The Illusion of Knowledge: Consuming Abstractions v.s. Having Firsthand Knowledge

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When consuming information, we often consume abstractions.
Abstractions are one person's idea of the salient points.
Consuming other people's abstractions can create an illusion of knowledge.
There is a difference between an earned abstraction and a learned abstraction.
When things go wrong, the creator of the abstraction can instantly identify the problem.
To understand an abstraction, it is important to decompose it and ask for firsthand knowledge.
Getting close to the person who created the abstraction is ideal for understanding it.

My guest today is acclaimed psychologist and longtime Stanford University professor Barbara Tversky who calls on her nearly 50 years in the field of cognitive psychology for an in-depth discussion about how our minds work.

We discuss the Nine Laws of Cognition, why action shapes thought, how the language we use changes what we think, tactics to communicate better on Zoom, why she dove into the work of Leonardo da Vinci, when to use charts and when to avoid them, the importance of perspective taking, learned knowledge vs. earned knowledge, and so much more.

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