An analogy is a comparison between two things to show how they’re alike in some way, even if they might seem different at first. Imagine you’re trying to explain how a computer’s hard drive works to someone who has never seen a computer. You might say, “A computer’s hard drive is like a human brain. Just as our brain stores memories, the hard drive stores a computer’s files and photos.”
Here, the human brain and computer hard drive are quite different from each other. But the analogy highlights a similarity between them: they both store important information. So, analogies help us understand new or complicated ideas by comparing them to something we already know. It’s like using a familiar landmark to help a friend find their way to a new place. Through analogies, unfamiliar concepts become clearer by linking them to something more familiar.
Buying a Home
You want to buy a home. After searching extensively, you find the perfect one. So, how do you decide how much to pay for it? Most buyers compare the home they want with other homes that have sold nearby. These are called comps in the real estate world. If another buyer paid a certain amount for a similar home nearby, that gives you a starting price. Then, you look at details like how old each home is, how big they are, and how many rooms they have. In the end, you get a rough price to start your negotiations.
But, what if you tried a different way to get a price? First, think about buying land. Then, think about paying an architect to design the home. After that, you’d need to pay a builder to build it. Finally, you’d pay for inside decoration and garden work.
How would you decide on a fair price for the land? You’d have to think of a price that seems right and then talk to the seller. Getting the price for the land is like a smaller step of figuring out the price for the whole house.
Same with negotiating a price with the contractor. You can research how much others paid to build similar quality homes in the surrounding area. Or, perhaps you can list everything needed to build the house, like material, the cost of labor, and all the fees for permits.
Reasoning by Analogy
So you have two broad approaches to figure out what to pay for a home. One is to start with prices paid for recently sold similar homes in the neighborhood. This is reasoning by analogy. Another is to break down every cost of building a house. That is reasoning from first principles to arrive at the intrinsic value of the home.
Most people use comparisons to decide on home prices. They do the same for used cars or the value of a business. Analogies make hard ideas easier to understand. It helps us think quickly and use what we already know.
Reasoning from first principles, on the other hand, requires deep knowledge and time. In our example, imagine all the expertise needed to estimate the prices of a wide range of goods and services.
Pros and Cons of Reasoning by Analogy
Advantages of reasoning by analogy:
- Speed: Analogies offer quick shortcuts. Instead of diving deep into a new concept, we relate it to something we already know.
- Communication: Analogies help convey complex ideas simply. For instance, saying “The computer’s RAM acts like our short-term memory” simplifies the concept.
- Predictive Power: Analogies help us predict outcomes based on past experiences. If A resembles B and we know B’s outcome, we can predict A’s outcome.
- Facilitates Learning: For educators, analogies link the unknown to the known, making learning easier for students.
Pitfalls of reasoning by analogy:
- Over-simplification: Analogies can oversimplify situations, leading to wrong conclusions. Similarities don’t always guarantee the same outcomes.
- Misleading: An inappropriate analogy can misguide our understanding and decision-making.
- Stifles Innovation: Relying too much on past patterns can limit creative thinking.
Analogies in Our Project
People use analogies a lot, and they reason by analogy in different ways. In A Simple Manifesto, we mention that we’ll cover many subjects. Some topics are broad and have grown over years or even centuries. Good analogies can make these tough topics easier to understand. But sometimes, we might find a common analogy that doesn’t really fit. When that happens, we’ll highlight these off-the-mark analogies to clear up any confusion.
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