17 Profound Enigmas That Will Help You Make Sense Of The World
A Journey Through useful Paradoxes, Biases, and Principles
Enigmas are like a wink and a stark reminder of how little we actually know.
They not only challenge our thinking but also break our expectations and make us question our deepest assumptions.
With this spirit of inquiry, from time to time, I will share my collection of the most compelling, interesting and useful paradoxes, biases and principles.
By exploring the nature of these enigmas, and engaging with them via the Hegelian dialectic process, we can unravel their complexities and gain real insight.
1. Pareidolia
Do you see the face in the rock below?
We see whatever we look for.
This phenomenon of hyperactive pattern detection once saved us from the lions, but now it condemns us to see them even in the skies.
2. Persuasion Paradox
Have you noticed how the most argumentative people rarely persuade anyone of anything?
They often trigger the defense mechanism in others, making them resist and even go against the argument.
Knowing this, if you want to persuade a disagreeable person or someone with a big ego, you are better off arguing for what you don't want.
3. Anthropomorphization
How does the wolf feel?
We automatically project human qualities, emotions, and intentions onto non-human entities, including animals, plants, and inanimate objects. We imagine that our dogs and cats think like us, give our cars nicknames, and believe viruses are evil.
This has profound adverse effects on scientific research, and one example is how anthropocentrism may have 'infected' microbiology.
And with LLMs and AI, we hopelessly make the same mistake.
We experience a piece of software that mimics our intelligence, and we project many of our human qualities on it, assuming that it is conscious, has motivations, and an inner life.
4. Cynical Genius Illusion
People mistakingly presume that Cynical people are smart, but sizable research suggests Cynical people tend to be dumber.
Cynicism is not a sign of intelligence but a substitute for it. Cynical thinking makes it difficult to trust others and other information, making it nearly impossible to move forward and find real solutions.
It is a way to shield oneself from naively making bad decisions, which can lead to disappointment without having to think.
5. The Hedonist
To the Hedonist, life is all fun and games. They believe that the purpose of life is to pursue pleasures and avoid pains, so they do whatever pleases them.
Nothing means much except pleasure, yet no one lies and hides their actions more than a hedonist.
They deceive others and themselves to keep the fun and games going. Their life is then built on these untruths, and the risk of it all falling apart like a house of cards is ever-present.
Believing in hedonism is like believing a beautiful lie that at first leads to meaningless fun and ultimately into emptiness, pain and suffering.
6. Goodhart's Law
"When a measure becomes a goal, it ceases to be a good measure" Goodhart's Law.
When an organization turns key statistics, measures, or indicators into a goal, the power of the entire organization focuses on hitting this goal and, in the process, solving the wrong types of problems.
This led to "teaching the test," which produced higher scores but less knowledgeable students.
Police departments looking to lower their murder rate often underreported their statistics to look better.
In the 1970s, Xerox was so focused on sales that it overlooked its groundbreaking innovations: being the first to create a GUI, internal messaging, the mouse, much of which inspired Steve Jobs and Apple.
7. Benford's Law of Controversy
When we don't know or understand something, our feelings about it play a primary role in our relationship with it.
We experience the 'not knowing' emotionally, and then we fill in the gaps with our imagination.
As a result, we fear the unknown, and we love what we naively romanticize.
"Passion is inversely proportional to the amount of real information available." Gregory Benford
So, the things that trigger and get the biggest emotional reaction from a person are usually the things they least understand.
8. Shiny Object Syndrome:
About 75,000 years ago, humanity went through the "Great Bottleneck," during which the human population dropped to several thousand following catastrophic events caused by climatic changes.
The survivors survived because of their curiosity and willingness to explore new areas and try new things, like eating slimy food from the ocean for the first time.
We are the ancestors of these survivors who benefited from being highly open and valuing new information.
But now, this cognitive wiring is being used against us, as 99% of 'new information' is just mass-produced clickbait designed to exploit our attraction to novelty.
9. The Immorality of the Righteous
Have you noticed that the more Self-Righteous someone is, the more willing they are to commit all kinds of immoral acts?
This is because they have crossed the chasm, deemed themselves Moral and millions of other people immoral, and thrust themselves into an evil world in which a righteous man needs to do something about it.
10. Audience Capture
As Content Creators try to capture an audience, the reverse simultaneously occurs where the Audience Captures the Content Creator.
By trying to appeal to their Audience and earn more, the content creator changes his content and even who he is and what he represents.
Ultimately, the content creator and their Audience end up being mirrors of each other.
In this way, giant content creators, like the News, act as a social mirror of our collective values and the types of stories we pay attention to because ultimately, these stories were crafted for us.
11. Semantic Stopsign
A Semantic Stopsign is when someone ends a conversation by disguising a description as an explanation. For example, they might call someone 'evil' or like 'Hitler', which is used to explain behavior; however, at best, it only describes it. This stops further exploration and understanding and kills curiosity.
12. Boxer's Child Paradox
Sometimes, in our efforts to improve things, we make things worse. For example, trying to make life easier for our kids can deprive them of the challenges they need to build stronger, more resilient characters. Our quest to give them a better life can easily doom them to weakness.
13. Agenda-Setting Theory
Most days, the News is not that important; the information only appear important because it is in the News.
Our shared dialogue is then centered around whats been reported, giving the impression that it is important news when, in fact, it was chosen by a few editors and thoughtlessly amplified by the masses.
And how did the news editors choose which stories to run with?
They can't filter through the millions of important things that happen each day. Instead, they look for stories that represent the zeitgeist.
14. Serial-Position Effect:
We tend to remember the beginnings (Primacy effect) and endings (Recency effect) of things better than the middle. So, in a context where there is a flow of information, such as creating content, giving a presentation, or even interviewing for a job, focus on producing memorable beginnings and endings.
Since this bias affects us so strongly, it also affects LLMs.
15. Generation Effect:
If you really want to learn something, write a book. Paradoxically, writing about a topic you don't know about will make you an expert faster than studying it. This is because generating requires connecting the dots better, committing them to memory, and developing a deeper understanding.
16. Licensing Effect
Why do good people do bad things? People who consider themselves to be 'good' worry less about their behavior, making them more susceptible to ethical lapses. A significant cause of immorality is moral self-licensing.
17. Critical Thinker vs The Cynic
Even though there is a fundamental difference between critical and cynical thinking, it is easy to conflate them.
Critical thinking looks to understand the nature of complex issues by analyzing, evaluating, and synthesizing information in a balanced manner. It requires open-mindedness and the ability to question assumptions and evidence without bias.
Cynics, on the other hand, see themselves as 'Critical Thinkers' because they can criticize anything. They often prefer a particular outcome and distrust the truthfulness or value of almost everything that opposes it. Seeing the negative or how the glass is half empty is useful; however, it is only half the story.