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Here’s a fun twist you might not expect: a recent study shows that most people can't tell if a poem was crafted by a human or AI — and even more surprising, we often prefer the AI versions! Researchers Brian Porter and Edouard Machery from the University of Pittsburgh put this theory to the test, and the results reveal something pretty quirky about our poetic tastes. <h2>Human or AI? You decide!</h2>For this experiment, Porter and Machery recruited over 1,600 participants and gave them a batch of <keyword id="6355263" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="poetry" source="Orion">poetry</keyword> to read. Each participant got ten poems, five written by legendary poets like William Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson, Lord Byron, and T.S. Eliot, and five crafted by ChatGPT-3.5 mimicking these poets’ styles. Participants had no idea which ones were real and which were AI. <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="115273975" title="5 interesting takeaways from Slack&amp;#39;s survey of 17,000 desk workers about AI" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div>The shocker was that readers were more likely to think the AI poems were written by humans! In fact, the poems people thought least likely to be human were often written by the very poets we’d consider masters of the craft. <h2>What makes a poem feel "real"?</h2>Curious to dive deeper, the researchers set up a second experiment with 696 new participants. This time, each reader rated poems on things like beauty, emotion, rhythm, and originality. The readers were divided into three groups: some were told the poems were written by humans, others by AI, and a third group got no information at all. <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="115299674" title="Instead of killing jobs, there&amp;#39;s a strange AI hiring boom happening, according to Marc Andreessen" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div>They found that if you tell someone a poem was AI-generated, they’re likely to rate it lower on just about every quality. But here’s the twist: when people didn’t know who wrote the poems, they often rated the AI-generated ones higher than the human written ones! <h2>So, why are we falling for AI poetry?</h2>Turns out, AI poems often end up being a little more straightforward and easy to enjoy, while poems by famous poets can be more complex and challenging. Instead of appreciating the depth of a classic poet’s work, readers sometimes mistake complexity for confusion and move on. <keyword id="23985627" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="AI-generated-poems" source="keywords">AI-generated poems</keyword>, meanwhile, serve up their message in a style that feels familiar and easy to “get,” making them more enjoyable at first glance. Basically, we tend to believe we’ll prefer human poetry. But in reality, AI’s smooth style is just easier to like — and we interpret this as a sign the poem was created by a human. The findings of this research have been published in Scientific Reports and can be accessed <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-76900-1">here</a>.

New study finds readers can’t tell AI poems from human ones — and they often prefer AI

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">Flickr/A. Strakey</div></div></div>Passwords often present a conundrum - the better they are, the harder they are to remember. And most people just end up choosing passwords they think are safe, but are <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/humans-are-terrible-at-picking-their-own-passwords-2015-1">pretty woefully easy to crack</a>.Fortunately for all of us, a pair of researchers say they have solved this problem - using poetry.Marjan Ghazvininejad and Kevin Ghazvininejad, both of the University of Southern California, <a href="http://www.isi.edu/natural-language/mt/memorize-random-60.pdf">have published a paper</a> that presents creating a poem from randomly selected words as an easy way to create a secure password, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/10/22/these-researchers-have-discovered-the-perfect-password-thats-also-easy-to-remember/">the Washington Post reports</a>.The researchers wanted to scientifically evaluate the common tactic of using random words, strung together in various fashions, to create a password. They checked simply using four random words, generating a random sentence, and other methods. But they found that, with regards to both security and ease of remembering, using a rhyming poem of random words was the best.Rhymes have been used to help people remember things since the days of Homer's Odyssey and Iliad, epic poems that would overwhelm a normal person's memory without some sort of trick. The researchers tapped into this same line of thinking.Here's how Ghazvininejad and Knight's system works.First, they assign every word in the dictionary a code (all 327,868 of them). They then use a computer program to turn a randomly generated number into short phrases - while making sure these phrases always end in a rhyme. The program also constructs every phrase in "iambic tetrameter," a type of poetry meter. The program spits out passwords like:or:or even:According to the researchers, these passwords are incredibly difficult to crack. Knight says that at current rates, breaking one would take five million years, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/10/22/these-researchers-have-discovered-the-perfect-password-thats-also-easy-to-remember/">according to the Washington Post</a>. <a href="http://www.isi.edu/natural-language/people/poem/poem.php">You can try out the online generator for these passwords yourself here.</a> <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/warby-parker-takes-on-the-luxotica-monoply-2015-10">Meet the founders of Warby Parker, the eyewear company disrupting the highly secretive Luxottica monopoly</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="g4cHdoeDrvOtg7DyxFLJQ9cWHWM38cRJ" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

