I recently came upon a comment that triggered me. Upon sharing the book I’m currently reading, someone suggested I read his favorite book instead. This sounds ridiculous but the recommendation was well-intended. That person loved the subject I was reading about and wanted to offer a shortcut to his current thoughts. Unfortunately, this backfired badly so it got me thinking…

How do Ideas Spread?

Strangely enough, it’s not a topic I stumble upon frequently even though the modern Internet seems to be all about spreading ideas.

I’m not an expert. I haven’t researched the subject. I just felt the urge to share my thoughts and hopefully learn from you.

Some patterns

I’ve identified four broad patterns: spreading ideas through fear and strength, by exploiting typical ways in which our brains are broken, by leveraging mass extinction, and… through education.

Granted, the first three are tongue-in-cheek. Some dictators have been very successful at spreading their ideas through fear. Marketers and religions have mastered the art of hacking our brains. Mass extinction was tried a number of times in history to eradicate specific ideas and promote the remaining ones, with limited success.

There is no shortcut

If your definition of ethics remotely matches mine, this leaves us with education. It sounds like an all-encompassing label, but there are some things education definitely isn’t. For one thing, it isn’t fast.

If I had to describe education at a high level I’d say it’s the art of imparting subtle and minimal impulses to help someone reach their own conclusion faster. This can be done by providing facts, by hinting at a sound logical reasoning, by telling a story and engaging emotions…

Aren’t we back at brain hacking?

Engaging emotions sounds awfully close to brain hacking, so does it mean we should ban storytelling from our educational arsenal? I want to say no. Probably because I love storytelling too much. I often find it a powerful way to unlock people’s ability to reason independently.

Let me illustrate that with a story about storytelling. My daughter and I walked by a homeless stranger in downtown Montreal. Her natural reaction was one of disgust and repulsion. Rather than explaining the causes of homelessness, I offered a possible story for that person. As that story connected with her she became acutely aware of that person’s humanity. She started to ask questions and to offer solutions. She was actively trying to identify the root cause of the problem. She engaged with the problem more and more, shaping her own conclusion in the process.

Trust your idea, or your ability to change it

The powerful thing about reaching your own conclusion is that the entire reasoning is yours. You can trust that either your idea is correct or, if it isn’t, that you will not hesitate to alter it as you receive new information.

That’s because such an idea is simply a shorthand for the complex mental model you built as you traveled toward your own conclusion. New information simply adds to that mental model and either reinforces your current conclusion or tips you towards a new one.

Compare this to an idea which is not sustained by a mental model — a dogma. Accepting new information may ask that you give up that entire dogma, which would be giving up everything you own on that topic. In such a case, the natural reaction is to artificially reinforce the dogma by building up a defensive mental model. The dogma fuels the reasoning. It’s like a house built upside-down. It’s scary.

Beware the smell of dogma!

There are few things which turn me away from an idea faster than the impression that it’s such an upside-down house. This is the smell of dogma. If you’re spreading ideas to independent thinkers it may be your worst enemy.

This brings us back to the beginning of this story. That poor chap who suggested I drop my book and instead read “the best book on cooperative socioeconomic alternative” was smelling of dogma. His proposal was blunt, it sounded defensive, he seemed to offer an idea wholesale with no hint at the mental model he built to sustain it. I’m not saying he doesn’t have such a mental model, simply that it didn’t come through in his comment.

I get the impression many new ideas have proponents who use similar techniques. I bet some of these ideas are excellent, but it will take longer for them to reach me because they carry a smell that turns me away. Education takes time, it asks for patience, it demands that you carefully collect facts, craft proofs, write stories… This post is me hoping more people with great ideas will take the time to do this.