Conceptual Thinking
/In April 2018, I ran into an old friend of mine, whom I hadn’t seen in ages. We crossed paths in front of a coffee shop and, as it always happens in situations like this, we started chitchatting, asking questions such as “so, whatchu been up to?”, or “how’s the family?”, etc.
I started, by telling her how I’d embarked on a solo flight, and was dedicating myself to working exclusively with concepts. Now, it was her turn, and she started telling me about how she was applying to a master’s degree. Or was it a PhD degree? Well, I can’t remember exactly.
But I do remember what her thesis was going to be about: she wanted to talk about Artificial Intelligence, specifically through the eyes of American inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil, author of “How to Create a Mind: The Secret of Human Thought Revealed”.
This is the book my friend chose as the foundation of her thesis. In it, Kurzweil presents us with concepts such as singularity, talks about something called neocortex (apparently, it’s something that is part of our brain) and discusses the origins of consciousness.
Didn’t get any of that? Well, welcome to the club then. Me neither. ;o)
In any case, it was after this brief chitchat with this old friend that I started to deliberately pay more attention to conversations happening around me. And I came to realize that Artificial Intelligence is now virtually everywhere. Everyone’s talking about either A.I or machine learning. And honestly, I am not particularly fond of this subject. Not because I find it boring, quite the contrary. I find it fascinating.
It’s because I find it scary. Super scary. And I’m not even ashamed of admitting to it. I can’t pinpoint a specific reason why, but I guess it’s because my generation grew up watching movies that depicted the Machine Uprising as a super somber and incredibly frightful event.
I still remember when my pre-teenage self watched the first Blade Runner (1982, by Ridley Scott), the first Terminator (1984, by James Cameron), and many years later, as an adult, the first The Matrix (1999, by the Wachowsky Brothers – currently sisters).
If you ever watched theses movies, then you know what I’m talking about: no one deserves to live in a world ruled by machines, am I right? At least, in the cinematic view of Hollywood, this world is always shown as a sterile, dystopian wasteland plagued by desolation.
So I guess that’s why: these three films consolidated in me the unassailable conviction that creating a machine that’s more intelligent than a human being isn’t necessarily the brightest of ideas. ;o)
Anyway, if my fears were generated by the sci-fi movies I’ve watched, there’s another fear that almost everyone has, and that is real, tangible, palpable, and has nothing to do with fiction: unemployment. It’s no surprise that machines will irrevocably replace men and women as a workforce. It’s not something that will happen. It’s something that’s already happening. There are already Audio Response Units being operated by AI, rendering thousands of Call Center professionals obsolete.
Fortunately, there’s hope. At least, according to Taiwan’s Lee Kai Fu, considered by many to be the ultimate authority in A.I. As we’ve seen on this post, there are certain activities that machines will never be able to perform, no matter how smart of intelligent they are or become. One of these activities is thinking conceptually (you were probably already wondering what in the world does any of this had to do with concepts, right?).
That’s when it hit me: do people know what it means to think conceptually? How does one define conceptual thinking? Well, I have my own definition, which is completely subjective and entirely based on empirical arguments. Chances are, my definition is probably not the correct one. It might be ONE of the correct ones. But most likely, not THE correct one.
So, I did what most people would. I went on the Internet. I looked for other sources. Surprisingly, 100% of the definitions I found were answers to questions such as “how will conceptual thinking help the leaders of tomorrow?”, or “how to improve your career by thinking conceptually?”. Stuff like that. Which proves that people are, indeed, willingly searching for ways to develop this talent, in order to survive the inevitable and irreversible A.I wave.
Out of all definitions I stumbled upon, I think five are worth mentioning. They are:
“Conceptual thinking is the practice of connecting abstract, disparate ideas to deepen understanding, create new ideas and reflect on past decisions to improve future outcomes. ”
“Conceptual thinking is an intuitive sense of the bigger picture, a proclivity for thinking in long-term horizons. ”
“Conceptual thinkers have an astute understanding of why something is being done.”
“Conceptual thinking consists of the ability to find connections or patterns between abstract ideas and then piece them together to form a complete picture.”