Researchers think they've found the holy grail of secure passwords - using poetry

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="11985128" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="drake" source="Orion">Drake</keyword> rarely takes risks when making <keyword id="11898471" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="music" source="Orion">music</keyword>. But in the absence of ambition, he's perfected his sound.</li><li>"Certified Lover Boy" is the epitome of Drake, and that ends up being a good thing.</li><li>Manny Fidel is a columnist and editor for Insider.</li></ul>Artists typically transform over time.Kanye West's soulful patterns in the early 2000s progressed into an eccentric <keyword id="12021085" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="pop" source="Orion">pop</keyword> in the 2010s, before cascading into a more heavenly, albeit less interesting, arena. The Weeknd went from dark, pensive R&amp;B moods to a more simplified 80s pop sound. This kind of metamorphosis is common in music, especially for Black artists who can't afford to simmer in the same styles for too long, else they upset the mighty Billboard.For all of Drake's career, though, he's been an exception.When his 2016 effort "Views" dropped, <a href="https://www.vulture.com/2016/05/his-peers-took-chances-but-drake-didnt.html">the biggest gripe critics had was that it didn't take any risks</a>; that the music sounded too similar to the stuff that preceded it.To be fair, they were right. But what we eventually came to learn - through that summer's heavy, heavy rotation of the album - was that we, as consumers, don't care.Instead of reconstructing his sound over the course of his career, Drake has simply matured it. In his assessment, consistency is more valuable than ambition. His catalog is a diamond that receives a tiny, precise cut with every release, resulting in a rock that might not be as flashy or colorful as others, but is undeniably more refined.In such turbulent times, the familiarity and routine of "Certified Lover Boy" can be cathartic.<h2>'Certified Lover Boy' serves as the most Drake of Drake albums possible</h2>The album's first half features the more moody, monotonous tracks Drake became known for more recently in his career, before the second half opens up into a more aspiring, melody-driven program.Standouts from the first slew of songs include "Girls Want Girls," where Drake reveals, incredibly, that he is a lesbian, "Fair Trade," where he laments the loss of friends but appreciates the calm that comes with it, and "Love All," where Jay Z provides a judgemental verse that is, notably, better than his effort on West's "DONDA."The first eye-opener of the album though, is the endearingly absurd "Way 2 Sexy," featuring a Future who is as much in his bag as he'll ever be (we need "What a Time to Be Alive 2" as soon as possible). Young Thug can do no wrong in my eyes, and the track bounces so effortlessly that it's not hard to imagine its longevity in the club.That brings us to "TSU," which is the most Drakeity-Drake song on the album. After a long, chopped, and screwed intro, Drake melodically floats on a dreamy bed of synths and pads, musing about his past loves and, unsurprisingly, strip clubs. It's quintessentially him in that the beat breaks down into a slower, more emotive version of itself.It's worth mentioning that <a href="https://www.insider.com/drake-r-kelly-kanye-west-marilyn-manson-songwriter-credits-royalties-2021-9">the song credits R. Kelly, who is accused of over 20 years worth of sexual abuse, as a songwriter</a>. Even though the credit is due only to a sample the song uses - and not R. Kelly's actual involvement - it's a bit of a head-scratcher for an artist who has a plethora of talented producers who could convincingly flip any sample without needing to tap into R. Kelly's catalog.<div type="image" title="drake" height="1560" width="2081" msid="85914135" hostid="261"></div>As I continued listening to Certified Lover Boy, I was prepared to call "N 2 Deep" the album's most lackluster track. However, it then pivoted to a much more interesting (read: poppier) concept about being hopelessly caught in a woman's, uh, allure.Then, "Yebba's Heartbreak" served as not just an interlude, but also an intermission. The calming ballad prepares us for a turn towards the album's more energetic half, steering us right into an "If You're Reading This It's Too Late"-esque run in the pile-driving duo of "No Friends in the Industry" and "Knife Talk," which welcomingly features <keyword id="12021084" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="hip-hop" source="Orion">hip-hop</keyword> icon Project Pat and an on-point 21 Savage.The elephant in the room, "7am on Bridle Path," is a seething take-down of recent Kanye West antics - the title refers to when West posted Drake's Toronto address on Instagram stories. Drake fires more than a few quips at West, most notably "<a href="https://genius.com/23873962/Drake-7am-on-bridle-path/Give-that-address-to-your-driver-make-it-your-destination-stead-of-just-a-post-out-of-desperation">Give that address to your driver, make it your destination, instead of