Cognitive Tool Quotes

I think best with a pencil in my hand.

Think of the computer as a spiritual space for thinking.

In the development of the understanding of complex phenomena, the most powerful tool available to the human intellect is abstraction. Abstraction arises from the recognition of similarities between certain objects, situations, or processes in the real world and the decision to concentrate on these similarities and to ignore, for the time being, their differences.

The computer has evolved into a partner, a tool, and an environment--not just in science fiction, but in the public consciousness as well. Computers are no longer malevolent iron brains that manufacture tyrannical and oppressive answers; they are not a way to think, they are a place from which to think. The computer is an environment in which answers can be sought, created, manipulated and developed.

What a computer is to me is it's the most remarkable tool that we have ever come up with. It's the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds.

A metaphor is not an ornament. It is an organ of perception. Through metaphors, we see the world as one thing or another.

It has not been for nothing that the word has remained man's principal toy and tool: without the meanings and values it sustains, all man's other tools would be worthless.

The hands are the instruments of man’s intelligence.

Lists are how I parse and manage the world.

A good programming language is a conceptual universe for thinking about programming.

Words are a lens to focus one's mind.

Getting up and drawing a Venn diagram is a great way to appear smart. It doesn't matter if your Venn diagram is wildly inaccurate, in fact, the more inaccurate the better.

A powerful programming language is more than just a means for instructing a computer to perform tasks. The language also serves as a framework within which we organize our ideas about processes.

The hand is the cutting edge of the mind.

Animals are good to think with.

That language is an instrument of human reason, and not merely a medium for the expression of thought, is a truth generally admitted.

What a computer is to me is the most remarkable tool that we have ever come up with. It's the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds.

Human thinking depends on metaphor. We understand new and complex things in relation to the things we already know... once you pick a metaphor it will guide your thinking.

Thenceforth they thought that, rationally concluded, doubt could become an instrument of knowledge.

The tools we use have a profound and devious influence on our thinking habits, and therefore on our thinking abilities.

Language is not only the vehicle of thought, it is a great and efficient instrument in thinking.