Eli Pariser spoke at TED 2011 on what he called 'filter bubbles.' Web companies like Google and Facebook focus on providing us with relevant information. Eli argues that the better they get at this, the more likely we are cut off from outside news and voices that can challenge our thinking and broaden our understanding of the world.

This is 9 minutes of video that will stick in your head the rest of the week.

Greg Horton at The Parish linked to me last week in a post titled 'Porn and Palin (Bristol), or Having a Baby Doesn't Increase Your IQ.' The post is well-worth a read. Greg is my all-time favorite pastor-turned-agnostic, and I highly recommend reading everything he writes.

Greg references me on executive function (EF)--a collection of higher-order cognitive processes that manage lower-order functions. EF is responsible for all sorts of cognitive activity, including things like goal-setting, impulse control and problem solving.

I speak on EF quite a lot, but I never blog about it. I'm mystified as to why I've never written much publicly about it, but Greg's post prompted me to fix that.

Here's what he wrote: 

I'm told by the uber brilliant Jay Kelly that one of the functions of the brain that I thought was shared by everyone is in fact not. That sub-function of executive function allows the possessor to analyze a situation and say why it's similar to other situations with a different set of circumstances. It's a gift for creating accurate analogies between disparate fields of study or diverse human experiences: this is like that. It's helped me understand why many of my students make the shittiest analogies of all time, or why they think every analogy that refutes their weak arguments is an "apples to oranges" analogy. Like other cognitive functions, I think this one improves (for those who have it) with age. It was certainly my experience.

He's mostly right about everything he writes, but there are a few things to explain further:

1. '[O]ne of the functions of the brain that I thought was shared by everyone is in fact not.' - He's mostly right about this. EF capacity is not equally shared by everyone. Some people are better at exercising these cognitive processes than others. For example, EF influences impulse control. So imagine that 10pm rolls around, and the chocolate ice cream in the freezer starts calling your name. Your mouth starts watering at the thought of spooning out the ice cream directly from the carton, but you are torn since you don't need the empty calories 30 minutes before you head to bed. What do you do? If you're able to focus primarily on the image of getting on the scales the next morning, you'll probably stay out of the kitchen. But if your focus is more on the glorioius taste of Blue Bell Dutch Chocolate, then you're about 5 minutes away from cleaning up an ice cream moustache. 

The outcome isn't simply a matter of will power or self-discipline. It's a function of being able to cognitively emphasize your future health over a more immediate experience of pleasure. Some people do that better than others.

Where Greg's not exactly correct is that everyone does have executive function. We don't have it in equal degrees, but we do all possess these functions.

2. '[One component of executive function] allows the possessor to analyze a situation and say it's similar to other situations with a different set of circumstances. It's a gift for creating accurate analogies between disparate fields of study or diverse human experiences.' - He's dead on here. There are a few things going on when a person creates an analogy between two disparate subjects. First, she can pick out the relevant features of a subject. Second, she recognizes that those same features exist in another subject. Third, she sees that those same features are relevant features. They're not just similar, but they're similar in material, non-trivial ways.

For example, Forrest Gump's mom always told him that 'life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get.' The analogy between two disparate things--life and a box of chocolates--is made by connecting at least two relevant features that are present in each--uncertainty and variety. Those two features are present in both, AND they are fairly central features of both.

3. 'Like other cognitive functions, I think this one improves (for those who have it) with age.' Fascinating observation, and he's exactly right (except for his parenthetical comment which I already covered). As we age, our capacity to remember details diminishes. A 20 year old is much better than a 40 year old in memorizing a grocery list. But a 40 year old is far better at knowing how the items on the grocery list can be rearranged to make a dozen different meals. The 20 year old is better at remembering facts. The 40 year old is better at recognizing how those facts relate to one another. A 20 year old might be able to read sheet music and play all the right notes, but a 40 year old will be better at improvising because he more fully grasps understands how music works. He understands, not just how to read the notes, but he understands how all the pieces involved in operate together to make music.

When it comes to EF, there are two pieces of really good news for all of us:

First, we all have the broad range cognitive capacities that fall under the umbrella of EF. We are all capable of setting and pursuing long-range goals, managing conflicting impulses, analyzing new situations by drawing on past experiences, and a whole host of other cognitive abilities. Yes, we each have these capacities in greater or lesser degrees, but we all have them. 

Second, we can get better at exercising these capacities. Greg's students may currently make 'the shittiest analogies of all time,' but they can get better--much better. How exactly we strengthen EF capacities is something that has to wait for another post. But here's a short exercise to point you down the path of strengthening executive function.

Consider the analogy that life is like a box of chocolates. What are 2-3 relevant, non-trivial ways in which life isn't life a box of chocolates?

I got a Spotify invite yesterday, and it's as good as advertised. Most any song I can think of. Streaming on my computer. For free. I'm particularly happy that I can play songs from my growin' up years that I'd love to hear once or twice but don't want to pay for through iTunes.

'[H]ave patience with everything unresolved in your heart, and try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, some day far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.' - Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet