Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Sentimental Models

First let us cast off the word "Anthropomorphism," it has too many letters yet somehow, someway, still manages to lack in them. It's a wordy-nerdy patchwork zombie of a concept with no rhyme and little reason. "Personification" works nicely, let us use it from here on out.

Personification, giving inanimate things animate qualities, is a mental model and mental models are some of the sharpest problem solving tools we have in our brain sheds. Yes your brain is a shed so keep it tidy, don't just throw crap in there willy-nilly. Remember everything has a place... it's a natural form of labeling.

Now like many of you readers out there I too am caught up in the Marie Kondo craze.

If you are unaware, let me enlighten you. Marie Kondo is a tidying expert. She started on her transcendental journey to organize the world when she was 5 years old. Like many visionaries she had an epiphany when she was 18. With already more than a decade of experience under her belt, she realized she was doing it all wrong. In the decade or so since then she has refined her system and is now, in classic "heroes journey" fashion, transforming the world around her.

I'll let you discover the "the life-changing magic of tidying" yourself. I am not here to sell the book to you. I simply want you to know that Marie Kondo is in saintly territory. Someone you live and die for. A national treasure. One of her most interesting habits is her use of mental models, her use of personification.

Marie Kondo is Japanese. I will not bore you with theory but personification is a natural problem solving tool that the Japanese seem to embrace with ease. For others it's a little more of a struggle. For instance, in the Marie Kondo method of tidying, it is helpful to personify the things you own.

Would you appreciate if you were a sock and someone just balled you up and threw you into a drawer? Would you appreciate it if you were the object you threw into a box and sent away into a sweltering attic for eternity? Are your things happy? Will your things bring you joy if they are sad?

We find it easy enough to be convinced to put ourselves in "someone else's shoes," so why do we find it so odd to convince ourselves to be the shoes? I know it sounds strange, but it's not. It's just a mental model and mental models help us break out of ruts and solve problems. When we say "see the world differently" we are talking about mental models. When Apple said "think differently" they were suggesting the same, and they knew what they were talking about.

Personification is just one of an infinite number of mental models that one can contrive. For many situations it's a perfect model, so don't be afraid to try it. We know for a fact that people who swap mental models like dead batteries are more successful, are better problem solvers, are more creative in their thought process. Don't over-think it... re-think it.