Category Archives: Art of Thinking

“Your body language shapes who you are”, TED Talk Comment: Power vs. Humility Postures

Harvard Business School Sociologist Amy Cuddy’s TED Talk has been viewed over 9 million times

She speaks about how “Body language affects how others see us, but it may also change how we see ourselves.” and how ” ‘power posing’ — standing in a posture of confidence, even when we don’t feel confident — can affect testosterone and cortisol levels in the brain”. She specifically addresses how various forms of ‘power posing’ affect ourselves, not how they may affect others, as the latter may have both positive and negative consequences, depending on the circumstances.

“I don’t sing because I’m happy; I’m happy because I sing”. — Wiliam James.

Pastor Randy Willis asks: “how this fits with religions/cultures that emphasize postures of humility such as bowing, kneeling, laying prostrate, etc.” (Cuddy responds that she is VERY interested in this question)

My comment in the TED discussion, in response to Willis’s question:
In my 2006 AIAA presentation on a “Value Proposition for Space Programs” (discussing how to get people to commit to a multi-generational Space Program, a vision and a cause greater than their individual self-interests) I suggested considering “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs in which the lower ‘deficiency needs’ are complemented by the higher ‘growth needs’. Maslow’s later Hierarchy included the need to know, understand, and transcend one’s individual needs through connecting to something beyond oneself.” Maslow believed that “Self-actualization preceded self-transcendence”, hence the very top of his later pyramid is “Transcendence”.

Perhaps the lower 7 ‘needs’ require more pride, confidence, and power (hence the corresponding body language), whereas the top level, the “need to connect to something beyond oneself”, to transcend oneself, requires humility and the wisdom to merge one’s identity into a “higher power”. The body language of humility helps to affirm, especially to oneself, that connection and release of the ego.

I like to say “there’s a yin and yang of everything”. Perhaps humility is part of the yin that is actually more powerful than the ‘yang’ power required for the lower 7 levels of the pyramid. Lao Tzu describes this eloquently in the Tao Teh Ching, e.g. “Nothing in the world is softer and weaker than water, yet for attacking the hard and strong, nothing can be better”.

In a way, bodily expressions of humility may, in some circumstances, be much more “meaningful” (hence empowering?) than bodily expressions of power.

My tweet a few days ago: Why it shapes you? Maybe our Unconscious is being programmed, by ourselves, in two ways.

1) our Conscious Decision to assume a ‘power pose’ is both a result of an unconscious intention which then “feeds back” a message to our unconscious that we, also consciously, have chosen to be more powerful, and

2) our body language sends a (positive feedback) message to both our conscious mind and unconscious that we are in fact more powerful.

This may imply that the programming of our unconscious by our conscious decision to be more powerful may be sufficient to make us feel, and be, more powerful, even whithout changing our body language.

Going one step further Dumi Pyo asks Cuddy: Can only ‘imagining’ powerful body language change ourselves, too?

Cuddy answers: “we’re running that study right now. There is good reason to hypothesize that simply imagining oneself in a power pose may produce similar effects”

Here’s my “anecdotal evidence” in support of that hypothesis, just one data point for that study: When I was first learning to teach, to make speeches, and give presentations at conferences, in order to overcome the fear of public speaking, I taught myself to imagine I was “leaning into it”, to address the audience. It feels like a rotation of a facet of my mind (as well as my body) to bring forward what I call my “public speaking persona”. It subjectively feels very kinesthetic, including a feeling that my face as well as my body are involved in projecting power and mastery. It definitely works. It’s very effective in changing my state of consciousness, and reducing my nervousness. A cousin of mine who’s a psychiatrist told me it sounds like I’m describing self-hypnosis.

References:

TED talk by Amy Cuddy: “Your body language shapes who you are”, on.ted.com/dRyQ
“Rediscovering the Later Version of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: Self-Transcendence and Opportunities for Theory, Research, and Unification”
by Mark E. Koltko-Rivera Review of General Psychology 2006, Vol. 10, No. 4, 302–317 http://goo.gl/ZUptl

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Why Can’t We Solve Big Problems?: My response to the TED Discussion

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This post is my (first) comment in response to the TED.com discussion “Why Can’t We Solve Big Problems? The Discussion was started by Jason Pontin, Editor in Chief & Publisher, MIT’s Technology Review.

