Have you ever used a zipper?
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Metacognition is something I highlight in my book. These are *learnable skills* and they are *very predictive* for real-world outcomes. People who cultivate habits of puncturing cognitive illusions form expertise, and make the people around them better thinkers too.
Amazing how much we can learn just from a little zipper!
Remembering how someone used a similar technique against the climate denialist claim that it is not humans but undersea volcanoes that cause the increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. 'Okay, but we know how much fossil fuels the countries of the world are burning, and how much CO2 is released in the process. Where does that all go?' Now we are talking numbers, and models, and there is just no consistent way to make it work where the human CO2 all goes 'somewhere else' (ocean? Vegetation? Rock weathering?) while only the volcanic CO2 collects in the atmosphere...
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In this study, the researchers asked about a range of stimuli, which in my humble opinion* are really fun to quiz yourself on. Can you explain:
- how a sewing machine works
- how a can opener works
- how a flush toilet operates
- how the heart pumps blood
- how piano keys make soundSome of these are far more elaborate, haha:
- how the aqualung regulates air-pressure
- how a transistor works*granted...I became a psychologist so maybe my sense of fun is warped
@grimalkina Oh, that IS fun!
First off, no I can't explain how a zipper works. I understand the principle to a degree, but the specific geometries that work or don't work are beyond me.
But sewing machine, can opener, flush toilet (both US style and UK style), heart pumping, piano, aqualung pressure regulation - I just happen to know all of those and have had need to fix most of them.
Not transistor, though. Relay, yes. Transistor, no.
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In this study, the researchers asked about a range of stimuli, which in my humble opinion* are really fun to quiz yourself on. Can you explain:
- how a sewing machine works
- how a can opener works
- how a flush toilet operates
- how the heart pumps blood
- how piano keys make soundSome of these are far more elaborate, haha:
- how the aqualung regulates air-pressure
- how a transistor works*granted...I became a psychologist so maybe my sense of fun is warped
@grimalkina It's unfair to include sewing machines because they work by magic. Especially four-thread sergers.
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Have you ever used a zipper? Odds are you have. Are you pretty good at it? Odds are! You've probably successfully used a zipper many, many times. You probably can't even remember when and where you learned how to operate a zipper. If you're a good zipper user and we sat you down in a room and gave you ten zippered garments, you'd probably fluently and flawlessly be able to zip them up and down.
Now......can you explain how a zipper works?
@grimalkina
I figured out how a zipper worked by looking closely. This might have been on the zippered coat I wore in grade school.I might have been older when I understood the “strength in numbers” offered by the regular interlock when a zipper broke down from years of use.
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Have you ever used a zipper? Odds are you have. Are you pretty good at it? Odds are! You've probably successfully used a zipper many, many times. You probably can't even remember when and where you learned how to operate a zipper. If you're a good zipper user and we sat you down in a room and gave you ten zippered garments, you'd probably fluently and flawlessly be able to zip them up and down.
Now......can you explain how a zipper works?
@grimalkina Zippers? I’m still figuring out buttons.
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In this study, the researchers asked about a range of stimuli, which in my humble opinion* are really fun to quiz yourself on. Can you explain:
- how a sewing machine works
- how a can opener works
- how a flush toilet operates
- how the heart pumps blood
- how piano keys make soundSome of these are far more elaborate, haha:
- how the aqualung regulates air-pressure
- how a transistor works*granted...I became a psychologist so maybe my sense of fun is warped
@grimalkina
I have been lucky to know people who own boats, and occasionally get on the water for a sail. It's magic when you put up a big sheet of canvas and watch the wind move around the surface. That same sail can catch the wind to push the boat along, or cut the wind to pull it forward.
That a yacht can sail INTO the wind at all makes perfect sense from the physics, but absolutely no sense to my brain. It still feels improbable and weird. It's not intuitive at all. I understand on a very superficial level, but totally do not believe it deep down.
So it feels like magic. -
- Trying to encourage mechanism thinking can break through extremist belief patterns.
You might have heard "facts don't change minds, feelings do." Well, KIND OF. Facts, feelings and interpretations are actually all deeply intertwined in our processing of the world. It's tempting to think that our minds process and absorb the world like tape recorders. If I list a bunch of reasons why I support a policy, maybe that will convince someone. But dissecting their causal model might work much better.
@grimalkina
This is true from my experience. When you do get a chance to ask more detailed questions from people with extreme beliefs, they often stumble.
They are also the most resistant to actually digging into those ideas of course. That's often how they got there in the first place, by outsourcing the thinking. -
Have you ever used a zipper? Odds are you have. Are you pretty good at it? Odds are! You've probably successfully used a zipper many, many times. You probably can't even remember when and where you learned how to operate a zipper. If you're a good zipper user and we sat you down in a room and gave you ten zippered garments, you'd probably fluently and flawlessly be able to zip them up and down.
Now......can you explain how a zipper works?
@grimalkina
Yes, but probably only because I've got young children and it's one of those early age curiosities -
@grimalkina It's like, I knew graphite was a dry lubricant. But I don't think I would have ever thought to just use a pencil on a zipper. And now I know that I can apply dry lubricant to all kinds of assemblies by just jamming a pencil up in there. Thanks, metacognition!
@sidereal @grimalkina Same here! As soon as I read your post it, it made perfect sense. I already knew everything I needed to know to understand it. But I NEVER would have come up with that idea on my own.
