It's strange that when Gladwell says this stuff, it sounds attractive, but when a behaviorist says the same thing people think it sounds crazy:
"Intelligent" behavior is not caused by "thinking", but rather it is simply attunement of the body to the correct environmental variables. There is nothing "built up" about it, quite the opposite, it is pared down and simplified. It is "selective attention", in terms purely of one's behavior being dependent upon only the essential aspects of what is going on around you. This shouldn't lead us to think the mind even more wonderful, but rather to question the usefulness of mind-talk and mind-focused-learning in the first place. Sigh, Eric On Wed, Oct 13, 2010 06:50 PM, Ted Carmichael <teds...@gmail.com> wrote: > > >>On Wed, Oct 13, 2010 at 4:53 PM, Merle Lefkoff <<#>> wrote: > Merle Lefkoff wrote: > > [snip] Even so-called "experts" are hard-wired for "loss aversion". They are likely to form their predictions based on how recently they predicted wrongly and NOT on the statistics they've studied. > > >Well, the point in Gladwell's book was that a LOT of learning and experience is built up, so that predictions or assessments, etc., become immediate, knee-jerk reactions. The processes that inform such decisions occur below the level of consciousness, but nevertheless require years of study. > > >So it's not just statistics that are studied, but rather thousands and thousands of instances of learning that are remembered, and thus aggregated below conscious awareness. Even though the process of training one's brain for many different examples requires conscious thought and reflection, the end result becomes a reflexive action. > > >-Ted >
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
