About
David Romano
2007 Aug 22 (Wed)
The second performance hack continues where the first left off, and explains another system for memorizing tasks to do (the number-shape system). The subtitle for the hack is "Associate numbers with shapes and use the hunting and gathering faculties of your primitive ancestors to remember 21st-century data." In the "How it Works" section, the author states:
Our ancestors used their senses to learn more about the world, find food, escape predators, and perform many other essential tasks. These tasks were vital to our survival in an evolutionary sense, so the faculties involved in processing sensory information were well developed, and today our brains still process this kind of information thoroughly and efficiently.The phrase that bothered me is in an evolutionary sense, because it is superfluous, and might be incorrect. For instance, the passage without the phrase is just as accurate, and might be more precise:
Our ancestors used their senses to learn more about the world, find food, escape predators, and perform many other essential tasks. These tasks were vital to our survival, so the faculties involved in processing sensory information were well developed, and today our brains still process this kind of information thoroughly and efficiently."Look ma! No evolution needed!" I really don't see the point of basing our use of senses on the view that they are inextricably tied with an evolutionary process, rather than an innate process that never underwent evolution. Our faculties, surely, can become better developed, but I'm not sure it is an evolutionary imperative that they ought to be. But about the hack: useful. :-)
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