Summary of John Pollack's Shortcut

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 The human brain is capable of comparing and abstracting patterns, even those that have nothing to do with each other. People are able to identify and compare domains that have nothing to do with each other except for a common, abstract intellectual scaffolding that they themselves construct.
#2 Analogy is a fundamental part of human decision making. We are capable of making comparisons that go beyond the superficial, and this is what allows us to identify and exploit conceptual similarities that go beyond the obvious.
#3 The brain works like this: it evaluates a flood of incoming data for its relevance and utility in a wide range of cause-and-effect narratives, and uses them to inform its decision making.
#4 Analogy is a type of model that can take on virtually limitless forms. It is used to help us predict the future, explore the ramifications of different retirement plans, or estimate how fast climate change might increase sea levels.

Sujets

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Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 05 juin 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9798822527065
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on John Pollack's Shortcut
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3 Insights from Chapter 4 Insights from Chapter 5
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The human brain is capable of comparing and abstracting patterns, even those that have nothing to do with each other. People are able to identify and compare domains that have nothing to do with each other except for a common, abstract intellectual scaffolding that they themselves construct.

#2

Analogy is a fundamental part of human decision making. We are capable of making comparisons that go beyond the superficial, and this is what allows us to identify and exploit conceptual similarities that go beyond the obvious.

#3

The brain works like this: it evaluates a flood of incoming data for its relevance and utility in a wide range of cause-and-effect narratives, and uses them to inform its decision making.

#4

Analogy is a type of model that can take on virtually limitless forms. It is used to help us predict the future, explore the ramifications of different retirement plans, or estimate how fast climate change might increase sea levels.

#5

The word analogy traces its linguistic roots to the Greek analogia, a mathematical term meaning proportion, or equality of ratios. Over the years, though, the word has taken on much broader, richer meaning. We constantly adapt old words to new uses and update their meaning.

#6

The phrase it’s not over until the fat lady sings is a convenient shorthand to distill common but complex ideas. It can be used to refer to a final outcome that has yet to be determined, as well as a speaker’s determination to prevail even though time is running out.

#7

The analogies we encounter can dramatically change the way we think. For example, politicians, journalists, economists, and business leaders often describe the economy as a commercial ecosystem. This analogy implies that markets are entirely natural, balanced, and self-regulating, with little need for human oversight or intervention.

#8

Humans have developed the ability to make and manipulate increasingly abstract mental representations, which explains why we are able to grasp and exploit increasingly abstract insights. This increased cognitive fluidity allowed people to translate observations about the orbit of the moon into a linear two-dimensional analog of time.

#9

The first alphabet was developed around 3,700 years ago in what is today the Sinai Desert. It was a phonetic alphabet, meaning it used one symbol to represent one sound. It was a simple way to write and read, and it was easy to learn and use.

#10

The analogical instinct is what allows us to navigate, and it is what helped the early seafarers who began sailing east from Southern Asia into the vast reaches of the Pacific. They invented a range of tools to guide their canoes to isolated atolls in a vast and unforgiving sea.

#11

The accuracy of a map’s location matters only to the level of detail its users need to navigate. The mind makes analogies to identify the intrinsic essence of something, whether that something is an object, a situation, a living thing, or even just an idea.

#12

The meaning we assign to things is largely based on our direct, accumulated experience with them. We can imagine things that are completely novel, nonexistent, or utterly impossible, thanks to our ability to intuit their intrinsic properties.

#13

The embodied simulation hypothesis is a theory that states we understand the words we encounter by actually simulating the experience the language describes. For example, if you are told to think about the actual motions you make in opening your front door, your brain will fire many of the same neurons as it does when you actually do open your door, except that in the imagined scenario, the brain inhibits the actual execution of those motions.

#14

The way we understand language is also based on our ability to simulate things in our brains. We use old perceptual systems to new and powerful purposes by cobbling them together.

#15

The Great Train Robbery is a perfect example of how we can make the leap from a twentieth-century British train robbery to a sixteenth-century Vatican chapel, and understand the parallels. We intuitively disregard all the obvious differences between the two situations.