just a post out of desperation</a>." The song exhibits a somber disappointment in his once-idol, rather than serving as an actual diss track. However, given West's temperament, he could view this as a declaration of war."Certified Lover Boy" is an album that is focused on honing its past. By this evaluation, "You Only Live Twice" is a pure example of Drake's familiarity with his own craft. The song sounds like it's straight out of 2011, in the best way possible. Even the title calls back to "YOLO," or "You Only Live Once," a phrase Drake had a heavy hand in re-popularizing in the 2010s.The pairing of Rick Ross and Lil Wayne on the joyous sample of The Brothers of Soul's "Can't Get You Off of My Mind" takes me right back to the early 2010s when every college party I attended was blaring Young Money songs and, even back then, we were talking about Drake's impressive consistency.The title of "most ambitious song" on the album belongs to "IMY2," perhaps by default, since it features the ever-experimental Kid Cudi. Given both Drake and Cudi's propensity for crooning on top of dreamy soundscapes, you'd think they'd collaborate more often. <h2>Final Grade: 7.8/10</h2><div type="image" title="The album art for Drake's &quot;Certified Lover Boy&quot; features 12 pregnant emojis of varying colors and ethnicities." height="988" width="1000" msid="85914137" hostid="261"></div>In 2013, Drake released what is considered by many to be his best album, "Nothing Was the Same." Since then, musically speaking, things have, for the most part, been the same with him.But for an artist who has no interest in switching things up, the music is surprisingly fresh.Drake has painted a portrait of himself that doesn't require any major touch-ups, and for that reason, "Certified Lover Boy" is the epitome of Drake's sound. That's a good thing.Worth listening to:"Girls Want Girls""Love All""Fair Trade""Way 2 Sexy""TSU""N 2 Deep""No Friends in the Industry""Knife Talk""7am on Bridle Path""Fountains""Get Along Better""You Only Live Twice""IMY2"Background music:"Champagne Poetry""Papi's Home""In the Bible""Yebba's Heartbreak""Race My Mind""The Remorse"Split decision:"Pipe Down"Press skip:"Fucking Fans"*Final album score based on songs per category (1 point for "Worth listening to," .5 for "Background music," .5 for "Split decision," 0 for "Press skip").

'Certified Lover Boy' sounds like every other Drake album and that's a good thing

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Dr. Scott Dust is an assistant professor of management at the Farmer School of <keyword id="6355515" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="business">Business</keyword> at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and has written extensively on the impact of cognitive bias in <keyword id="34454" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="leadership">leadership</keyword>.</li><li>Corporate America's rush to hire Black leaders amid the <keyword id="2771111" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="black-lives-matter">Black Lives Matter</keyword> movement may seem progressive, but given the wider context of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dust warns that it could have an averse effect.</li><li>With high unemployment, a plummeting economy, and pressure to act as a token of social progress, newly appointed Black leaders will face intense scrutiny and an uphill battle to success.</li><li>If a company truly wants to support Black leaders, Dust suggests they search for experts in different industries, focusing on a good track records and demonstrated leadership skills.</li></ul>In the tragic wake of the George Floyd murder, the Black Lives Matter movement has put a spotlight on how organizational leaders address racial injustice. A slew of executives from the likes of Reddit, CrossFit, Bon Appétit, and The Poetry Foundation <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemimamcevoy/2020/06/09/every-ceo-and-leader-that-stepped-down-since-black-lives-matter-protests-began/#253295d44cef">have stepped down</a> for being anywhere between tone-deaf to flat-out racist. Stakeholders — and in some cases, the exiting leaders — are demanding that organizations replace them with Black executives.<div type="image" title="Scott Dust" height="1937" width="2582" msid="76568409" hostid="261"></div>Following an unprecedented 18-month <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bob-iger-keith-block-ceos-that-stepped-down-in-2020">mass exodus of CEOs stepping down</a> for retirement, strategic change, or ethical infractions, this seems like a prime opportunity to promote Black employees to positions of power to chip away at racial inequality in leadership. But thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, if not viewed with the correct perspective, we'll fall into the same old traps and be worse off than we were before. The <a href="https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000">unemployment rate</a> is above double-digits, and the US government is pushing the same <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2020/05/04/the-abcs-of-the-post-covid-economic-recovery/">economic recovery</a> buttons that were pushed in the 1940s, post-Depression. The years ahead will be rough. This is problematic because our <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1307544">perception of leader performance</a> is strongly tied to organizational performance.I fear that as the years go by, we'll begin evaluating our newly appointed Black leaders with blinders on. The situation reeks of three consistently surfacing challenges in the <a href="https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/mcb/050/2014/00000029/00000004/art00006">promotion of racial minority executives</a>.