How We Sort the World: Gregory Murphy on the Psychology of Categories
Mental models bring order. They let us focus on essential things and ignore others—just as, at a cocktail party, we can hear the conversation that we’re in while tuning out the chatter around us. We craft a simulation of reality in our minds to anticipate how situations will play out.
Kenneth Cukier, Viktor Mayer-Schoenberger, • Framers
It is a human trait to organize things into categories. Inventing categories creates an illusion that there is an overriding rationale in the way that the world works.
Andrea Zittel • Andrea Zittel, "These Things I Know for Sure"
That process gives an identity. In making a distinction, some representation is required, whether simply mental, or more concretely as with gesture, speech, artistic portrayal, or writing. For instance, naming both makes a distinction and creates a representation. Naming, classification, and abstraction are processes of boundary drawing; they are r
... See moreGeorge P. Hansen • The Trickster and the Paranormal
As humans we like to put things into categories. It makes communicating and thinking easier. Scratch that. It makes communicating and thinking possible. Categories go hand in hand with words as providing us with crucial compression of reality.
Albert Wenger • Progress vs. Categories
Categories are how we organize information in our minds. Know your category and you’ll know where readers “fit” you into their own minds. Categories are also how we decide what it is we want to buy—or at the very least, give our attention.
Nicolas Cole • The Art and Business of Online Writing: How to Beat the Game of Capturing and Keeping Attention
Categories are how we organize information in our minds. Know your category and you’ll know where readers “fit” you into their own minds.