Metaphors Can Help Solve Problems!


I always thought of metaphors as something from poetry, which never appealed to me anyway (I am one of those “if you want to say something, say it, don’t rhyme it” kind of guys). So it was interesting to learn that:
“Metaphors are much more than a poetic imagination or rhetorical flourish. They can help us translate ideas into mental models”

Most of us can’t recognize an idea or model outside of its context. Don’t believe me? Then try naming a principle that is central to both economics and physics. Give up? Answer: it’s called demand and supply in economics; equilibrium in physics. (It doesn’t have to be exactly the same, just very close).

So why do most of us not see such similarities? It’s because we are highly domain dependent when it comes to concepts, ideas and models. Or as Nassim Taleb wrote in Antifragile:
“It is as if we are doomed to be deceived by the most superficial part of things, the packaging, the gift wrapping.”

Well ok, you might say, but so what? Don’t most of us have jobs in one field only? So what difference does it make if the same principle applies elsewhere? Well, it can matter when you try to solve problems. Because as they noted in a Credit Suisse Thought Leader Forum:
“To resolve those problems, it is often necessary to look at the problem through the filters of a different and often distant discipline.”
Like a company that wants to improve its distribution process might benefit from seeing how an ant colony collects and distributes its resources.

The caveat while applying metaphors is “to recognize the value of the cognitive leap”. What’s that? The thing is that when you map models across systems, the fit will never be perfect. Rather, the “solution will lie one or two steps away”, hence the need for that “cognitive leap”.

And no, thinking in metaphors is not the formula for innovation. It is a tool that increases your chances of finding new solutions, but it can’t guarantee success. But keep doing it often enough, and you will hit pay dirt often enough to make it worth the effort.

Comments

  1. KumarFebruary 4, 2013 at 3:57 PM

    When you say, "I always thought of metaphors as something from poetry", I suppose you mean "from literature", because metaphors are not limited to the poetic side of literature. Why, sometimes ordinary people use metaphors too, in ordinary language.

    Metaphors and similes are quite useful in suggestively describing some concept. In precise sciences like maths, physics, chemistry these methods would be totally invalid. Precise and direct definitions are the only thing acceptable there. But complex issues of life can readily accept descriptions which are both indirect and suggestive.
    =====
    Coming to religion and the use of metaphors:

    Hindu mythologies discuss God and Dharma extensively through stories and allegories, metaphors and similes. The authors of them must have decided that is a better way to reach out to people on the tricky domain of Divinity.

    Or, they might have taken the hint thrown at the highest level of Hinduism, the Vedanta, which boldly declares that "there can never, never be a true description or definition of God!" Going further, they proclaim, "Every conceptualization of God has to be untrue, for the simple reason God is not an object and It (in Hinduism God can be 'It' too) transcends mind itself"

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