<h2>Black employees are more likely to get leadership opportunities when there's a higher chance of failure</h2>The <a href="https://journals.aom.org/doi/abs/10.5465/AMR.2007.24351856">glass cliff theory</a> suggests that Black employees, compared to white employees, are more likely to be given opportunities to lead when the likelihood of failure is high. Regardless of the leader's capabilities and decisions, the organization inevitably struggles and the leader is blamed. This perpetuates a cycle of non-promotion for presumed lack of talent. This phenomenon is likely to happen even more given today's context. To minimize this faulty assumption, leaders' evaluations should be based on their decisions and behaviors, not their ability to turn water into wine. <h2>Promoting Black leaders should be intentional, not reactionary</h2>The bold moves theory suggests that decisions on who should lead are <a href="https://journals.aom.org/doi/abs/10.5465/256736">influenced by</a> anticipated shareholder reaction. In this scenario, promoting the Black candidate is more of an impression management <keyword id="6363690" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Strategy">strategy</keyword> than a business strategy. This approach can be problematic when the organization settles for an unqualified candidate. Yes, society demands a sense of urgency. But slowing down and finding a good fit — in terms of abilities and race — is worth the wait. The problem is that organizations are obsessed with finding leaders that have industry experience, even though <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/peps.12335">research</a> suggests that experience has minimal impact on performance. Because the system has artificially limited the pool of Black candidates, this deference for experience makes the pool unnecessarily smaller.Specific to high-level leaders, it's time to look for Black leaders more broadly. Strategic thinking and management acumen are not industry-bound. Further, in order to fill the pipeline at lower levels of the organization, it's time to get serious about implementing technology — artificial intelligence and machine learning, simulations, and the like — to help tease out cognitive biases.<h2>Using Black leaders as 'tokens' is problematic</h2>The <a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&amp;lr=&amp;id=w-40Bf8ZV6AC&amp;oi=fnd&amp;pg=PP2&amp;dq=related:r9FzwvgbDjcJ:scholar.google.com/&amp;ots=BnCN2lBO6w&amp;sig=G0jQsUYA9o7xjwdMD_EDwNMnfnk#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=falseDwNMnfnk#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false">corporate savior theory</a> highlights that Black leaders tend to experience tokenism. As tokens, Black leaders struggle because they are highly visible and experience intense scrutiny.Putting a magnifying glass over Black leaders is problematic. It instigates exponential pressure to perform, which can cause them to make decisions they wouldn't otherwise make. Regardless of the organizational outcome, the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/0691074372/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&amp;btkr=1kr=1">backlash</a> is negative. When Black leaders succeed it is a cause de célèbre, which incorrectly positions the success as an anomaly. When Black leaders fail, the most common reaction is to put back into place a more "traditional" (i.e., white) leader.As the movement progresses and more Black leaders are promoted, we need to be cautious of how we interpret their performance. Resorting to the corporate savior mentality only perpetuates these simplistic assumptions.<h2>Going forward</h2>As of today, there are only <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/01/business/black-ceos-george-floyd/index.html">four Black CEOs of Fortune 500 companies</a>. Promoting Black leaders would chip away at the incredibly lopsided race imbalance in leadership. It would also ensure that leadership is more aligned with demographic and societal trends.Moving in this direction is long overdue, and to make it a truly lasting change, let us not forget the backdrop.Newly appointed Black leaders are not only being asked to lead during a crisis, but act as a signal of newly formed organizational values of racial equality, all while being put under an intense microscope. The willingness to step up during such circumstances in and of itself is an act of true leadership, regardless of organizational profitability.To overcome said challenges will be tough, as it requires self-policing of cognitive biases, changing organizational and societal culture, and implementing governmental interventions. Whether you are an organizational stakeholder or simply a conscious citizen, you play a role in righting the ship.Never forget that organizations are built to increase shareholder return. Organizations can't operate without committed employees, or compete without investments, or keep the lights on without customers. You are that employee, or that investor, or that customer. The future of racial equality in leadership is also in your hands, not just the Black leaders themselves. Scott Dust, PhD, is the Dr. John F. Mee endowed assistant professor of management at the Farmer School of Business at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. His research, teaching, and consulting focus on leadership and teams, and he has written widely on how cognitive bias affects leadership processes. Follow him on <a href="https://twitter.com/scott_dust">Twitter</a>.

Companies are scrambling to hire more Black talent — but they must tackle the 'glass cliff' that can set Black leaders up for failure

The activist in BJP: Sudhanshu Mittal

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image">MicrosoftSatya Nadella, Microsoft CEO</div></div></div>Microsoft's CEO Satya Nadella confirmed today that two top execs, Tami Reller and Tony Bates, are leaving the company.
The news <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/shakeup-at-the-top-of-microsoft-2014-3">originally broke Sunday night</a>, but Microsoft declined to comment at the time.
Bates was Microsoft's EVP of development and evangelism. He was Skype's CEO and joined Microsoft after it acquired Skype. He was also in the running to be Microsoft's new CEO, but Nadella got the job instead. Bates will leave Microsoft immediately.
Reller was the EVP of marketing, and will stay on for a few months to help transition her job to Chris Capossela, who will be Microsoft's new chief marketing officer.
Here's the full memo Nadella sent to Microsoft employees:
In the past month, I've had the opportunity to talk with many of you - in person, on Yammer, and in groups in Redmond as well as in our Boston and Northern California offices. (Thank you for all the questions and please keep the input coming!) I've also been able to get on the road meeting with customers and investors, which has been really helpful as well. 
One of my consistent themes has been a point I made in my original mail - we all need to do our best work, have broad impact and find real meaning in the work we do. Coming together as teams fuels this on a day-to-day basis. And having the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) set both pace and example means a lot to me.
I have discussed this point in various forms with the SLT and have asked for their "all in" commitment as we embark on the next chapter for the company. We need to drive clarity, alignment and intensity across all our work. With that as a backdrop, I want to share a set of changes to the leadership team: 
Tony Bates has decided this is the right time for him to look for his next opportunity. Tony came to the company via the Skype acquisition, where he was CEO of Skype, and did a great job of successfully landing that team and continuing to build the service in a high impact way. He also stepped up to the new opportunity of leading the Business Development and Evangelism team over the past eight months. I've appreciated Tony's insights and perspective, and wish him well in his journey. I know he is just a Skype call or message away. Eric Rudder will serve as interim leader responsible for Business Development and Evangelism, while continuing in his current role. 
I have decided we need a single leader running marketing for the company, and have asked Chris Capossela to take on this role as EVP and Chief Marketing Officer, reporting to me. I have talked about the premium we need to place on getting very, very focused on things that we can uniquely do. How we articulate our value, how we market our message, how we deliver that value to customers through our advertising and other channels, all have to tie into an overarching strategy. Chris brings a wealth of experience to this need, serving in senior leadership roles across the marketing function for many years. He is a strong organizational leader, and the work he has done with retailers, operators and OEMs on a global basis gives him real visibility and insight into how consumers are buying and using our products. He has been at the center of our devices and services transformation in SMSG as the worldwide leader of the Consumer Channels Group (CCG), starting with the formation and building of CCG, to overseeing the launch of numerous consumer products from Windows 8/8.1, Surface and Xbox One. Chris will be promoted to EVP and join the SLT as a part of his new role and will remain as acting lead for CCG until his replacement is named. 
This change in marketing structure provides an opportunity for Mark Penn to play a new leadership role at the company as EVP, Chief Strategy Officer. Mark brings a blend of data analysis and creativity that has led to new ways of working and strong market outcomes such as the "Honestly" campaign and the Super Bowl ad, both of which were widely cited as examples of high impact advertising across the industry. His focus on using data to quickly evaluate and evolve our campaigns has driven new insights and understanding. Mark and his team also will continue to provide input in the area of competitive research and analysis. I am looking forward to applying Mark's unique skill set across a broader set of challenges facing the company, from new product ideas to helping shape the overall areas of strategic investment. He will be a member of and an advisor to the SLT and will continue to report to me.
