Things Of Note #10

Metaphors

Hey Everyone,

I started off the week inspired to do some animation (even without any prior experience). Primary reason was watching this talk by Bret Victor--Stop Drawing Dead Fish, a fascinating talk about how we aren’t making full use of the digital medium.

I also wanted to try recording a poem. So the next step was obviously to do both.
Thus came about this simple 2-sec animation on-loop video: Kindness.

Anyway, this week the idea that caught my attention was of Metaphors.

Let's jump in.

[[Metaphors]]

Metaphors We Live By: Summary

Then & Now | 12 mins

When we think of Metaphors, we think about things like poems. But that’s misguided.
The essence of a metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another. Along this definition (which looks to subsume “analogies”), they aren’t just for poetry. They form a fundamental part of our brain's operation.

We use a surprisingly large number of metaphors in our daily lives. I was definitely surprised!

For instance, the "Argument as War" metaphor: "I lost the argument", "He attacked the argument", "She downed his argument".

Or the "Time as Money" metaphor: "I spent so much time on it", "I need to give this more time", “The repair will cost us two hours”.

And even, “People as Food”: “Honey”, “Sweetie”, which now that it’s mentioned— seems odd. (Related: Women as Dessert Metaphor).

In terms of categories, one broad one is Orientational Metaphors. These are based on our orientation in the physical world. E.g. good is generally up (“I’m feeling high”, “I am on top of the situation”), bad is down (“His mood sank”, “He is under threat”).

Ontological metaphors is another category which involves attaching abstract concepts to physical forms. E.g. The Mind as a machine (“He broke down”, “She snapped”). One big sub-category here are Container Metaphors. We are "in" love (suggesting love is a container), "out" of trouble, getting "into" shape, and so on.

Furthermore, metaphors are culturally conditioned. A culture that values productivity is more inclined to use money as a metaphor for time.

All these help us make abstract concepts more concrete. However, they also influence us and our thinking! For instance, framing arguments as war posits that they need to be won. It primes us to aim to win, to prevail with our arguments, and thus perhaps discourage good discussion. Similarly, considering variables as containers can be misleading in Python (where it’s better to think of the names as references).

Metaphors we form and use thus hold a large sway over the limits and shape of our thinking.

(Anyway, the book goes into my to-read list! Oh, also found this review by Peter Norvig that also has thoughts trying to relate this with the field of AI.)

How to Draw Invisible Programming Concepts

Maggie Appleton | 10 mins

An intriguing look into Maggie's creative process of creating illustrations for programming concepts. What does she consider to be the foundation? A good metaphor.

She also touches upon the concept of hidden and highlighted features. Whenever we wrap a target (e.g time) in a source metaphor (e.g money) we are hiding some features. For the particular time-as-money metaphor we are hiding the relative nature of time and highlighting some other aspects: quantifiable, valuable, and can be "given" or taken, etc.

"Which metaphor we pick depends on what qualities we want to highlight or hide. We focus us on what's important about the target, and downplay irrelevant details."

Taking the example of Time again: we could also think of it as a Container instead of money. We do that when we say “my day is full tomorrow”.

"This is why metaphors are so good at explaining complex ideas. We get fine-grained control over what's most important about the concept, and cut out all the noise."

My Thoughts

Takeaways:

• We need to be aware of the metaphors we use and how it might be shaping our thinking. They have the capability to both limit and expand our thinking.

• We can tap into the power of metaphors to explain abstract concepts. Even to ourselves. For instance, Tim Urban does this exceptionally well in pretty much each of his writings. See: The Cook vs The Chef, His Guide to Picking a Career (where he uses the river metaphor of life; also Octopus arms representing the many types of factors we need to balance).

All of this definitely and obviously also relates to linguistics and philosophy. I don't know much of either to say anything useful. But just worth noting anyway.

It can be actually pretty fun to try to spot metaphors we use. One quick exercise could be comparing languages. I tried thinking about how Nepali compares with English in terms of metaphors. “X मायामा परेछ” (roughly: X is in love) conceptualizes love as a container. “यसै समय खेर फ्याल्यो” (Wasted the time) is common and it uses money (or a valuable resource) as a metaphor for time. So ya, it seems they are more similar than different. Or maybe, these are too general a concepts. Digging deeper would perhaps yield differences.

// (Possibly) Useful Metaphors

The Pilot, The Plane, The Engineer

Ali Abdaal | 6 mins

To be personally productive, one needs to (roughly) run in three types of modes:

The Pilot
- Sets Direction.
- Spend 10% of the time here.

The Plane
- Actually executes on the direction.
- Spend 85% of the time here.

The Engineer
- Tweaks and changes processes to make it more efficient.
- Spend 5% of the time here.

Engines vs Power-ups

The Learning Machine Podcast | 6 mins

Where should we invest our time to learn? Well, one way to figure it out could be to determine whether something would be an Engine or a Power-Up. Or where would it lie on the gradient between those extremities.

• Engine: Makes the car run better and faster all the time. E.g. Learning Mathematics, a Language, etc. Something that has a long shelf life.

• Power Ups: Incredible short boost. E.g: Learning a specific JS Framework. Something that may not have a long shelf life but can be very beneficial in the interim.

Both of these need to be balanced.

// Tech + Could-Be Useful

Real World Fullstack Example(s)

Tutorials can be nice. But sometimes we need Real World Examples.

Awesome Python Applications

Same as above. But a lot more variety in applications.

// Beautiful

Vita Sackville-West’s Love Letter to Virginia Woolf

brainpickings | 2 mins

I love (absolutely love) this letter!

I am reduced to a thing that wants Virginia. … I just miss you, in a quite simple desperate human way. … I miss you even more than I could have believed; and I was prepared to miss you a good deal. So this letter is really just a squeal of pain. It is incredible how essential to me you have become. I suppose you are accustomed to people saying these things. Damn you, spoilt creature; I shan’t make you love me any more by giving myself away like this — But oh my dear, I can’t be clever and stand-offish with you: I love you too much for that. Too truly. You have no idea how stand-offish I can be with people I don’t love. I have brought it to a fine art. But you have broken down my defenses. And I don’t really resent it.

Also see Virginia’s “Throw Over Your Man” letter.

// Stories and Poems

Girl Crush

Sheena Khalid | 7 mins

Great Storytelling!

The Journey

Mary Oliver | 2 mins

A powerful poem. I especially love the end.

// Music

• Perfect capture of a hard-to-capture feeling.

• Such a great energy and vibe. :D

// Wholesome

Welcome To Nature @welcomet0nature

I just can't get over this!

That’s it!

Do reply with your thoughts on any of these. Will be delighted to receive them :)

(A housekeeping item: if you are getting these in your promotions tab, consider dragging it into the main tab and keeping that as the preference).

With Love,
Bijay

(P.S: If you know anyone who might enjoy these letters, do share it with them!).