A good orator makes us see with our ears
Arab proverb
How do you explain something unusual, foreign and complex to people? We often hear the phrase “explain it to a 5-year-old” in a pitch deck questionnaire or an interview.
We explain it with terms and language they are comfortable with. Analogies help you do just that by communicating a new concept in familiar terms.
Watch Steve Jobs explain why he called the computer as the “bicycle for our minds”
How do you process new information? We use mental models to think, solve problems and inform our decisions. Daniel Kahneman in ‘Thinking, Fast and Slow‘ talks of System 1 and System 2. System 1 is quick, intuitive and emotional. System 2 is slow, logical and deliberate. We think we operate in System 2 most of the time, but 95% of all human thought is sub-conscious.
Analogies, when used well, can provide quick, intuitive and an emotional bridge between two disparate ideas otherwise separated by a deep valley.
What is an Analogy?
An analogy highlights the similarities and connects two disparate ideas together. It maps the understanding of one idea onto another while preserving relevant details and discarding the rest.
A metaphor is a direct and creative comparison. It is a type of analogy. A simile is a comparison of two things using words ‘like’ or ‘as’.
Why analogies are useful?
Our brains are wired for taking shortcuts – the law of least effort. This is one reason why habits are formed which I wrote about previously. Analogies provide the shortcut to understanding a new concept.
Analogies paint a picture in the minds of people. And since we process information through memories and visuals, the message in the form of an analogy has a better chance of striking a chord with the reader or customer.
We use analogical thinking for problem-solving and arguments to further our point of view. A lot of the times, we use analogies without even realizing it. Analogies can influence outcomes in ways we may not realize at first. The “three strikes” law in the US comes from baseball, but since it blindly applies this baseball concept to a complex environment, many petty crimes lead to jail time which otherwise would have been avoidable.
A well-crafted analogy can be persuasive in framing situations and arguments in your favour. Here are five criteria for creating effective analogies according to Pollock:
- use the familiar and explain something unfamiliar
- highlight similarities & obscure differences
- identify useful abstractions
- tell a coherent story
- resonate emotionally
Here’s a great example of using visual analogy to explain human anatomy and physiology:
One of the reasons why they’re powerful is due to the Analogical Insertion Effect where a listener mistakes their own conclusions from arguments as presented facts, even when they don’t fit their prior beliefs. The ‘Resistance is futile’ hypothesis states that the analogical insertion effect can shift people’s thinking against their own will, even when those changes are emotionally uncomfortable.
This could explain why stories are powerful. They are analogies of our own lives, dramatized and blown up on a big screen. We connect with the hero’s story because we find similarities with it while ignoring all that is different and immersing ourselves in the hero’s journey.
Storytelling in a marketing and business context can use the effectiveness of analogies and the impressiveness of a story to deliver a compelling message that influences behaviour.
Connect the dots
I wrote about the practice of deliberate and mindful note-taking before. If note-taking is collecting the dots, then analogies can help us connect the dots. They bridge two different ideas by highlighting the similarities and helping us discover new insights. Many discoveries and inventions owe their genesis to analogies. Here are some examples:
- Gutenberg – pressing liquid onto paper + standardized letters like coins
- Darwin – plant/animal breeding vs natural selection
- Human flight – not birds flapping wings, more like a cycle
- Ford assembly line – conveyor belt at a slaughterhouse
Analogies are strategic thinking tools
It makes efficient use of information and mental processing power. You don’t need to understand every aspect of the problem. Apply models framed from areas you already know off to the current problem.
This Harvard Business Review article called ‘How strategists really think.Tapping the power of analogy’ talks about how business schools teach strategy using case studies. Case studies provide a database of analogies the students can use in their management careers to solve problems. The best strategy consultants are adept at drawing lessons from one industry and applying it to another. The article goes on to say that leaders and managers who are unaware of how they are already using analogies in their thinking and decision making end up making mistakes; pitfalls that psychologists have researched and written about.
The article prescribes four steps that can improve a management team’s odds of using an analogy well:
- recognize the analogy and identify its purpose;
- thoroughly understand its source;
- determine whether the resemblance is more than superficial;
- and decide whether the original strategy, properly translated, will work in the target industry.
More examples of how analogies have helped in inventions and discoveries:
- Kanban method was created when Taiichi Ohno observed the shelf-stocking procedures in US markets.
- The desktop user interface designed by Xerox and popularized by Apple was based on familiar objects – files, folders, documents etc
- Antoine Lavoisier, considered the father of modern chemistry, was an accountant, who used ideas from one field to then quantify measurements of chemical substances, creating the chemical balance equation.
- Rutherford’s atomic model was based on the solar system
Compound interest is like a snowball that grows bigger as it rolls
Analogies help us create mental models by connecting ideas and concepts.
How can analogies help find a niche and position a product
Analogical thinking can help identify and discover niches. A matchmaking app for founders to find co-founders. A uber for mental health. Amazon for construction material.
If you’ve identified a new niche, the audience is generally unfamiliar and uneducated about it. Analogies can help place the new category of service in a context they can understand and relate to, thereby reducing the friction to adopting a new product or service.
Choosing better analogies
- Learn to spot analogies in disguise and analogical thinking
- Deconstruct analogy – strengths & weaknesses
- Don’t make snap judgements
- Beware of hyperbole & don’t get framed
- Remember analogies are models
- Explore multiple analogies
- “Analogies should enhance thinking, not substitute for it”
- Zoom in and out for a closer look and a bigger picture
Buying insurance is like “bubblewrapping” your life
When analogies fail
Enron’s rapid expansion and diversification into new markets based on loose analogies contributed to its collapse.
Here are some reasons why analogies fail:
- Relying on superficial similarities instead of deep traits
- Anchoring – A cognitive bias where an analogy or other idea anchors itself and is hard to dislodge, even in the face of contradictory evidence
- Confirmation bias – The anchoring effect is reinforced by another problem when we tend to seek out information that confirms our existing beliefs and to ignore contradictory data.
- You start with a source problem and a candidate solution, then use analogies to find a target problem where the solution would work well.
Eg: Building a product first and then trying to find a market for it. - Using cliched metaphors
- “A low hanging fruit”
- “we’re the Mercedes of X”
- “save for a rainy day”
- “blanket of snow”
- “putting all your eggs in one basket”
- Using superficial analogies. This approach can also be used to find niches in your target market based on what you observe in other industries.
Analogies, therefore, can offer an impactful way to sell, market and pitch your product or service to an audience who is either unaware or is expected to raise lots of questions.
Additional Reading/Watching:
The art of the metaphor
The hidden power of analogy
Thinking in time – The uses of history for decision-makers
The Tall Lady With the Iceberg: The Power of Metaphor to Sell, Persuade & Explain Anything to Anyone
Thinking as a science
Analogy Quotes
Analogy Examples
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