Tami Reller agrees with the go-forward approach of a single marketing leader and will support Chris through his transition into his new role. She will then take time off and pursue other interests outside the company. Tami's contributions to Microsoft are significant; she's held multiple CFO jobs across the company, for Microsoft Dynamics, the Product and Services Division and Windows. She led marketing, finance and business strategy for Windows including Surface and partner devices. Over the past eight months, she's led the Marketing Group, bringing many distinct teams together to form a cohesive organization. I have had the good fortune of working with Tami ever since she joined Microsoft and have valued her contributions and look forward to seeing what she does next.
Lastly, I wanted to share a final thought from a book I recently finished about the University of Washington rowing team that won the Olympics in 1936 that was written by Daniel James Brown, who worked at Microsoft for over a decade. It's a great story of how commitment, determination, and optimism among groups can create history. There is a very evocative description in the book about a team of rowers working together at the highest level - he calls it "the swing of the boat":
"There is a thing that sometimes happens in rowing that is hard to achieve and hard to define. Many crews, even winning crews, never really find it. Others find it but can't sustain it. It's called 'swing.' It only happens when all eight oarsmen are rowing in such perfect unison that no single action by any one is out of synch with those of all the others….Poetry, that's what a good swing looks like."
As a company, as a leadership team, as individuals, that is our goal - to find our swing. As an SLT and across the company we are on our way.
Satya

Microsoft CEO Nadella Confirms Two Top Execs Are Out

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>Thinking is not IQ. When people talk about thinking they make the mistake of thinking that people with high IQs think better. That's not what I'm talking about.
I hate to break it to you, but unless you're trying to get into Mensa, IQ tests don't matter as much as we think they do. After a certain point, that's not the type of knowledge or brainpower that makes you better at life, happier, or more successful. It's a measure sure, but a relatively useless one.
If you want to outsmart people who are smarter than you, <a href="http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2013/11/temperament-is-more-important-than-iq/">temperament and life-long learning are more important than IQ</a>.
Two of the guiding principles that I follow on my path towards seeking wisdom are:
(1) Go to bed smarter than when you woke up.
(2) I'm not smart enough to figure everything out myself, so I want to master the best of what other people have already figured out.
<a href="http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2013/05/the-buffett-formula-how-to-get-smarter/">Acquiring wisdom, is hard</a>. Learning how to think is hard. It means sifting through information, filtering the bunk, and connecting it to a framework that you can use. A lot of people want to get their opinions from someone else.
I know this because whenever anyone blurts out an opinion and I ask why, I get some hastily re-phrased sound-byte that doesn't contextualize the problem, identify the forces at play, demonstrate differences or similarities with previous situations, consider base rates, or … anything else that would demonstrate some level of thinking. (One of my favorite questions to probe thinking is to ask what information would cause someone to change their mind. Immediately stop listening and leave if they say 'I can't think of anything.')
<a href="http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2013/04/the-work-required-to-have-an-opinion/">Thinking is hard work</a>. I get it. You don't have time to think but that doesn't mean you get a pass from me. I want to think for myself, thank you.
<h3>How To Think</h3>
So one effective thing you can do if you want to think better is to become better at probing other people's thinking. Ask questions. Simple ones are better. "Why" is the best. If you ask that three or four times you get to a place where you're going to understand more and you'll be able to tell who really knows what they are talking about. Shortcuts in thinking are easy, and this is how you tease them out. Not to make the other person look bad - don't do this maliciously - but to avoid mistakes, air assumptions, and discuss conclusions.
Another thing you can do is to slow down. Make sure you give yourself time to think. I know, it's a fast-paced internet world where we get some cultural machoism points for answering on the spot but unless it has to be decided at that very moment, simply say "let me think about that for a bit and get back to you." The world will not end while you think about it.
You should also probe yourself. Try and understand if you're talking about something you really know something about or if you're just regurgitating some talking head you heard on the news last night. Your life will become instantly better and your mind clearer if you simply stop the latter. You're only fooling yourself and if you don't <a href="http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2013/12/mental-model-circle-of-competence/">understand the limits of what you know</a>, you're going to get in trouble.
***
Learning how to think really means <a href="http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2012/03/are-you-a-learning-machine/">continuously learning</a>.
How can we do that?