“Conceptual thinking means that when a new project lands on your plate, you’re not one to roll up your sleeves and jump into tasks. In other words, you have a strong desire to understand the “why” behind every project. ”
As far as conceptual thinking goes, each of these definitions has something that rings true to me. As a matter of fact, I’ll be the first to admit that every single one of them, one way of another, reveals at least one piece of my own conceptual thinking process. For example:
My complete inability to be focus on the “small picture”, and the tendency to always see the “big picture”.
The quasi-involuntary movement towards the deeper questions and conversations, as a result of my thirst for knowledge.
A natural talent (I swear, I have no idea where it comes from) to establish and/or find connections between ideas, thoughts and concepts that, at first, have absolutely nothing to do with each other.
How I always see the act of reflecting on past decisions and the act of improving future outcomes as a cause and effect relationship.
Most importantly, my desperate need to understand why. I’m always asking why. A-L-W-A-Y-S (which, I admit, makes my life and that of my friends and family, THAT MUCH more difficult. Sorry, guys… ;o))
When I’m thinking conceptually, these five points, or steps, or whatever you want to call them, they’re always there, on some level. But if I had to pick one, the one that is the most prevalent, I’d say number 5 is the one closest to my heart. It’s the one that best mirrors my own definition of conceptual thinking, which I’d like to – humbly – share with you guys.
To me, conceptual thinking is nothing more than thinking about the whys.
In case you’ve been following this blog since the very beginning, first… well, I’d like to say thank you so very much! Second, you probably already know that, with concepts, there’s always a reason-why. We’ve been repeating that so many times, it sounds like a mantra by now. But that’s because it’s true. Here’s an example.
Yesterday, I was exchanging messages with a very dear friend by WhatsApp, and she told me she had bought a T-Shirt with a Nina Simone motif, that I share with you all below.
Upon sending me the picture of the T-Shirt, we engaged in the following conversation, where she was telling me how she was starting to see things and think about them conceptually:
Her: Saw this T-Shirt and immediately started thinking about the concept… hahaha
Her: That’s Nina Simone
Her: I thought it was pretty creative, to write “Be Free” on her hair
Her: see what you’re doing to me… hahaha
Me: Right???
Me: Awesome!!!!!!!
Me: Isn’t it amazing when we start seeing things this way?
Her: it’s really cool. I’d never stopped to think about this
Me: Ain’t that cool?
Me: I love it
Me: I think it’s incredible
Me: That the freedom
Her: I bought this T-Shirt because I found it super creative…hahaha
Me: Is represented in Nina Simone’s hair
Me: something so powerful: an Afro
Me: OMG
Me: That’s great
Me: so, so meaningful
Her: exactly, she was an activist for the Civil Rights Movement
Her: so, yeah, it’s very meaningful
It was a pretty ordinary conversation… but, to me, an extremely conceptual one. After all, we were discussing the whys behind the drawing. We were thinking about why the designer chose to convey that message in this particular way. Let’s face it: there were a million other ways to express the idea of “a cry for freedom”. But the artist who created the T-Shirt decided to express it THIS way.
Why? (1)
Well, it certainly has to do with the protagonist’s context. The fact that Nina Simone was an activist who fought for racial equality is probably one reason. The fact that she herself had experienced racism is another. Being able to translate all these ideas with one single image adds new depth to the T-shirt’s motif. There’s a connection between the image of an Afro and Simone’s strength, resilience, creativity and individuality.
We can keep asking more whys. For example, of all the different hairdos used by the singer throughout her career, why (2) pick the Afro?
Well, maybe it’s a reference to a concert she performed at in the Netherlands, in 1965. She opened that show with the song Four Women (from the Wild is The Wind album), singing:
“My skin is black, my arms are long.
My hair is woolly, my back is strong.”
As she gently strokes her own Afro, she concludes:
“And one of the women’s hair,” she says, “is like mine.”
That’s just absolutely beautiful, isn’t it?
I don’t even know if my speculations are actually leading us to the right answers. But I do know that the more I ask “why”, the deeper I get into the subject at hand, the better I understand the context and the further I get in my quest for knowledge. Consequently, I’m able to find and establish more connections, and when eventually find the answers to all these different “whys”, I’m that much more prepared and equipped to present them.
But let’s keep going. We were talking about Simone’s Afro. Have you noticed how the colors, in B&W, not only reinforce the details of her face, but also emphasize the blackness of her hair? Why (3) do you think that is?
