Wisdom Revisited

Hare Brain Tortoise Mind

I do not recall a prior time in my life when I felt as overwhelmed by information as I do now. Cognitive dissonance, overloaded circuits, galloping synapses, flopping ganglia…call it what you will. The fact remains that once again I need precisely what is offered in one of the first books I reviewed for Amazon and Borders ten years ago: Hare Brain Tortoise Mind: How Intelligence Increases When You Think Less, written by Guy Claxton and published by The Ecco Press in 1999. Here is what I said then.

“Immediately upon publication, [Hare Brain Tortoise Mind] created tremendous interest among those who want to gain a better understanding of human intelligence. According to John Cleese, Claxton provides “The essential guide to creative thinking.” Almost immediately we are informed by Claxton that “Roughly speaking, the mind possesses three different processing speeds. The first is faster than thought…Below this, there is another mental register that proceeds more slowly still. It is often less purposeful and clear-cut, more playful, leisurely or dreamy…[the] third type of intelligence is associated with what we call creativity, or even ‘wisdom’.”

“With delicious wit as well as probing insight, Claxton helps us to understand learning by osmosis; the potential value of intuition and creativity to decision-making and problem-solving; why reason and intuition are sometimes antagonists; the phenomenon of perception without consciousness; the “rudiments” of wisdom; and, how to recognize situations in which there is greater need for the tortoise’s “slower ways” than for those of the hare who, in many quests for understanding, either arrives later or not at all.”

For reasons that should by now be obvious, I highly recommend this very informative, thoroughly entertaining book. Please keep in mind, however, that you are under no pressure to read it.

360º Awareness

Organizations as well as individuals can suffer from what bears striking resemblance to ADD. Almost everyone continues to experience information overload. Some who have studied this phenomenon invoke metaphors such as a “blizzard” of data that creates a “fog” or “clutter.” Meanwhile, information providers struggle to get through “blizzards” to reach those who are most important to them. How to attract their attention? Then, how to capture that attention with what has been described by Chip and Dan Heath as “stickiness”?

As indicated in The Attention Economy, after conducting an extensive research project, Thomas Davenport and John Beck concluded that attention is “the new currency of business.” Perhaps Michael Wolf agrees, having written a brilliant book about “the entertainment economy”; perhaps Joseph Pine and James Gilmore also agree, having written a book about “the experience economy.”

Long ago, Andrew Grove concluded that “only the paranoid survive” and wrote a book bearing that title. That conviction stresses the importance of being constantly and aggressively alert to one’s circumstances as well as to the circumstances of one’s organization.

It means being alert for potential perils, of course, but it also means listening intently when engaged in a conversation and being aware of emerging opportunities.

One evening at a cocktail party, after a number of brief encounters during which I exchanged banal comments with various strangers, I decided to try an experiment. At the buffet table, I found myself next to someone I did not know. He shook hands without ever making eye contact. “Hey, how’ya doing’?”

I replied, “I just learned that I have Dutch Elm disease.”

“Arright! Wayda go!” He then moved on to another non-conversation.

If attention is “the new currency of business,” many people are insolvent…and unaware of the reasons why.

Q #237: “Why should I care?”

I don’t know about you but I ask that question (to myself) every time I receive a telephone call, an e-mail, or “snail” mail from a stranger. Moreover, I have much less patience now than I ever had before. My attention span is now measured in seconds, not minutes. Communication experts estimate that (on average) each person receives about 2,500 “messages” each day from different sources (other people, print and electronic media, etc.). The result is “clutter” and what the experts characterize as “cognitive dissonance.” Information overload is a common.

So what?

Perhaps not much. Perhaps a great deal. Whenever you have important messages to send to fellow workers, customers, a spouse, other family members, and friends, don’t assume that they always receive those messages. And even if they receive them, don’t assume that they “get it” (i.e. understand your intended meaning). And if they “get it,” they will probably ask (to themselves) “What’s in it for me?”

Here’s what communication experts suggest:

1. Stop adding to the clutter by sending unnecessary messages; devote more attention to doing what must be done.

2. Send a message when the recipient is “there.” Timing is not always everything but it is VERY important. That is, send the message only after you have requested and received permission, and have the recipient’s attention.

3. KISSS: Keep the message simple and keep it short.

4. If there’s no reason for the recipient to care, the message this time will be ignored; worse yet, it may be resented as a waste of time and attention; and even worse yet, future messages will never get through.