First we need a framework to put things on so we can remember, integrate, and make them available for use.
<a href="https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/mental-models/">A Latticework of Mental Models</a>, if you will.
<blockquote>
Acquiring knowledge may seem like a daunting task. There is so much to know and time is precious. Luckily, we don't have to master everything. To get the biggest bang for the buck we can study the big ideas from physics, biology, psychology, philosophy, literature, and sociology.
Our aim is not to remember facts and try to repeat them when asked. We're going to try and hang these ideas on a latticework of mental models. Doing this puts them in a useable form and enables us to make better decisions.
A mental model is simply a representation of an external reality inside your head. Mental models are concerned with understanding knowledge about the world.
Decisions are more likely to be correct when ideas from multiple disciplines all point towards the same conclusion.
</blockquote>
It's like the old saying, "To the man with only a hammer, every problem looks like a nail." Let's make every attempt not to be the man with only a hammer.
Charlie Munger further elaborates:
<blockquote>
And the models have to come from multiple disciplines because all the wisdom of the world is not to be found in one little academic department. That's why poetry professors, by and large, are so unwise in a worldly sense. They don't have enough models in their heads. So you've got to have models across a fair array of disciplines.
You may say, "My God, this is already getting way too tough." But, fortunately, it isn't that tough because 80 or 90 important models will carry about 90% of the freight in making you a worldly wise person. And, of those, only a mere handful really carry very heavy freight.
These models generally fall into two categories: (1) ones that help us simulate time (and predict the future) and better understand how the world works (e.g. understanding a useful idea from like autocatalysis), and (2) ones that help us better understand how our mental processes lead us astray (e.g., availability bias).
</blockquote>
When our mental models line up with reality they help us avoid problems. However, they also cause problems when they don't line up with reality as we think something that isn't true. So Beware.
In Peter Bevelin's masterful book <a href="http://a-fwd.com/es=farstrblo068-21&amp;it=farstrblo0a-21&amp;fr=farstrblo08-21&amp;de=farstrblo07-21&amp;uk=farstrblo-21&amp;ca=farst-20&amp;com=farnamstreet-20&amp;asin-es=1578644283&amp;asin-it=1578644283&amp;asin-fr=1578644283&amp;asin-de=1578644283&amp;asin-uk=1578644283&amp;asin-ca=1587991888&amp;asin-com=1578644283" class="external">Seeking Wisdom</a>, he highlights Munger talking about autocatalysis:
<blockquote>
If you get a certain kind of process going in chemistry, it speeds up on its own. So you get this marvelous boost in what you're trying to do that runs on and on. Now, the laws of physics are such that it doesn't run on forever. But it runs on for a goodly while. So you get a huge boost. You accomplish A - and, all of a sudden, you're getting A + B + C for awhile.
</blockquote>
But knowing is not enough. You need to know how to apply this to other problems outside of the domain in which you learned it.
Munger continues:
<blockquote>
Disney is an amazing example of autocatalysis … They had those movies in the can. They owned the copyright. And just as Coke could prosper when refrigeration came, when the videocassette was invented, Disney didn't have to invent anything or do anything except take the thing out of the can and stick it on the cassette.
</blockquote>
***
What models do we need?
I keep <a href="http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/mental-models/">a running list</a> that I'm filling in over time, but really how we store and sort these are individual preferences. The framework is not a one-stop-shop, it's how it fits into your brain.
How can we acquire these models?
There are several ways to acquire the models, the first and probably best source is reading. Even Warren Buffett says <a href="http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2013/05/the-buffett-formula-how-to-get-smarter/">reading is one of the best ways to get wiser</a>.
But sadly if your goal is wisdom acquisition, you can't just pick up a book and read it. You need to <a href="http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/how-to-read-a-book/">Learn How To Read A Book</a> all over again. Most people look at my reading habits (<a href="http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/reading/">What I'm Reading</a>) and think that I speed read. I don't. I think that's a bunch of hot air. If you think you can pick up a book on a subject you're unfamiliar with and in 30 minutes become an expert … well, good luck to you. Please go back to getting your opinions from twitter.
Focus on the big, simple ideas.
Focus on deeply understanding the simple ideas (see <a href="http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2013/07/five-elements-of-effective-thinking/">Five Elements of Effective Thinking</a>). These simple ideas, not the cutting-edge ones are the ones you want to hang on your latticework. The latticework is important because it makes the knowledge useable - you not only recall but you internalize.
