SHMOGS / "3 Words Worth Grokking"

Words are vital; they tag objects, qualities, and ideas with a succinct symbolic form and allow for the construction of more complex form. Without an understanding of the words 'green' and 'blue' and the qualities they stand for it becomes much more difficult to speak of 'turquoise' and 'teal'. If you wanted such a discussion to segue into a rhyme about porpoises and seals then words such as 'aquatic' and 'mammal' would serve you well. To attempt such an endeavor with a meager vocabulary would be a cerulean herculean task!

So here are 3 words to serve as primary colors when painting your perceptions:

Semantics, Heuristics, and Stochastics

1. Semantics - this is the study of the variability of the meaning of words, and the implications thereof. A trivial example:
A friend is driving you home. They've driven you home once or twice before, so they vaguely know the way, but at times they need verification. 

At one intersection they ask "Left here?"
You respond, "Right"
...thereby causing their brain to enter what is neuroscientifically known as "fffffffffffffffffffffffffart"
After rapidly cycling through mental oscillations and vacillations they succumb to analysis paralysis, turn neither port nor starboard, but instead drive straight forward and run over Schroedinger's Cat.

Did you mean "turn right" or "correct, turn left"? 

TELL IT TO THE JUDGE IN QUANTUM-MANSLAUGHTER COURT, YOU MONSTER!

The previous example is just a confusion of homonyms. But consider a word like 'god' - to some people it represents the set of all anthropomorphic deities, e.g.:
.Vishnu (quite the handyman)
.Zeus (turning into a swan to get laid. Turning into a bull to get laid. Turning into a shower of gold to get laid)
.Loki (tying his scrotum to a goat's beard. Probably not to get laid)
.Meshkenet (hi guys, I'm just a head on a brick. With a cow uterus for a hat)
.Eris (no hotdog buns)

Capitalize the 'gee' and to some people 'God' represents Ancient Hebrew ZZ-Top-Lookin' Skydaddy Wizard (spelled YHWH but pronounced "Jichoovichooh"). To others 'God' is 

~~ just, like, this awesome Thing, y'know? Like love, and the stars, and all the grains of sand, and why-does-the-moon-and-the-tide? and when you roll triple 6's - it's not just coincidence cuz my best friend did too on his birthday dude, and love, and when you love Love, and no-rain-no-rainbows = no-hurricanes-no-hurricanebows, etc y'know? ~~

Aaaand to some all THAT^ is Jichoovichooh ...but He prefers to be called by a name in a different language, and He has very specific rules when it comes to hats.

So, how can you have a meaningful discussion of 'atheist' vs 'agnostic' vs 'gnostic' vs 'not-religious-but-spiritual' until everyone involved agrees on a clear definition of 'God'?

Good. Now stop behaving like 'liquorice' is a shape - it's a flavor!

2. Heuristics - In psychology heuristics can be thought of as similar to 'rules-of-thumb'. Some are learned, but many are intrinsic processes of the human brain. Sometimes we are conscious that we are operating heuristically, particularly if we are familiar with the concept, but often it bypasses awareness. Heuristics vary greatly in their effectiveness, depending on the particular heuristic and the context in which it is used. Ideally a heuristic leads to a correct/favorable judgement or decision quickly and fluidly - i.e. it is cognitively more efficient than fully reasoning through every facet relevant to the judgement. However, at times heuristics can misfire and be the root of biases, stereotypes, and maladaptive instincts.

Consider two restaurants in a food court (or otherwise situated such that both can be seen simultaneously): when they open for dinner service both are empty. Let's say both serve similar types of food. A group of hungry people pass by and choose Restaurant A because the items on the menu board are more expensive. They assume, heuristically, that the more expensive food will be of higher quality. They are not short on money but they are too hungry to scrutinize the menus of each restaurant item by item; they sit down at Restaurant A. Shortly thereafter a second group passes by. If the first group was sufficiently large it may lend Restaurant A the appearance of popularity; the second group also sits down at Restaurant A. They follow the herd, heuristically assuming that popularity = quality. Restaurant A gets more crowded, potentially perpetuating the phenomenon.

