Edition #011 - Layers and Links

Layers of Thinking

In Edition #010 I mentioned Bülent Duagi's post about 18 types of thinking on LinkedIn and said that I would take it and my own earlier post about mind states and try to make some sense out of all these different terms. Of course, it has been predictably harder to do than to promise. This is very much a beginning not an end.

In this first attempt my main effort has been to try to distinguish things that are parts of other things. This unfortunately builds a hierarchy, but I want to emphasise it's a hierarchy of complexity, that things further up may contain things below. It's not a hierarchy where the top is "better" than the bottom (or vice versa). I have kept text from Bülent's PDF in italics, and my comments and ideas are in normal text.

Level 1 - An Exception?

Meta thinking - thinking about thinking - feels like it encompasses everything else, because it implies an ability to choose any of the other types to use. Of course, at the same time, that act of choosing is something that happens all the time, whatever type of thinking we are doing and we don't always choose consciously. So it sits alone here, first in the list, but could equally be last...

(Click for more, 6 min read)

Links

Certified Systems Thinker

You can’t be serious?

SystemsWiki’s MusingsGene Bellinger

Gene Bellinger, a long time stalwart of various systems thinking community efforts has resurrected his Udemy course on a different platform. Access is free for now and it's a great introduction to systems thinking if you are curious and want to know more.

Reimagining our pandemic problems with the mindset of an engineer

Grappling with all the uncertainty, the epidemiologist’s role during the pandemic proved confusingly complex. A more pragmatic, problem-solving mindset might help in making good decisions.

MIT Technology ReviewSiobhan Roberts

An interesting piece about some different mindsets at work in analysing the pandemic.

Overcoming Mental Fatigue: A Systematic Approach

Our brains just weren’t made for the pace of modern life. Here’s why we feel mental fatigue and how we can address it’s root causes.

Ambition & BalanceBecky Kane

Coming back to things related to Decision Fatigue, this piece is full of most of the usual advice, but what caught my eye was the little section on the rhythm of our fluctuations during the day. I have not had time to research the validity of the "Ultradian Rhythm" concept, but it is certainly interesting.

Interesting Events

• Monday, 8th November, 1330 London Time (GMT) - Crafting Climate Futures: From Story to Policy - Join the University of Liverpool's Olaf Stapledon Centre for Speculative Futures and the Climate Imagination Fellows at Arizona State University’s Center for Science and the Imagination for a session dedicated to exploring the stories that might catalyze new understandings and connect narrative interventions to transformations in policy, governance, and culture. (Online, Free, Registration Required)
• Monday, 8th November, 1900 GMT - Thinking better: The art of the shortcut - Join mathematician Marcus du Sautoy as he shows how mathematics can give us clever strategies for daily complex problems. (Royal Institution, Online, £16)
• Tuesday, 9th November, 1200 GMT - Systems Thinking and Social Justice - Dr Julian Corner's talk continues and makes sense of one of his ongoing systemic co-inquiries – how can systems thinking better contribute to effecting social justice? (OU STiP, Online, Free, Registration Required)
• Wednesday, 10th November, 1900 GMT - An Evening with Iain McGilchrist - Hybrid Event - In Person in London and Online - Join us for an evening with Dr. Iain McGilchrist, followed by our first social gathering in two years. A psychiatrist, philosopher and author of the groundbreaking ‘The Master and His Emissary,’ McGilchrist will be discussing his long-awaited new book ‘The Matter with Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions, and the Unmaking of the World’. (Hybrid - £10/£15)
• Friday, 12th November, 1400 GMT - Thinking With Objects in Semiotic Practice - The analysis of objects in order to reveal hidden aspects of social reality has since the 1990s emerged rapidly, primarily from within the fields of archaeology and anthropology. Panel will share their approaches to thinking with objects… and they'll invite attendees to tell their own object-oriented stories, too. I'm hoping to attend this and maybe talk a little about IdeaKeg. (Online, Donation Requested, Registration Required)
• Monday, 15th November, 0000 GMT - The Popular Myth of Your Reptilian Brain - Nautilus editor and writer Brian Gallagher reviews findings in neurobiology and evolutionary psychology to explore why the idea of a “lizard brain” in us has become so widespread, and how this misconception might shape our own self-understanding and well-being. (interintellect, Online, $25)
• Tuesday, 16th November, 2300 GMT - Language and Thought: The “Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis” Revisited - Join linguist Colin Gorrie in the first in a series of salons investigating language for an exploration of the thorny relationship between language and thought. (interintellect, Online, $20)
• Wednesday, 17th November, 1830 GMT - How to Prevent and Reverse Dementia - Two of the world’s leading experts in neurodegenerative diseases, Dr Dale Bredesen and Dr Kat Toups are pioneering a fundamentally new approach to Alzheimer’s, developing a step-by-step protocol to improve cognitive health. Poor memory and cognitive decline should be not be chalked up to “ageing”, but should be tackled as soon as possible for better outcomes. (howToAcademy, Online, £15)
• I've noticed that as a number of organisations move back from online to in person events, I'm not seeing as many listings as before. If you're running or even just hear about an interesting event and think it would fit in the listing here, drop me a line!
• And of course, Edition #012 of this newsletter will be out on Thursday 18th November in the afternoon London time - feel free to share this Edition with a friend before then. ;-)