99.9% of the time cause and effect are "close together". Statistically, it is a very good mental shortcut to look for cause and effect to be close together, so we do this instinctively. From Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner, "we believe especially in near term causes: a snake bites your friend, he screams with pain, and he dies. The snakebite, you conclude, must have killed him. Most of the time, such reckoning is correct. But when it comes to cause and effect, there is often a trap in such open-and-shut thinking." As a computer programmer, I have seen many, including myself, routinely fall into this trap. When there is an error or bug, it has always amazed me that most of the time, programmers can find the cause quickly(in minutes or seconds) by using sound logic and reasoning despite the fact that there are thousands of lines of code in a program. However, when a recent code change is released, or an error occured a very short time ago, and a new error occurs, the same programmer will automatically look for the new bug in the same location as the code change or previous error. This "mental shortcut" is instinctively used instead of mythodical logic and reasoning, and if the new error is unrelated, the programmer can spend hours of misery in this "trap" searching for the new bug. Vision is narrowed, as you "tunnel in" your search for the cause. You are completely distracted from the big/broad overall picture and can't find the actual cause which is in a very different location from where you are focusing. Why am I explaining this? Because, like everything else, nature figured this out long ago. Your mind generates a cause and effect which are close together to tunnel your attention and distract you from dangerous thoughts. You focus in on the twist of your body, and immediate back pain, or the change in weather, and the quick to follow joint pain, and are totally distracted from other thoughts that the mind determines are dangerous. Society, and the medical community have fallen into the trap of trying to figure out why a ringing bell causes a dog to salivate, which, in and of itself, is irrelevant without looking at the entire experiment/picture.
Beavis |
Cause and Effect"Triggers" This sums it all up.
Posted - 09/25/2011 : 23:09:23