But the world is always changing … what should we learn first?
One of the biggest mistakes I see people making is to try and learn the cutting-edge research first. The way we prioritize learning has huge implications beyond the day-to-day. When we chase the latest thing, we're really jumping into an arms race (see: <a href="http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2012/10/the-red-queen-effect/">The Red Queen Effect</a>). We have to spend more and more of our time and energy to stay in the same place.
Despite our intentions, learning in this way fails to take advantage of cumulative knowledge. We're not adding, we're only maintaining.
If we are to prioritize learning, we should focus on ideas that change slowly - these tend to be the ones from the hard sciences. (see <a href="http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2014/11/charlie-munger-mental-models/">Adding Mental Models to Your Toolbox</a>)
<blockquote>
The models that come from hard science and engineering are the most reliable models on this Earth. And engineering quality control - at least the guts of it that matters to you and me and people who are not professional engineers - is very much based on the elementary mathematics of Fermat and Pascal: It costs so much and you get so much less likelihood of it breaking if you spend this much…
And, of course, the engineering idea of a backup system is a very powerful idea. The engineering idea of breakpoints - that's a very powerful model, too. The notion of a critical mass - that comes out of physics - is a very powerful model.
</blockquote>
To help further prioritize learning
From : <a href="http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2013/08/what-should-i-read-two-ideas-to-help-guide-us/">What Should I Read?</a>
<blockquote>
Knowledge has a half-life. The most useful knowledge is a broad-based multidisciplinary education of the basics. These ideas are ones that have lasted, and thus will last, for a long time. And by last, I mean mathematical expectation; I know what will happen in general but not each individual case.
</blockquote>
Integrating Knowledge
(Source: <a href="http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2014/11/charlie-munger-mental-models/">Adding Mental Models to Your Toolbox</a>)
<blockquote>
Our world is mutli-dimensional and our problems are complicated. Most problems cannot be solved using one model alone. The more models we have the better able we are to rationally solve problems. But if we don't have the models we become the proverbial man with a hammer.
To the man with a hammer everything looks like a nail. If you only have one model you will fit whatever problem you face to the model you have. If you have more than one model, however, you can look at the problem from a variety of perspectives and increase the odds you come to a better solution.
</blockquote>
No one discipline has all the answers, only by looking at them all can we come to grow worldly wisdom.
Charles Munger illustrates the importance of this:
<blockquote>
Suppose you want to be good at declarer play in contract bridge. Well, you know the contract - you know what you have to achieve. And you can count up the sure winners you have by laying down your high cards and your invincible trumps.
But if you're a trick or two short, how are you going to get the other needed tricks? Well, there are only six or so different, standard methods: You've got long-suit establishment. You've got finesses. You've got throw-in plays.
You've got cross-ruffs. You've got squeezes. And you've got various ways of misleading the defense into making errors. So it's a very limited number of models. But if you only know one or two of those models, then you're going to be a horse's patoot in declarer play…
If you don't have the full repertoire, I guarantee you that you'll over-utilize the limited repertoire you have - including use of models that are inappropriate just because they're available to you in the limited stock you have in mind.
</blockquote>
As for how we can use different ideas, Munger again shows the way …
<blockquote>
Have a full kit of tools … go through them in your mind checklist-style. … [Y]ou can never make any explanation that can be made in a more fundamental way in any other way than the most fundamental way.
</blockquote>
When you combine things you get lollapalooza effects - the integration of more than one effect to create a non-linear response.
A two-step process for making effective decisions
There is no point in being wiser unless you use it for good. You know, as Aunt May put it to Peter Parker, "with great power comes great responsibility."
(Source: <a href="http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2013/04/a-two-step-process-for-making-effective-decisions/">A Two-step Process for Making Effective Decisions</a>)
<blockquote>
Personally, I've gotten so that I now use a kind of two-track analysis. First, what are the factors that really govern the interests involved, rationally considered? And second, what are the subconscious influences where the brain at a subconscious level is automatically doing these things-which by and large are useful, but which often misfunction.
One approach is rationality-the way you'd work out a bridge problem: by evaluating the real interests, the real probabilities and so forth. And the other is to evaluate the psychological factors that cause subconscious conclusions-many of which are wrong.
</blockquote>
This is the path, the rest is up to you.<div class="feed-footer-wrapper"><div class="feed-footer">

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