≈ Madsbjerg - Sensemaking

Summary

Madsbjerg argues that our culture—especially in the business world—has become to taken with a bias toward scientific or algorithmic thinking. This obsession with data has limited our ability to build deep understanding and intuition about people and culture, which are not so easily quantified. Madsbjerg describes sensemaking, a humanities-based method inspired by phenomenology, as an alternative approach that helps understand not just what people do but helps us understand how people relate to contexts around them through the acquisition of thick data.

Notes

What is sensemaking

• ¶ Sensemaking (Madsbjerg)
• Sensemaking produces thick data
• Four types of knowledge (Madsbjerg)
• Different forms of empathy
• Honing intuition

Critique of "algorithmic thinking"

• Cultural bias toward scientific models leaves us less equipped to interpret qualitative information.
• People can't be reduced to computational processes

CS Peirce

• Peirce identifies four offences we commit when reasoning
• Only abductive reasoning can produce new ideas (Peirce)
• Four offenses we commit when reasoning (Peirce)

Critique of design thinking

• Spend more time in the problem space
• Design thinking promotes superficial ways of knowing

Citation

Madsbjerg, Christian. Sensemaking: The Power of the Humanities in the Age of the Algorithm. Hachette Books, 2017.

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