Ten Strengths:
1. The ability to combine information from multiple sources. The human body has millions of sensors that monitor both the internal and external environment. The brain is where all that information is combined into a single coherent representation.
2. The ability to learn automatically. “Neurons that fire together, wire together.” The brain automatically stores associations of sensations that happen at the same time. Stored associations continually build on each other, helping to augment partial information and link new experiences into a knowledge base.
3. The ability to learn deliberately. Everything happening inside the head is a representation. Memory paths allow you to tap into two previously unrelated experiences, light up those representations and either consciously form an association without having experienced it (the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776) or “what if” an association before experiencing it (what if I mix chocolate with peanut butter…).
4. The ability to detect change. When stored associations are repeatedly triggered, the output of the neuron is reinforced. The reinforcement increases the efficiency of transmission, providing a mechanism to sort out what has changed and what hasn’t. You tend to gradually ignore the familiar and focus on the new. (The Talent Code provides an outstanding description of how the outputs of neurons are reinforced).
5. The ability to make comparisons. As information travels through the brain, comparisons are constantly and automatically being made. Different memories are compared to each other and current perceptions are compared to stored associations. The results of the comparisons are frequently expressed as emotion.
6. The ability to adapt to the unknown. Most information from neurons is transmitted across synapses, which are small gaps between the neurons. The ability to transmit information across a gap provides humans with an amazing ability to react when there was no previous association and adapt to the unknown.
7. The ability to react quickly. Neurons are capable of firing hundreds of times per second. Information travels through the brain along multiple paths. Emotions amplify signals. All three of these characteristics allow humans to develop remarkably precise and remarkably fast reactions – often resulting in life saving movement before a threat registers in the conscious.
8. The ability to understand impact across a broad domain. There are billions of neurons in the brain with trillions of connections between them. Information flows through the brain along multiple paths stimulating stored associations along the way. The result is the ability of the brain to very quickly activate representations of associated sensations across many, many different experiences.
9. The ability to express concepts with symbols. Shapes are bundled together and stored as letters, letters bundled together and stored as words, words are bundled together and stored as concepts. A concept can then be associated with a symbol which in turn represents the concept (like $). The ability of humans to express concepts with symbols and then transmit signals across distance and time enables each individual to leverage the discoveries of every other individual.
10. The ability to link very specific actions to very specific cues. Individual neurons transmit information as digital signals with strength characterized by firing rate. A neuron fires and resets when it’s inputs reach the firing threshold. The rate of firing varies with the strength of the input signals, so a single neuron can cover a range of different input, firing at say 50 times per second for a weak signal and 200 times per second for a strong signal. On the receiving end, a single neuron may receive input from hundreds of other neurons. The ability for a single neuron to react based on hundreds of different input signals, each with a wide range of coverage enables very specific signals to be stored as cues and linked with very specific actions.
Five Weaknesses:
1. Black Swans. Nassim Taleb calls them Black Swans. Donald Rumsfeld calls them unknown unknowns. Black swans are things that lie completely outside your realm of expectation. Your brain can’t compare something you know to something you don’t even know you don’t know.
2. Time. “Neurons that fire together, wire together.” The longer the delay between an event and it’s impact, the less likely you are to form an association. Ice cream is a good example. Eating a big bowl of ice cream every night delivers short term pleasure but degrades health over the long term. Because there is a delay between the event (eating) and the impact (weight gain, appetite disruption and insulin resistance), there is a good chance you won’t associate “just one bowl” with declining health. It’s possible to deliberately learn time delayed associations but the longer the delay between cause and effect, the less likely automatic learning will take place.
3. Self. The down side of the brain’s ability to form a coherent representation from the millions of sensors in the body is the “self” as a reference point. The “self” as a reference point leads to assumptions of understanding between individuals, value judgements based on how easily you can connect the dots in your own head, and decisions focused on impact to the “self.”
4. Action. Poor decisions are often made when there is not a direct link between cues and actions. Habits allow automatic actions based on specific cues. “Irrational” decisions are often a case of habitual or emotional reactions generating results before deliberate thought can be applied to a theory or concept.
5. Emotions. Emotions focus attention. Focused attention limits available information. “Seeing red” is an expression that accurately describes an individual who is so enraged they can only focus on the object causing the anger. When extreme emotion kicks in, all higher thought (including considerations of future impact and consideration of available options) is shut down and all peripheral sensations are shut out.