Put in the context of framing: as humans explain the world using causal frames, they are actually learning more about the world they are explaining, generating deeper and more accurate insights. Explaining the world to others leads to understanding it better oneself. The finding has direct application to education and parenting: get kids to explain

The idea of agency provides that humans have choices and can exercise them. We are subjects, not objects, in the world. We have the capacity to act. Having agency hinges upon our ability to frame causally. This is not to say that “free will” exists objectively, nor that human choices aren’t influenced by social structures. Yet only if our actions

Framing is a process—a method that guides the human mind toward understanding, imagination, and the evaluation of options.

She conceived of the problem in the right way. She applied a mental model, shifting her focus from the structure of the molecule (that is, the mechanism by which it worked) to its function (that is, whether it worked at all). By framing the problem differently, she and the team achieved a discovery that had eluded others.

Metaphors “reflect an ability of the human mind to readily connect abstract ideas with concrete scenarios,” he wrote in an academic paper in 2010 titled “The Cognitive Niche.” Metaphors can be considered expressions of human frames. They reflect causal relationships that capture a concrete situation and can be abstracted to apply to other domains.

In our thoughts, we frequently run through a myriad of possibilities of how the world might be different, playing the game of life several moves ahead. Counterfactuals are a way to see beyond the reality that surrounds us. Without this ability to imagine “what could have been,” “what has been,” and “what could be,” we would be forever stuck in the

The Minimal-Change Principle When selecting which constraints to loosen or tighten, we should aim for the fewest, not the most, modifications. We should aspire to minimal change.

Normally we learn when we receive information: when a teacher instructs, a book describes, an apprentice tinkers. But in the case of causal explanations, the person who imparts information, who does the explaining, actually learns as well.

They were bicycle experts, after all. Just as a cycle is inherently unstable but can be balanced and controlled by the rider when in motion, so too it was crucial that a plane could be controlled and balanced by a flier in the air.