Here’s an interesting bit on generalization…
This morning, my wife and I were setting up breakfast for us and our two children in our kitchen. Because we have only two kitchen chairs, I picked up two of our dining room chairs to complement the breakfast table.
My daughter immediately chose one of those two chairs. Unfortunately, we’d have to lug it around to get it to her spot. To avoid having to move it around, we tried to convince her to take the other one.
“Resistance is futile, you will be assimilated…” She prevailed.
Want to know what’s surprising?
The two chairs she was picking from were IDENTICAL.
Or so we thought.
Apparently, my daughter’s model of the world still enables her to make finer distinctions than ours when it comes to chairs.
Has that happened to you? Have you ever noticed people around you who are able to pick up on subtle cues that differentiate two objects, places, people or situations, where you see the same thing.
That’s a great example of generalization in action.
What are the pros of this innate ability we sport?
For one thing, it enables us to evaluate people, places, objects and events rapidly.
Imagine you notice a particular animal, which you’ve never seen before, with pointy thorns on its back. Based on your experience with pine trees, you can infer that you must be careful when handling that animal because you could get unpleasantly poked.
Here’s another example of the benefits of generalization in the realm of actual skills:
Once you learn how to drive a car with a clutch, you can in turn drive virtually any car that operates with a clutch systems. A few small differences may exist among cars, but your nervous system will be able to adjust and smoothly rough them out in a short period of time.
In summary, generalizing provides us with a shortcut to learn and evaluate our environment rapidly.
What about the cons of generalizing?
We run into trouble when we use this ability in inappropriate contexts.
Remember for an instant an experience we’ve all been through. Someone you know, who’s generally a pleasant person to be around, says something rude to you one time. You feel terrible about it, but you brush it off because it’s only this one time, right? Then, some other time, that same person says something rude again. Once again, you feel terrible.
At that point, if you’re not particularly close to that person, you’ll begin adjusting your nervous system so you don’t have to go through that pain again. From two occurrences, you’ll begin to generalize their behavior and might even label them as “a rude person.” Once you shift or tag someone’s identity, you’ve performed the ultimate generalization.
Of course, we do this with positive traits as well – and also run into trouble as a result because we blindsight ourselves. Haven’t you ever met someone who you fell so madly in love with that you generalized all their qualities and didn’t take into account a few VERY IMPORTANT shortcomings?
That’s another example of misuse of generalization.
Becoming a switch hitter
Ideally, you’ll practice and become proficient at generalizing when it’s appropriate and distinguishing when it’s appropriate.
Both skills are converse to one another, and learning how to apply them in the right context will assist you in building a much more precise and useful model of the world.
Learn from kids, OK?
About Martin Messier
