Book Takeaway Part 3: The Organized Mind

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This post will highlight the "Organizing our Social world" section of Daniel Levitin's Book The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload. My first post was a recap of some fascinating brain research, my second post was on using what we know about the brain to organize our homes. This post will look briefly at social connection in today's world and how to best navigate this path.

Crowdsourcing defined

Crowdsourcing, or outsourcing to a crowd, is a "technique by which thousands or even millions of people help to solve problems that would be difficult or impossible to solve any other way" (Levitin,114). It's been used for all kinds of things like Amber alerts, editing the Oxford dictionary, deciphering text, research, and traffic alerts. It taps into our social networks' energy and expertise for the benefit of all (Levitin,115). A large number of people, the general public, can often help solve problems outside of traditional agencies through networks such as Wikipedia, Kickstarter, Kiva, Yelp, Tripadvisor, etc. (Levitin,116). But can you trust the crowd? Yes and no. So many things around us harness the crowd's experience such as driving times, related products on Amazon or Netflix, and even reCAPTHCHAs human checkers (Levitin,118). Cheating and dishonesty are out there, but anyone using crowdsourcing implements checks and balances to make it useful and mostly trustworthy. 
Bottom line: We live in an increasingly complex interconnected world. "Modern social networks are fraught with dull old dysfunction and wonderfully new opportunities" (Levitin, 120).

Modern social relations are complex

The number of people you'd encounter in an entire lifetime, say in the year 1200, was fewer than the number of people you'd walk past during rush hour in present-day Manhattan (Levitin,121). Today we build and maintain social networks with friends from high school and college, meet more strangers, and incorporate them all into our lives in very new ways (Levitin,121).
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How do we keep track of all these people?

1. When you meet someone new, write down as much as you can from that visit (it helps your brain remember), such as the context of your meeting, who connected you, and any other details that will later help you remember (Levitin,122).
2. Create a tickler file, a reminder, something that tickles your memory. For example, set a reminder in your calendar to check in with a certain person every two months. Externalize your memory to help you stay connected to the people you care about but would not otherwise get around to connecting with (Levitin,125). I have recently made an effort to write paper letters and will set a reminder in my calendar to do this. I love that I can think of something once and forget about it until I need to act on it. 
3. Rely on the "transitive memory" that stores information in other people. You may not remember a specific idea or area of expertise but you know that a friend will. Who in your social network knows what you want to know? Let them carry that burden and ask them when needed. Much of our data storage is within the small crowd of our personal relationships (Levitin,125).

The lure of Facebook and social network sites

We are social creatures, even the most introverted of us. We like to be part of something greater than ourselves. There is comfort in belonging and social isolation is a risk factor for cardiac arrest and death, even moreso than smoking (Levitin,126). After a whole lifetime of trying to keep track of people with little slips of paper or address books, or losing track of people entirely, now we can connect with anyone we want to without any trouble. Facebook, for example, has over a billion users (one out of 7 people on the planet) and appeals to our sense of novelty and our drive to connect with others (Levitin,126). We can choose who we want our friends to be, who we engage with, who has relevance to our lives.

But, be wise, friends. Online connectivity provides breadth but rarely depth. If we're not careful we'll spend a day under the illusion that we're being social rather than really connecting with others, which can lead to decreased empathy and increased loneliness (Levitin,127). Interestingly, social rejection causes activation in the same part of the brain as physical pain does (Levitin,137). We're more connected but are we really more connected? In my next post I'll highlight what Levitin calls the social networking addiction loop (yep, it's a phycological addiction) and how to combat distractions and the sugar-short-term-high they give us.
Bottom line: Facebook (and other online connectivity) is best used as a supplement, not a replacement, for in-person connectedness (Levitin,127). 

Beware of falsehoods

Brain research shows that we have a very difficult time ignoring information that has later been shown to be false (Levitin,149). If someone tells you something or you read something that is later determined to not be correct, it is impossible to hit the reset button in your brain. The original knowledge still exerts a lingering influence on your thinking (Levitin,149).
Bottom line: Be truly careful of online gossip and what type of information you both share and take in. 

Up Next...

I'll highlight my favorite section and probably end with that. Levitin takes us on an incredible journey through organizing our time. This includes everything from sleep, procrastination, distractions, multitasking, language learning, creativity and flow, calendaring, and aging. Whew!