He says:

“I think that blithe optimism about technology’s powers has evaporated as big problems that people had imagined technology would solve, such as hunger, poverty, malaria, climate change, cancer, and the diseases of old age, have come to seem intractably hard.

I ask:

I. Who says we can’t solve big problems? If I measured my child’s height, and then measured it again a week later, my friends would laugh at me if I complained to them that my child wasn’t growing. Who’s to say what the appropriate time-constants for change are, in such a huge dynamical system as our World? About a hundred years ago (only a hundred years!) the son of a President of the United States died because his blister became infected, and there were no antibiotics. That our progress isn’t shared by all is indeed a tragedy, but there’ve been many huge problems solved in the past 100 years.

II. Who’s to say that we can choose which problems are solved first, and legislate when they must be solved? That level of control over nature and mankind is indeed a very Western conceit. The “illusion of control” makes us impatient with all the small incremental steps we take as we slog through the swamp of reality, one step back for each one+ step forward. cf. The Tao Teh Ching

III. Perhaps there are seeds of an answer in Pontin’s MIT Technology Review article “Why We Can’t Solve Big Problems“? I suggest looking at the 3 orthogonal dimensions: 1) Leadership, 2) Technology, and 3) Stakeholders. The Technology is probably almost there, no? The Stakeholders are extremely diverse, many perceiving that they’re involved in zero-sum games, hence hindering cooperation. Finally, could it be that the Leadership is sorely lacking. A Leader (or Leaders) must have the charismatic power and legitimacy (of a JFK) to craft and impart a Vision that can mobilize the stakeholders’ buy-in, and the economic and political power to galvanize the Technological machines of government, education, and industry.

“Without vision, the people perish” — Proverbs

From the above ruminations, I suggest that the issues are more a matter of Will, Leadership, and Sustainable Commitment to a Vision, rather than technology, education, or short-sighted venture capitalists. We’re now in a period of technological consolidation. With hindsight, you wouldn’t want to fault the likes of Bill Gates, Richard Branson, or Warren Buffett when they were amassing their huge fortunes, that are now being directed to the betterment of mankind.

A Humanistic Art of Thinking: Better

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This post includes the October, 2012 response I submitted to the US “Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity” (IARPA) Request for Information (RFI), IARPA-RFI-12-04

The RFI was in support of “Strengthening Human Adaptive Reasoning and Problem Solving (SHARP)”

“A Humanistic Art of Thinking: Better”

Based on interviews I conducted with over 20 leaders of Modeling & Simulation, Systems Analysis, and Analytical Techniques for a number of multi-billion dollar Space and Defense Programs, it became clear to me, and to them, that there is a pressing need to re-evaluate and make explicit the common baseline of definitions, assumptions, methodologies & models, and analytical techniques for problem-solving. This was true even for those very highly qualified upper level managers and subject matter experts (SME’s).

How people think is a very personal, often sensitive topic usually jealously guarded and shrouded in mystery, even to the individuals themselves. Nonetheless, there is a teachable Art of Thinking, as attested to by many books and essays throughout history. What distinguishes a great mind is beliefs, images, passions, attitudes, and habits of thought, with the willingness to consciously choose techniques that work, setting aside those that don’t, even if it forces them out of their “comfort zone”.

“The difference in the success of men, is the difference in their methods.” — Ernest Dimnet in “The Art of Thinking”

Our suggestions are pragmatic, psychological, and pedagogical rather than scientific and technical. In defining what we suggest as the meta-system of interest, we consider the relationship of what’s often described as “hardware”, “software”, and “wetware” (the latter being the physical brain), plus the “Database” of relevant models, facts, relationships, tricks and techniques. By “software” we include the programming within the conscious and unconscious mind. We also include in the meta-system the mentor, guide, or instructor who conveys (and ‘models’) that body of knowledge and practice in direct interaction with the students, possibly in a supportive community of learners.

