The Analogies I Carry with Me

I recently read "Surfaces and Essences: Analogy as the Fuel and Fire of Thinking" by Hofstadter and Sanders. It has to be read with a caution about blindly trusting analogies (I recommend "Thinking, Fast and Slow") but it was an illuminating view of how the mind might work.

If our thinking is fueled by analogy, then the material we have available for analogy might be expected to be an important aspect of practical intelligence, and the rich experiences we make available to our children may pay outsize dividends. Cool stuff.

Science and technology has been for me one of the most fertile sources of analogy in my life. Some of the powerful sources of analogy I carry with me from that domain include:

• Signal and noise
  
• Feedback
• Resonance
  
• Statistical thermodynamics
• Abstraction and functional programming
  
• Ecosystems
  
• Evolution and natural selection

But of course, we draw analogies from many other places. In "Surfaces and Essences" the authors use the example of "L'sprit de l'escalier" (the staircase mind) - a French term for the predicament of thinking of the perfect reply too late. In the US, we have probably all had that feeling, we just don't have the phrase for it. Likewise, I have a small raft full of fictional settings and characters that are evocative of a specific cluster of thought that just does not have a phrase:

• Frodo's feelings on returning to the Shire at the end of the "Lord of the Rings"
• Rieux's sympathy for others in "The Plague"
• The complex web of violence, injustice, compassion, and forgiveness in "Four Ways to Forgiveness"
• The beauty, tragedy, and loss evoked by "Koyaanisqatsi"

When I see the world in a new way through one of these analogies, it's like cresting the summit of a steep, tree-covered mountain to get a stunning view of a world you couldn't quite imagine as you sweated your way up the trial.

If you made it this far, I would love to hear some of your favorite sources of analogy and inspiration. If you're so inclined. please share a comment or response.