Part 3

Part 3

Abstractions and strategic thinking

The human brain doesn't appear to come as a standard package that works the same way for everyone. Some people have a flair for mathematics, others cannot get to grips with it at all. Some find foreign languages easy to learn, others find them impossible. Some people find talking and discussion easy, others become tongue tied or can't get the words out before the conversation has moved on. Some can write down their thoughts clearly, others have difficulty composing even a simple letter. Some people are naturally good at art or music, others can't draw to save their life or have absolutely no ear for music. Some people have a sense of direction, while others can turn just two corners and become hopelessly disorientated.

Probably humans have evolved this way because it then becomes essential for them to co-operate with each other. Partnerships and groups are formed on the basis of benefiting from each other's special abilities and compensating for any deficiencies. Co-operative groupings are always favoured by the evolutionary process, so, it is not surprising that this oddity of everyone having different types of brain has evolved as a survival characteristic of our species.

Bearing in mind these differences in the way different brains can handle information, this next part of the book might be particularly difficult for some people to appreciate because it deals with abstract concepts. Apparently, according to many empirical studies (I can't vouch for any of them), only twenty percent of people have the natural ability to make abstractions to allow lessons learned in one environment to be be transferred to another. I don't belie that this ability is so rare, it's more likely that such methods of thinking are not adequately covered by conventional education (perhaps because teachers are typical of the population as a whole and eighty percent aren't aware of this phenomenon, so, are unable to teach it to others). Whatever the truth is, about people being able to use abstract models of thought, it does seem as if the ability to use abstractions is not universal.

Generally speaking, the people who can think in abstractions tend to be strategists. Those who can't tend to be tacticians. Tacticians and strategists work well together because tacticians concentrate on developing specialist skills and abilities that are essential for any strategist's plans to succeed. This part then is written with the strategist in mind, who will need to be able to use abstractions and mental modelling to be able to make decisions in the uncertain and complex environment of the Information Age. Tacticians will also benefit from this section because their ability to get appropriate commercial benefit from their particular area of expertise or speciality will also need to use a suitably efficient strategy.