We all have access to thousands of years of human experience, research, and analysis regarding how to think well. Our premise is that although much of that is well-known to those of an academic, philosophical, or intellectual bent, it isn’t necessarily widely disseminated in usable, pragmatic form among “thinking-practitioners”. The admonition that “when all else fails, read the manual” seems appropriate here. The “low hanging fruit” in strengthening human problem solving is not (only) to focus on increasing potential raw intelligence (wetware), but in identifying the useful “manuals” for human reasoning, combining useful parts into a course syllabus and organized content, and with an appropriate ‘guide/mentor/instructor’ conveying that material in what’s as much a “training” as an “education” course. In such a course, the students would have the opportunity to “model” the teacher’s thought-attitudes, methods, and processes. We suggest that the high-leverage, near-term achievable approach is to improve the brain’s “software” using a very humanistic, inter-personal classroom experience.

“The mind is a wonderful servant, but a terrible master” — Goethe

Observation: There is too much reliance on their high-intelligence among problem-solvers, and too much trying to prove how smart they are, rather than what we should be doing, which is trying to prove how well we deal with our own intellectual and emotional limitations. A basic premise here is that there are specific thinking and problem-solving knowledge and skills that can be learned, with a practical outcome of enhanced problem-solving in practice, i.e. improving the “programming” and “software” of the mind, rather than increasing the power of the mind’s “wetware”.

“to be an inventor you need a good imagination, and a pile of junk” — Thomas Edison

(cf. our Mind Map of Problem-Solving Techniques and Methods)

The “guide/mentor/role-model/instructor/facilitator” must have the appropriate knowledge, personality, and sensitivity. This includes background knowledge of such topics as Meyers-Briggs Personality profiles, research into ‘styles of thinking’, and possibly possessing a very right-brain, humanistic approach to teaching . We suggest designing a course that includes much of the material in a number of “Art of Thinking” books, including Edward de Bono’s books, Socrates and Lao Tzu’s perspectives, and many others’.

Harrison and Bramson, in their “Art of Thinking “ book, report that the ‘synthesist’ (dialectic) is the most rare style of thinking in the US. Perhaps Western Culture, especially US culture, would benefit from emphasis on teaching dialectic/synthesis-styles of thinking as part of improved whole-brain thinking skill development. This is particularly relevant with the increasing importance of Asian Nations, whose cultural background arguably gives them a more right-brain, synthesist style of thinking. (cf. the two Nisbett books referenced below)

“The ability to hold two opposing ideas in the mind and suspend them there without becoming confused, is the mark of a mature intelligence”

– F. Scott Fitzgerald

To develop “habits of thinking” it’s not sufficient to just know this material intellectually or academically. The thinker must “own the process”, have a firm commitment to it. Be willing to get out of their comfort zone*, ‘slow down’, avoid premature closure, value the ‘process’ as much as the ‘solution’, try to NOT be the quickest, and consciously look for how to apply a large and diverse set of potential methods and tools, e.g. look for the Yin & Yang of each new situation.

“Many of the tools of thinking are simply attention-directing tools.” — de Bono “Teach Your Child to Think”

* “If you’re not out of your comfort zone you may be learning, but you’re not growing” — ebr

References:

1. “The Art of Thinking”

2. “Naval Operations Analysis” 3rd Edition (includes my materials on Measures of Effectiveness)

3. “Notes on Measures of Effectiveness” by E. Rockower, 1985. http://www.rockower.net/articles/MOEs_Rockower.pdf

4. “The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn” by Richard W. Hamming, Gordon and Breach 1997

5. “Six Thinking Hats” 2nd Edition by Edward de Bono, Back Bay Books, 1999

6. “Teach your child How to Think” by Edward de Bono, Penguin Books 1994

7. “Systems Thinking. Applied. A Primer” by Robert Edson, 2008; Asysti.org http://www.anser.org/asyst http://www.anser.org/docs/systems_thinking_applied.pdf

8. “The memorable Thoughts of Socrates” by Xenophon

9. “Solitude: A Return to the Self” by Anthony Storr, Ballantine Books; 3rd edition (May 6, 1989)

10. “It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer”. – Albert Einstein

11. The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently…and Why by Richard Nisbett

12. Intelligence and How to Get It: Why Schools and Cultures Count by Richard Nisbett

13. A “Mind Map” for An Art of Thinking, Better (cf. “a bag of tricks” for problem-solving)