Conversely, someone aware of the herding instinct might cultivate their own heuristic whereby they always choose Restaurant B in any equivalent scenario, distrusting the judgement of the herd. This might serve them well most of the time, and similarly save the effort of appraising options in detail, but sometimes they will miss out when the crowd actually selects something of quality. ...Have you ever encountered someone who abhors any artist the moment that artist becomes popular?

There is much written about heuristics (just take a peek at the wikipedia page!) so I'll wrap up my explanation here. The crucial aspect of heuristics is expressed in the words of Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman:

“When faced with a difficult question, we often answer an easier one instead, usually without noticing the substitution ... We answer an easier and related question"

Speaking of easier questions: if you rolled 2 dice right now, what would their sum be?
3. Stochastics - This is a technical/engineering term but one that ultimately has huge philosophical implications. Let's consider those 2 dice: if we know how many sides each has then we can make a probabilistic conjecture about which sums are more likely than others. If we're dealing with standard 6-sided dice then we know a sum of 7 is 6 times more likely than a sum of 2 or 12. However, we can't say for sure that we will roll a 7 and not a 2. The probability of rolling 2 twice in a row is 1 in 1296 but it still can happen and sometimes does happen! We, collectively as a species, know many laws of physics - we know about torque and momentum, about Isaac, Fig, and Huey Newton - but we couldn't ever measure all the starting conditions of our dice toss accurately enough to calculate exactly how it would end. ...but with effort we can still calculate probabilities.

All phenomena are ultimately like those dice. Well, like dozens of dice, with different numbers of sides, spinning recursively within other dice, interacting with neighboring dice and distant dice; in biological systems, in political systems, in economic systems, in the 5-day weather forecast, etc. To not analyze, calculate, and make predictions to the best of our abilities is lazy and almost cowardly. However, to be too confident and dogmatic in those assertions, to treat Things as synonymous with their reductionist models, is hubris. Those who know Everything in fact don't even know enough to know how much they don't know. Keep learning, applying, and refining.

This seems like an appropriate juncture to inject some obligatory Discordian catma:

"The imposition of Order leads to the escalation of Chaos"

4. ...okay, there're more words....

SHMOGS is a mnemonic aid for 6 words to grok. We've covered the 'H' and the 2 'S's. The 'M' is yet another '-ic' word. Yes, mnemonics. The acronym SHMOGS is a mnemonic device that contains a letter for 'mnemonics'  itself in order to remind the shmogger to utilize memory enhancers to efficiently grok things worth grokking. This self-referencing, somewhat recursive quality is akin to a word taken from the conlang Ithkuil: oicaštik - “characteristic of a single component among the synergistic amalgamation of things”.

The final word is one that's already been used multiple times:
Grok - "To understand something intimately and completely"
         - "To drink in, to make a part of one's self"
I think of grokking as analogous to muscle memory and motor skills. A child can't really learn to run hurdles until he/she groks how to walk and sprint. In mathematics you can't really achieve any fluency in calculus unless you've developed a deep instinctual adroitness with algebra. Concepts and skills that are grokked lay the foundation for the creation of higher-order concepts and skills.

Grok the SHMOGS in this blog then come back and report how you're getting along.

Semantics
Heuristics
Mnemonics
Oicastik
Grok
Stochastics

5. Point Five will be completed at a later date. Corrections, citations, and "see also"s will be added at a sooner later date. Please don't hesitate to provide criticism of content or form - I will gladly make corrections that enhance readability, clarity, and veracity.

Preliminary Post: Poetry

Ambition is a skywards-rising rope
Of wishful thinking spawned in the the abyss;
A vicious twist invigorates or chokes
Precociousness that sprints on withered limbs.

Consider it a medicine or poison,
Distinction is determined by the dose;
Utopia recedes on the horizon,
continued chase requires that it seem close.

But picture the unlucky poet Plath,
Estranged and strangled by her disp'rate goals;
Ambition's good to have, but better halved, 
Salubrious reduced to lower scope.

Perfection's a perverted urban myth.
For inner peace, don't seek eternal bliss.


(There, a sonnet. It was composed as an exercise so it seems appropriate material for an initial post. This preliminary post is primarily to familiarize myself with the platform.)