Just an example: how selecting units and color-coding for visualisation can amplify one perspective. Is the US really a nation polarised as much as it seems?
Compare US election results:
This is a good example of the case where black and white (red and blue ;) lenzes would do more harm than good.
It’s interesting why do we slip into binary thinking so easily?
I’m guilty of binary representations myself. It’s so strange: even given my beliefs in complexity, continuums and multi-dimentional nature of personal knowledge management I often slip into binary mode in my texts, making my own arguments vulnerable and stirring polarisation.
It seems that thinking in binary/linear/tree structures (context) is more natural for our brains than embracing complexity, so we need some conscious effort for getting beyond simplification and polarisation.
Lois Ann Scheidt on this in a context of research:
As human beings it is very common for us to look at new ideas, technology, etc. compare them to their older antecedents and then slot them into a linear continuum between two older examples of similar phenomena. By so doing we position the new idea, technology, etc. as somewhat less then the exemplars that anchor the continuum.
[...]
In my own research while I am forced to background some discussions with linear models so I echo the point of view found in published literature, I quickly try to move to more dimensional modeling that symbolizes the complexity of the ideas without making the ideas I am expressing overly complex and difficult for some of my audience to grasp.
See also:
- similar associations & more examples – Theresa Senft on maps and a follow-up by Helena Kvarnstrom
- even more maps
Tags: complexity, knowledge mapping, knowledge representations, meta-learning, thinkingArchived version of this entry is available at http://blog.mathemagenic.com/2004/11/05.html#a1413; comments are here.
Related posts