lose

Put the pedal to the metal

In addition to rhyme, Cohran’s line and the familiar lines above have the advantage of what psychologists called cognitive fluency, a principle that says the human brain has a preference for things that are easy to think about versus things that are more difficult to comprehend.  As a result, we’re much more likely to prefer rhyming slogans and concise, pithy statements to more verbose or less sonically pleasing sentences.  

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason: What is the rhyme-as-reason effect, and why is it important to anyone who wants to persuade an audience?

 

Challenge - Words that Worked:  What are some examples of the greatest slogans in the history of advertising or politics?  Select one that you like, and explain how cognitive fluency might have contributed to its success.

ALSO ON THIS DAY:

September 28 (Each Year):  This day is celebrated in Taiwan as “Teacher’s Day,” the birthday of Confucious, who said, “Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance.”

Sources:

1-Bennet, Drake.  “Easy = True.”  Boston Globe 31 Jan. 2010.

Preview for September 29: How did a psychologist’s boyhood memories of playing chess springboard a lifetime study of happiness?