How Abstraction Shapes and Misshapes Our World
Abstraction's main advantage is efficiency. It allows us to apply what we know in one area to many others, speeding up learning and sparking creativity. It's akin to mastering one game and quickly understanding how to play several more.
Abstraction can sometimes make us overlook the true effects of our decisions.For example, Nassim Nicholas Taleb highlights the need for "skin in the game" in his writings. He argues that facing the consequences of our choices ensures we don't oversimplify complex issues, helping us understand and address real-world problems more effectively.
When we only look at simplified versions of problems, we might think we're solving them, but we could be making things worse. Taleb tells us it's crucial to really be involved and affected by the issues we're trying to fix. This helps us see the full picture and work towards better solutions.
Abstraction can make us see the world in overly simple terms, lumping diverse people or ideas into broad, often inaccurate, categories. This can foster stereotypes and misunderstandings.
