Bruno Holmes

After going through some reading on Forensic Science, I decided to implement what I've learned in real life. On the surface, it might seem like Forensic Science is specific to crime scenes but definitely not.

1-Baader-Meinhof Effect

I will make a post about it soon but basically, the Baader-Meinhof Effect is being aware of something new and realizing it is everywhere.

You decide to buy a specific brand of shoes, and the next day, you see it in a shopping mall, at school, at work, etc.

So, if you read about fingerprints or shoeprints, you will realize that they are everywhere. You walk on a rainy day and there is a muddy shoe print. It is not just a shoe print for you. It is a shoe print that came from a sports shoe and possibly male because of the size etc.

2-Everywhere is a crime scene

If you change your definition of a crime scene, it will make you more observant, sharper and more aware.

Crime Scene is: Any place where people interact with their surroundings.

So, a random street, cafe, library etc could be a crime scene. That means people leave their "trace evidence" everywhere.

Therefore, be an investigator and just look for evidence. Any kind of evidence that points to anything.

3-Don't get lost in details

If you don't want to learn specific calibres for ammunition or types of fibre, don't. Just be aware that you might see a piece of fibre on a sofa or a carpet. It might be a specific color and that might be useful in the future.

Some objects take priority over others when it comes to relevance when observing. For example placing down your phone to your right on a table and other items to your left (like food, glasses, a purse, a wallet, etc.) because when it comes to handedness, a lot of the time the phone takes priority over other things.

Heroes are either called "divine" or "goodly" or "godly" or "equal to gods" in Homer and sometimes compared to gods (Agamemnon is compared to plenty of Olympian gods and Odysseus is also said to "look like a god" especially after Athena's makeover)

This is the start of a new post series. From now on, I will share biases with examples from daily life. "Why?" could be the question on your mind. Because biases are the first thing that shape your deductions. So, if we are aware of them, we can at least try to decrease their effect.(We can't delete them. Only we can control them.)

If you are ready to face yourself and ready to change it, let's start with the first one: the Baader-Meinhof Effect.

Let's say you went shopping for shoes. You saw a brand new model of shoes you've never seen before and thought "Wow. That's a brand new model." You left the shop and went home. A few days later, you start to realize that a lot of people have the same shoes you have. The first thought is: "This shoe is starting to become popular. Everybody buys it nowadays." And here is the bias.

The real reason you started to notice this shoe model is because you've just bought it and your brain became aware of it. Then, started to show it to you everywhere you go.

This bias is also called:

-Frequency Illusion -Selective-Attention Bias

-Recency Illusion

You can apply it to everything you've just become aware of. So, how can we as "Deductionists" use it to our advantage and be aware of the dangers?

First of all, the biggest danger is the effects on your deductions. If you've read or learned something, you will have more tendency to see the situations in the way you learned them. For example, married people wear a ring on their ring finger. When you learn that, you will notice a lot of rings on people's fingers and you will be more likely to see all of them as married. So, whenever you learn something new, be aware of that.

And now, how to use it to our advantage? If you can learn something and you can start to notice that a lot, that means if we learn a lot of information about the things we see in daily life, we will be more aware of them. If you learn all of the shoe brands and models, whenever you go out you will notice the shoes and you will also know the model. That means you are going to miss less information.

Lately, I've been thinking about mindset because most of the things I face in life are connected to my mindset. So, I want to talk about some parts of mindset that could help us improve at deduction.

1-Acceptance

If you want to analyze a situation, a person or anything, you need to accept what comes along the way. If you refuse to face what you see then you won't see what is in front of you. You need to be open to every possibility.(Even if it shakes your world and beliefs.)That's how you can analyze and decide whether it is true or not.

Stoicism might be helpful here. Stoicism is mostly based on accepting and controlling what we can. First, you accept whatever you face and then control the parts you can.

2-Emotional Qualities are antagonistic to clear reasoning

If you don't accept the fact that you have emotions, then they will ruin your observations and deductions every time. Again, acceptance. Everybody has emotions and that is not the problem. The problem is that you need to be aware of them and minimize their effect.

It is connected with acceptance because mostly, emotions are barriers to acceptance. They want to accept everything that supports them and refuse the rest.(Confirmation Bias) So, welcome your emotions, be aware of them and face them.

3-Don't underestimate yourself, you are capable

If someone can run 100m in 9 seconds, that probably means another person can run it in 9 seconds. If someone can finish a book in 5 hours, that also probably means another person can finish it too.

My point is, we are all human. We can improve and be better at everything we do. Of course, we have our limits but most of the time you draw the limit to yourself. Most of the time, your schemas about yourself make you think you can't be better at something.(Most common examples: Math, remembering names, being rich etc.)

Again, acceptance. Accept that you might have a limit. But that doesn't mean you can't push yourself and see that limit. We don't even know if we can reach our limits in 70 years. So, be a lifelong student and don't worry about your limit. Just improve every day and see the results.

For now, that's all. See you soon.

"Education never ends Watson. It is a series of lessons with the greatest for the last."