One Key Shift to Become a Better Thinker, Writer, and Speaker
Always be Conscious of the Process of Abstraction
In this article, I share an intuitive framework that can help us think, write, and speak better. But first, I want to set some context with these two real stories:
Story #1: Being stuck at low-level details: I once worked with someone who could talk on and on about intricate low-level details. But when it came time to make a decision, he couldn’t help me derive any higher-level conclusions.
Story #2: Being stuck at an abstract level: I worked with another person. He was a highly regarded expert. But he talked in abstract terms. He didn’t provide any concrete direction or details.
I didn’t quite get what I wanted from either of them.
Now, obviously, we don’t want to be like either of the above.
Instead, you want to be conscious of the process of abstraction. Further, you want to be able to freely move up and down the ladder of abstraction.
But wait, what is abstraction and what is this ladder of abstraction? Let’s take a look.
Why we must abstract
In their book Language in Thought and Action, S.I. Hayakawa and Alan R. Hayakawa give a simple example:
Imagine there’s a small village with only 4 families (A, B, C, D) each owning a house. Let’s say A’s house is referred to as gama; B’s house is biyo; C’s is kata, and D’s is pelel. Things are going fine, until one day a discussion arises about building a new spare house for guests. We cannot refer to this new house by any of the four words we have for the existing houses, since each of them has a specific meaning. They write:
Hence, we must find a general term, at a higher level of abstraction, that means “something that has certain characteristics in common with gama, biyo, kata, and pelel, and yet is not A’s, B’s, C’s, or D’s.
Since saying the above each time is cumbersome, we need to invent a new abstraction called “house”. They further write:
The invention of a new abstraction is a great step forward since it makes discussion possible — as, in this case, not only the discussion of a fifth house, but of all future houses we may build or see in our travels or dream about.
Thus, the process of abstracting, of leaving characteristics out, is a necessity.
The Ladder of Abstraction
They then define this concept of Ladder of Abstraction using an example of a cow.
At the lowest level of abstraction, there’s the object in the physical world: e.g., the physical being of a cow — all the electrons that make it up, and the millions of processes that happen inside it. Because of this, the cow is not static, but is a highly dynamic process since it is continuously changing.
At the next higher level of abstraction, there’s what we perceive of that physical object. Our nervous system only experiences a partial version of it, e.g., based on the noises made or what we make of its exterior. At this level of abstraction, we leave out many characteristics of the physical object, e.g., one of its internal systems.
At the next higher level of abstraction, we give it a name — Bessie. Once again, we leave out many characteristics from the previous level.
At the next higher level, we define an abstraction called cow: this represents all the common characteristics between different cows. However, we drop the unique characteristics of that particular cow “Bessie”.
As we go higher, we create an even higher level of abstraction called livestock. Here we are using the common characteristics between cows, pigs, hens etc. We drop the unique characteristics of Bessie and cows even more.
You can continue going up that ladder to even more higher-level abstractions — e.g., to an abstraction called Wealth. At this level, we have dropped almost all characteristics of Bessie the cow.
The key shift to become a better thinker, writer, and speaker
Let’s go back to my original example. What my two colleagues were doing is called Dead-Level abstracting: they were essentially staying at the same level of abstraction.
Hayakawa says we must be extremely wary of thinking that never leaves the higher verbal levels of abstraction — the kind that never points down the abstraction ladder to lower levels of abstraction and then to the physical world.
So, what can we do to become more effective communicators?
Hayakawa says that interesting writing and speech requires the constant interplay of higher-level and lower-level abstractions and the constant interplay of verbal levels with the nonverbal (“object”) levels.
How to move up and down the ladder
Your message must have a high level of general usefulness, but you must provide your generalizations an impact and persuasiveness. How can you do the latter? By the ability to observe and describe actual situations and states of mind.
Let’s see one more example. While driving yesterday, I saw the below sign:
You can see that the first line above is of general usefulness and is at a higher level of abstraction. However, the second line, by referring to a specific victim of not following that behavior, goes lower in the ladder of abstraction to share a true story, thus increasing the persuasiveness of the message.
I love this quote from Hayakawa:
The interesting writer, the informative speaker, the accurate thinker, and the sane individual operate on all levels of the abstraction ladder, moving quickly and grace and in orderly fashion from higher to lower, from lower to higher, with minds as lithe and deft and beautiful as monkeys in a tree.
But the benefit of ladder of abstraction goes much beyond becoming a better writer or speaker. Let’s dive into it:
The real benefit of the Ladder of Abstraction: Avoiding Biases
Hayakawa mentions that, beyond the above reason of becoming a better thinker/speaker/writer, there’s one more key benefit of the Ladder of Abstraction:
It helps us understand and remain conscious of the process of abstracting.
What is meant by the above?
If we hold our ideas and beliefs with an awareness of abstracting, we can change them if found to be incorrect or inadequate.
But if we hold them without an awareness of abstracting, they are prejudices.
Hence, if we can habitually become conscious of the process of abstraction, we develop the means to free ourselves from any erroneous notions.
Wrapping Up
Thanks for reading. If you liked this story or have any comments, please feel free to let me know.
This is one of the frameworks I will be exploring more in my course below. If this sounds interesting to you (or want to know more), please feel free to enroll / reach out to me more information.
The Writing Flywheel — For Software Engineering & Product Leaders by J. Kalyana Sundaram on Maven
