Great post! Very clear, especially the Paul Graham/start-up pitch section.
Small feedback though “mind-hangers” continue to feels weird as terminology to me. Like I’ve managed to get my mind to attach to the concept you’re pointing but it somehow still feels wrong, like each time you use it I need to run a patch to substitute in the actual thing.
Other than that, seems pretty spot on. I think there is a caveat to be made that even when leading with examples, you want to be clear upfront what the examples are going to be an example of, e.g. “I’m going to give you an example of Sunk Cost Fallacy.” Not a mistake I think you’re likely to make, but sometimes people start with particulars and you have no idea where they’re going.
I guess generally the “start with examples” needs to be differentiated from different good advice (particularly for business contexts) which is “start with conclusions.” The advice is actually compatible since conclusions can be very specific and conclusions often serve as very useful “mind-hangers.” Once I know what you’re arguing for, I can start to assemble each of the pieces you’re giving me. So in short, start with examples doesn’t necessarily mean start with nitty gritty details.
Thanks! I’m definitely open to calling it something other than “mind-hanger”. I called it that because I’ve never seen anyone call it anything except Paul Graham writing “something to hang the application on in my mind”.
Here’s what I think a mind-hanger (or other term X) refers to: before you can build a new structure in your mind that you can expect to remember and reason about, you need to start by thinking about mind-hangers/X’s that are already well-established in your web of preexisting knowledge and intuitions.
I think I also realized another specificity-angle to this (in addition to “specifics are good mind-hangers”):
When you endeavor to teach someone a concept, you want them to come away with that concept connected to their preexisting knowledge and intuitions. Ok, which specific preexisting knowledge and intuitions? Don’t rely on the person to hang your lessons in some unspecified way. Pick a specific mind-hanger and surgically install your lesson on it.
The etymology makes sense. Perhaps the issue is that mind-hanger makes it sound like it is the thing doing the hanging rather than the thing being hung upon. Perhaps “pre-existing mental hooks” is closer.
Even this still feels slightly off because the name feels like it implies those concepts exist for the purpose of being hooks rather than happening to be the most suitable concepts to build upon. So perhaps “hookable concepts” or something. “Hook points.” Those don’t sound great, but conceptually they feel like they fit better maybe.
When you go to teach someone something new, you should try to find suitable hookable points in their pre-existing knowledge. Or something.
I suppose a “coat-hanger” is something which is hung upon and mind-hanger kept raising that concept in analogy to mind hanger, but the analogy to coat hanger feels weird still.
I use the term “conceptual hook” explaining that you’ve got to give people a hook to hang their understanding on. How does it link or anchor to the real world?
Personally, I thought “mind-hanger” was ok. I got an image of a coat-hanger for the mind. You could even include that image explicitly in your concept mapping pictures.
Some other ideas that stick with the coat-hanger variant would be “idea-hanger”, “concept-hanger”.
Another term you might consider is scaffolding. This also has a strong concrete image of construction scaffolding, but the metaphor lends itself to the idea of building on top of the skeletal example, just as we start a building project with a scaffold and then build the real building around it. Often the scaffold is removed at the end, which can also happen with abstraction, where we can throw away the pedegogic examples once we’ve mastered the bigger idea. We don’t really build anything on top of a coat hanger (nor a ship’s anchor).
Great post! Very clear, especially the Paul Graham/start-up pitch section.
Small feedback though “mind-hangers” continue to feels weird as terminology to me. Like I’ve managed to get my mind to attach to the concept you’re pointing but it somehow still feels wrong, like each time you use it I need to run a patch to substitute in the actual thing.
Other than that, seems pretty spot on. I think there is a caveat to be made that even when leading with examples, you want to be clear upfront what the examples are going to be an example of, e.g. “I’m going to give you an example of Sunk Cost Fallacy.” Not a mistake I think you’re likely to make, but sometimes people start with particulars and you have no idea where they’re going.
I guess generally the “start with examples” needs to be differentiated from different good advice (particularly for business contexts) which is “start with conclusions.” The advice is actually compatible since conclusions can be very specific and conclusions often serve as very useful “mind-hangers.” Once I know what you’re arguing for, I can start to assemble each of the pieces you’re giving me. So in short, start with examples doesn’t necessarily mean start with nitty gritty details.
Thanks! I’m definitely open to calling it something other than “mind-hanger”. I called it that because I’ve never seen anyone call it anything except Paul Graham writing “something to hang the application on in my mind”.
Here’s what I think a mind-hanger (or other term X) refers to: before you can build a new structure in your mind that you can expect to remember and reason about, you need to start by thinking about mind-hangers/X’s that are already well-established in your web of preexisting knowledge and intuitions.
I think I also realized another specificity-angle to this (in addition to “specifics are good mind-hangers”):
When you endeavor to teach someone a concept, you want them to come away with that concept connected to their preexisting knowledge and intuitions. Ok, which specific preexisting knowledge and intuitions? Don’t rely on the person to hang your lessons in some unspecified way. Pick a specific mind-hanger and surgically install your lesson on it.
The etymology makes sense. Perhaps the issue is that mind-hanger makes it sound like it is the thing doing the hanging rather than the thing being hung upon. Perhaps “pre-existing mental hooks” is closer.
Even this still feels slightly off because the name feels like it implies those concepts exist for the purpose of being hooks rather than happening to be the most suitable concepts to build upon. So perhaps “hookable concepts” or something. “Hook points.” Those don’t sound great, but conceptually they feel like they fit better maybe.
When you go to teach someone something new, you should try to find suitable hookable points in their pre-existing knowledge. Or something.
I suppose a “coat-hanger” is something which is hung upon and mind-hanger kept raising that concept in analogy to mind hanger, but the analogy to coat hanger feels weird still.
Looking for an anchor?
A base point—solid rather than dangling …
Nice ya anchor seems like a better image than hanger, and Paul Graham could have just as easily written “something to anchor my mind on”.
I use the term “conceptual hook” explaining that you’ve got to give people a hook to hang their understanding on. How does it link or anchor to the real world?
Personally, I thought “mind-hanger” was ok. I got an image of a coat-hanger for the mind. You could even include that image explicitly in your concept mapping pictures.
Some other ideas that stick with the coat-hanger variant would be “idea-hanger”, “concept-hanger”.
Another term you might consider is scaffolding. This also has a strong concrete image of construction scaffolding, but the metaphor lends itself to the idea of building on top of the skeletal example, just as we start a building project with a scaffold and then build the real building around it. Often the scaffold is removed at the end, which can also happen with abstraction, where we can throw away the pedegogic examples once we’ve mastered the bigger idea. We don’t really build anything on top of a coat hanger (nor a ship’s anchor).