Intro
How many times have you used a word correctly, but you’d struggle to define the same word you just used. You know the “feeling” of the word, but you don’t “know” the definition. How is this possible? Either you know the word or you don’t!
This realization intrigued me, and I eventually recognized that it’s broader than speech. I like to think about this in terms of resolution, just like the resolution of an image. We can define high resolution as a precise picture of an idea (belief, scientific knowledge, cultural practice, procedural requirement). While a low resolution idea is a conglomerate of distinct ideas that serves as a quick access repository for day to day experiences. If you had to mentally review the precise definition of each word in every sentence, you’d never get anything out.
We might be tempted to think that a higher resolution is inherently superior, but that’s not the case. Feelings are low resolution ideas, and they’re the ingredients for most meaningful decisions. “Low resolution” is not a pejorative, nor is it an implication of inaccuracy. Ideas often need to exist simultaneously in both states to be useful.
Sometimes, feelings are information that is true, but it’s information that you can’t articulate (yet). For example, what you want to eat or whether you like the look of something or whether you agree/disagree with an idea someone just told you. You often start with a feeling that gains fidelity upon reflection. “This doesn’t feel right to me” morphs into “I think it’s a little too tight in the thigh.” We use feelings all the time to access knowledge and to make meaningful decisions.
Application in Career
It’s not just mundane daily interactions where we see these mechanics. Technical and professional knowledge also manifests as “intuition”. The longer you’re in a field, the more intuition you build. You get comfortable by building low resolution maps of the space, which allow you to make decisions faster and more confidently.
Early in a career or job or project, decisions are driven by precise research and granular data points. But as you progress, you find that “yes, that’s good” or “no, that will be bad” arrives as a feeling before it is ever translated into a reasoned point. ****But the feeling came first!! This phase is characterized by fluidly gaining and relinquishing resolution as needed.
When you’re working with a team of professionals, it’s vital to help people figure out their “technical feelings”. Give them space to unravel the thread that they’re starting with – or indeed the thread you’ve started with. Avoid the temptation to dismiss or to be silenced simply to avoid conflict just because an idea cannot be articulated in the moment. When someone says, “I’m not sure that’s right”, listen.
Litmus Tests
Litmus tests only work in low resolution environments and all meaningful decisions are made in low resolution space, regardless of the level of detail sought to inform them. Most of the time, excess detail is confirmation bias.
Now you might say, the decision on the size of the two concrete I-beams holding the bridge up is a high resolution decision resulting in a number. And while the calculation is high res, the meaningful decision was already made before the number was known. The decision was “The bridge will support light traffic and be built according to code with the plans approved by professional engineers.”
The individual calculations made during the engineering process are consequential, but they are not meaningful. The Professional Engineer (PE) signing the plans decides that the project is complete in low resolution space (the “decision space”). It would go something like this: “Do we have valid and complete design constraints? Did we consider the traffic conditions? Did we consider natural disasters? Did we follow applicable code?” You can see that the meaningful decision is agnostic to questions like “Is the height of the I-beam 24inches?” Decisions are made in low resolution space.
Thinking with low res ideas allows us to concoct litmus tests while making a decision. Take the bridge example again and one of the PE’s questions: “Did we consider natural disasters?” This is a litmus test. If hurricanes have not been considered for a bridge in Tampa, the plans are no good. Understanding which questions are litmus tests is the only way to make a good decision. Those questions mean you understand the factors that are your biggest risks and you understand what factors are necessary for success.
Outro
This post started with a feeling. At some point, that feeling became the statement, “Feelings are useful.” Then, “Feelings are low resolution ideas.” However, all of this still exists as a feeling in my mind…a low resolution idea that I rely on daily.
As you’ve undoubtedly already gathered, I don’t know what I’m talking about. I’m an engineer who likes thinking about philosophy. I just share as an interesting (to me) framework for viewing different levels of information. I hope you find it useful, and if not useful, at least a little annoying.