Abstraction

An abstraction is a representation that omits the unessential. How much is omitted determines the “level of abstraction.”

All thought deals in abstractions because full representations of reality are physically impossible for the brain to handle. The right abstraction is also much faster. The better one’s abstractions are, the more efficient one’s work becomes. Eventually this can mature into thinking at the correct level of abstraction, an important problem solving skill.

The active problem solver is continually thinking at different levels of abstraction. Each is appropriate for the task at hand. For example in the System Improvement Process they may be thinking at the which-of-four-steps level, at the what-aspect-of-the-system to understand level, or at the how-can-I-model-this-aspect-best level. When writing, talking, or thinking they may be looking for just the right word or phrase to represent a concept. When reading they are translating the author’s abstractions into their own. So much mental shifting of gears is involved that the mind must enter a high state of flow to allow thinking at the correct level of abstraction to occur spontaneously, so as not to distract concept synthesis.

Only by converting the global environmental sustainability problem into various abstract models can we hope to first understand it and then design a solution to move the present system state to the goal state. Each model is a careful attempt to abstract the problem into a higher level abstraction that behaves according to various simple rules. With the right model and the right rules, one can pick up the model, gently shake it, and watch the solution begin to slide right out before your very eyes.