Sensemaking

How do we make sense of the world we live in? What does it mean to “make sense”?

In 1928, Alexander Fleming noticed that fungus destroyed a bacteria culture and remarked “That’s Funny”. He investigated to make sense of this observation and discovered penicillin.

The Wikiversity Clear Thinking curriculum provides several courses that improve sensemaking.

Sensemaking or sense-making is the process we use to integrate new information into our existing worldview. This requires clear thinking. It is helpful to notice what happens when the new information is incongruent with our current worldview We can ignore, dispute, or deny the new information. Alternatively, if we find the new information to be credible, we can update our worldview to accommodate the new information.

We are explanation seeking beings. We use abductive reasoning to infer the most likely explanation.

Isaac Asimov recognized the importance of investigating misfits when he said, “ The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!', but 'That's funny ...'”

Making sense out of planetary motions brought us the heliocentric model of the universe and Newton’s theory of gravity. Making sense of the causes of diseases brough us the germ theory of disease, and making sense geologic events brought us the theory of plate tectonics.

When the facts don’t fit your assumptions, reinvestigate the evidence or reconsider your assumptions. Seek congruence and consilience to make sense of the world.