[TT 015] Collective sense, burden of proof, lonely leaders, fun learning, trash trolls

Howdy Thrivers,

This week saw the kickoff of Building a Second Brain (Cohort 12) and I'm very much looking forward to this program. I'm also recognizing and feeling how little time I have left before I ship out for the next chapter of life & grad school. I oscillate between overwhelm and excitement, and getting much done in the meantime.

Let's get right to this week's Thriving Thursday.

On collective sense-making

In the first BASB session, Tiago talked about how different generations have different scarcities and that which is scarce defines that which is abundant. Nowadays, at least in the US, physical goods, food, and information are plentiful - so scarcity comes in the form of attention, clarity, and internal peace. We have access to the greatest amassing of human knowledge with the flick of a thumb and the constant flow of information is beyond overwhelming, it's exhausting.

Tiago calls our current era the Age of Perspective where those who have a clear perspective amidst the information deluge are those in abundance. I agree with the fundamental concept, but I prefer to think of this as the Age of Synthesis. Those that are winning online are the ones who can consistently digest and synthesize existing information into accessible formats and functions. Those that cannot parse signal from noise to efficiently synthesize available information will invariably drown by drinking from the firehose or give up and leave the gushing river of knowledge entirely.

After the first class, I had a great conversation with Brandon Toner about how this maps to collective sense-making. There is an absurd wealth of knowledge in academic publications, but sifting through the noisy ecosystem to get the relevant, trust-worthy signal is almost impossible (for anyone other than career academics, and even then ...). Of course, even the concept of "facts" are subject to our cognitive biases, so there must be certain conventions to delineate between objectives observations and subjective synthesis.

I think certain courses (like BASB) and certain technologies (like Roam Research) are helping push the boundaries of what's possible with collective sense-making in arenas new and old. Especially with my ambitious scope for the theoretical and applied thriving, I'm keen to explore knowledge distillation and synthesis in communities. I have absolutely no doubt that communities organized around personal and collective sense-making will survive the floods of information (and misinformation) in the digital era and harvest the fruits of the rich soil it leaves behind.

On proving the burden of proof

In talking to Brandon about collective sense-making, I brought up the concept of having a standard-bearer to ensure a basic threshold of trustworthy quality. For example, someone intentionally or unintentionally misrepresenting the raw material could skew downstream synthesis. He argued against a threshold suggesting it would be too stifling for onboarding, especially early on, and suggested that communities would self-organize toward quality through social reputation. Reminds me of the early days of Wikipedia and I would enjoy reading a case study (if one exists) for how their curation workflows matured over time.

That works when the stakes are low and a lack of quality information doesn't do harm. That reminded me of this excellent summary and discussion on the burden of proof from Itamar Shatz.

As noted in the article, assigning the burden of proof can be tricky socially and even practically. Personally, I put the burden of proof squarely on the person making a claim. If I hear a claim that does not align with my current awareness (and I care to engage), I will politely ask where that information came from. This has caused conflict in relationships in the past where I've been noted as "difficult" or "not trusting" when I frequently ask for sources or clarity on information origins. Granted, I'm getting much better at asking in a way that is curious and respectful without being judgmental or pointed.

I'm working on grace and tact, and I believe it is a service to society to lovingly enforce a burden of proof. It is my ethical responsibility to stop the spread of misinformation or baseless assertions whenever possible. At the very least, I can invite new awareness by gently implementing some of Itamar's suggested mechanisms to speak up when something sounds off.

On the personal life of leaders

I'm encouraged and inspired that physical, mental, and emotional health are becoming ever more common topics in the business world. David Lancefield recently wrote a Harvard Business Review piece advocating for leaders to be as diligent and daring with their personal and familial goals as they are with their professional pursuits.

I deeply resonate with the comment from Kathleen Saxton to create a "board I can't afford". I've been thinking about this idea for myself for years and I appreciate the framing of finding people that feel safe (it's a love signal, after all) and also fill specific functional areas to complement and round out my innate dispositions.

I also like the commentary to connect often with our loved ones about what's going on in our lives (professionally and personally). I felt the rich meaning and connective capacity of that in the dreamscaping weekend with my wife. This is related to the love maps concept from Gottman and facilitates a lot of the resiliency that Lancefield touched upon in his piece.

And no discussion of resiliency or human-centric leadership is complete with a hat tip to Brene Brown's work on vulnerability (touched on in TT008 and at length in TT012). That's key to success at the workplace and at home.

Whether it's at work, at school, or at home, taking care of ourselves and our relationships so we can show up for others is critical for short term and long term success.

On the fun world of learning fun

I cannot say I had a fun education. Granted, I was able to have some fun along the way, and I certainly learned a lot, but fun was but the smallest consideration when picking classes through K-12 or professors in university.

This will likely come as a shocking surprise - we learn better when we're having fun. Statics students that were randomly assigned fun items throughout their semester. Interestingly, those assigned a song explanation in one or more lessons did better on those questions than students that received cartoons, jokes, poems, or no fun items at all.

Aditya Shukla has a great writeup on the neurocognitive reasons why fun induces better learning. In his words,

"Research shows that having fun while learning avails unique cognitive resources, associates reward and pleasure with information, strengthen and broaden memory networks, and toggle between 2 basic neural modes – one for diffused mind-wandering and the other for focused attention."

I haven't dug into every study to validate his synthesis, but there is a certain intuitive to each of these ideas ringing true. That's not to say all learning can or should be fun, but the more fun we can infuse in the courses, the better the experience and retention for the students.

This points me back to the role of play in child and adult life. The more play-full we become, the more receptive we are to learning and self-growth. And the more play and fun we can offer to those around us on their own personal journey of discovery.

On trash art of stunning beauty and size

Artist Thomas Dambo is often called a "recycle art activist" because he uses reclaimed materials to build forest trolls of epic proportions (15-30ft tall). These trolls can be found all over the world (<-- very much worth the click) in an ongoing installation known as The Great Story of the Little People and the Giant Trolls.

Here is one to give you a flavor:

Check out more on Thomas' website or Instagram.

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That's all for this week everyone - until next time.

~Henry

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