I’d say that, perhaps, the artist who illustrated the T-Shirt was listening to “Black Is The Color Of My True Love’s Hair”, from the 1959 Nina Simone at Town Hall album, during the creative process. Or maybe he did that intentionally, so that the words, the message, the call-to-action “Be Free” would have and even more striking appearance.
While we’re at it, why (4) choose these exact words: “be free”? Why not “Be strong”? Why not “Be brave”?
My guess is that it is a reference to the song “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free”, do, from the 1967 Silk & Soul album. Also because this song was played over and over again as an anthem to the Civil Right Movement in the United States of America of the 1960s. No wonder the box that presents us with Nina Simone’s ultimate body of work (3 CDs and 1 DVD) is called “To Be Free: The Nina Simone Story”. Finally, another reason is because it’s probably an homage to her definition os freedom, which she gave during an interview in 1968: “I’ll tell you what freedom is to me: freedom is NO FEAR!”.
On this post, Lee Kai Fu said that the types of work that Artificial Intelligence will never be able to do fal into two large buckets.
1) Those that require creativity, strategy and conceptual thinking.
2) Those that require compassion, empathy and human connection.
With that in mind, let’s tackle the biggest of all whys: why Nina Simone? There are so many other icons and personalities that the artist could have chosen. Why create a motif with her face?
Here are some of the hypotheses I was able to conjure up as to why the artist picked Nina Simone.
Nina Simone, the artist, oozed creativity. On that, I think we can all agree, right?
Nina Simone, the activist, used her own voice to give voice to the Civil Rights Movement. If that’s not a BRILLIANT strategy, then I don’t know what is.
Nina Simone, the human being, was bred – from her earliest childhood – to question everything. From Muriel Mazzanovich (her piano teacher) to Lorraine Hansberry (who introduced her to the ideas of Marx and Lenin) to Betty Shabazz (Malcolm X’s wife), the people who have accompanied Simone throughout her life have always encouraged her to think about the “whys” behind the Zeitgeist and the society she was born into.
In terms of compassion, empathy and human connection, instead of talking about it, I suggest you guys watch “What Happened, Miss Simone?”, a 2015 documentary available on Netflix. At a certain point, we’re invited to participate in a gig she played in Paris, when she was at her lowest point (in terms of her career and also her health).
Playing at a tiny Café, to an even tinier crowd, and being paid a mere USD 300 a night (which is shameful – to say the least – for someone of her status and genius), she starts the show by asking the crowd, in French (a clear sign of empathy): “Est-ce que vous parlez anglais?” (Do you speak English?)
The response of the crowd clearly indicated that most of them didn’t speak English, so she procedes to sing (almost in a whisper): “Vous êtes seul, mais je désire être avec vous” (You’re alone, but my desire is to be with you). I don’t know about you, but at least in my eyes, someone who makes the effort to acknowledge and soothe somebody else’s loneliness – despite being at her worst lowest – is someone who embodies compassion and craves human connection.
These are some of the reasons that might explain why the artist chose Nina Simone to feature on the T-shirt. Truth is, we could have just taken a look at the T-shirt and thought: “wow, that’s a cool motif”. Or we could have seen the image and thought: “now, that’s a beautiful illustration”. And all would be right with the world. After all, the image is indeed beautiful and cool.
However, by thinking conceptually about it, by thinking about all the whys that led to the creating of the T-shirt, we went above and beyond.
We inevitably delved into the subject, discovering more about Nina Simone's career, about her life, finding some answers here and there, but above all, reaching a definitive, irrefutable and unquestionable conclusion: that no machine, no matter how intelligent or smart, will ever be able to create what Nina Simone created; do what she did; or move us in the same way she did and still does. Never. Ever.
That’s not me saying it. It’s Lee Kai Fu.
I wholeheartedly agree. And I even dare taking it a step further. In my opinion, no one will ever be able to equal Nina Simone’s artistry or legacy. I don’t care if you’re a machine or a human being. No one. To me, that’s pretty obvious. But hey, that’s just my opinion, right? Some of you guys might not agree with me.
And if that’s the case, then I will kindly ask you to think again.
Conceptually, if you don’t mind. ;o)