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Have you ever used a zipper? Odds are you have. Are you pretty good at it? Odds are! You've probably successfully used a zipper many, many times. You probably can't even remember when and where you learned how to operate a zipper. If you're a good zipper user and we sat you down in a room and gave you ten zippered garments, you'd probably fluently and flawlessly be able to zip them up and down.
Now......can you explain how a zipper works?
@grimalkina Love this post! (p.s. zippers are a fantastic invention of the kind that leaves me thinking: "How could anyone think of this?")
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In this study, the researchers asked about a range of stimuli, which in my humble opinion* are really fun to quiz yourself on. Can you explain:
- how a sewing machine works
- how a can opener works
- how a flush toilet operates
- how the heart pumps blood
- how piano keys make soundSome of these are far more elaborate, haha:
- how the aqualung regulates air-pressure
- how a transistor works*granted...I became a psychologist so maybe my sense of fun is warped
@grimalkina Oooh, this is great.
Am I falling for some trap by bringing up "The science of cycology: Failures to understand how everyday objects work" (Lawson, 2006)?
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- Trying to encourage mechanism thinking can break through extremist belief patterns.
You might have heard "facts don't change minds, feelings do." Well, KIND OF. Facts, feelings and interpretations are actually all deeply intertwined in our processing of the world. It's tempting to think that our minds process and absorb the world like tape recorders. If I list a bunch of reasons why I support a policy, maybe that will convince someone. But dissecting their causal model might work much better.
@grimalkina Very interesting thread, I've just ordered your book. Have you ever read "A Theory of System Justification" by John Jost? If not I feel it might be of interest.
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@grimalkina Oooh, this is great.
Am I falling for some trap by bringing up "The science of cycology: Failures to understand how everyday objects work" (Lawson, 2006)?@richlv oh I've seen and love that one
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The vast majority of zipper users -- skilled, successful zipper users! -- can't explain how a zipper works.
This is a charming, famous example that comes from cognitive science/psychology work on The Illusion of Explanatory Depth: "Most people feel they understand the world with far greater detail, coherence, and depth than they really do"
Rozenblit, L., & Keil, F. (2002). The misunderstood limits of folk science: An illusion of explanatory depth. Cognitive science, 26(5), 521-562.
@grimalkina but what if you could explain how you *think* a zipper works (from carefully repairing several of them) but you have no idea if what you came up with is mostly correct, though not complete, or a useful lie, because you never actually talk with people about zippers?
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@grimalkina This is how I ended up with an enduring Special Interest in tall ships. Innocently asking “how does a square rigger sail upwind at all?” turned into years of learning the next level of detail.
@wlonk @grimalkina The sheer number of ropes they had on those ships is astounding. Each sail needs something like 5 ropes to control it, and there are 8+ sails.
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@sinvega there is a fun example Tom Griffiths (a computational cognitive scientist) talks about using in his classes/and in his book: imagine that you are far removed from our civilization a thousand years into the future and you've dug up a cash register. How would you go about trying to learn how it worked? What it was for? What could you infer from it (for instance, could you understand the rules of arithmetic given a cash register)?
@grimalkina @sinvega An archaeologist would probably label a cash register as "a ritual object", which isn't exactly wrong, but also not terribly useful.
Also, a modern-ish cash register has too much of the magic in one or more integrated circuits. Which means everything the operator touches goes into the IC, and sometimes when the IC decides it's time, the drawer opens, or something.
More interesting are purely mechanical things. The peak of interesting mechanical things is probably WWII, when they had entire artillery control computers on battleships that were made from hubs, gears, cams, etc.
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@NuclearOatmeal @grimalkina Gearing pulls the sewed fabric forward in step with the needle movement, with the use of the curved metal bit that locks the fabric in place just enough that fabric does not bunch up but still moves freely. Usually helped by guiding the fabric with your hand, for manual sewing machines.
Used to be I didn't think about these things, as I learned more about how to model something in my head I've gotten much better just looking at a thing and seeing how it works.
@cohentheblue @NuclearOatmeal @grimalkina IMO the magic in the sewing machine is how the bobbin and needle interact so that the top and bottom threads are connected.
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@wlonk @grimalkina The sheer number of ropes they had on those ships is astounding. Each sail needs something like 5 ropes to control it, and there are 8+ sails.
@merc I recently did a 1/57 scale sloop and it took about 6 feet of scale rope just for the standing rigging. It’s bonkers.
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@scy @grimalkina they also have one called "You (likely) don't understand how a sewing machine works"
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@grimalkina reading this post makes me feel like rabbithole georg because I have too many "yes"es
(or at least 'yes' enough that I might be fuzzy on the exact details but can explain the fundamental mechanisms)@joepie91 @grimalkina Yeah, I was answering "more or less" to most of them. Mostly that comes from fixing them.
I've fixed enough broken zippers that I know how the teeth mesh, how the pull separates and joins the teeth, etc.
I've fixed a fair number of broken toilets, so I know how the plunger works, the float, the flapper, etc. Though, to be fair, I'd have to be sitting in front of a toilet with the lid off to properly explain it.
I've fought with broken can openers, so I know that mechanism. I also know a few of the alternate versions of can openers, which IMO are mostly worse designs.
I learned how pianos work, just because they're neat mechanical devices.
As for the heart, my mother unfortunately has persistent atrial fibrillation, so I know a bit about how the heart is *supposed* to work.
And... I took a course in semiconductor physics in university, and though it's been a few decades, I still remember the some of basics of a BJT and a MOSFET, including the quantum basis for what's happening.
As for an aqualung, I don't even know what that is. It sounds like SCUBA gear?
