Sensemaking

Compared to the mechanical efficiency of computers, it’s clear our human thought processes are flawed. Yet we do have one distinct advantage over machines: cultural knowledge.

This cultural knowledge can be most powerfully harnessed in a method called sensemaking. Sensemaking is the process by which we gain wisdom through examining cultural knowledge. It’s a kind of cultural engagement closely associated with the humanities.

For example, it might seem normal today to look to numbers for meaning, but sensemaking allows us to go further than sales figures, turnover rates and the like. It gives us a 360-degree perspective on the world.

There are five basic elements to sensemaking.

Firstly, sensemaking understands that humans shouldn’t just be defined by their individual personalities. People are also characterized by their cultural context.

Secondly, look for thick data. Thick data establishes what is significant in a given culture. For instance, the fact that 86 percent of US households might drink more than six quarts of milk per week is thin data. Thick data would help us understand what milk means to them and why they drink it.

Thirdly, consider that human behavior is best understood as existing in social contexts, rather than abstractly. Take love, for instance. It’s so much more than a chemical reaction in the brain that can be studied in a lab. To understand it fully we’d have to look at how love has been experienced in, say, classical India or the West today.

Fourthly, you shouldn’t look just to strict logical processes. Insights can be gained through immersion, intuition and hypothesizing.

The final precept reminds us that we shouldn’t get our bearings from data alone. If we attune ourselves to the world – looking to the stars, not GPS – we can also reach significant insights.