NLP vs NLP vs NLP vs NLP For Creators

byrichardgb

2.3K followers

11 months ago

Acronyms—love ‘em or hate ‘em—are a big part of the abbreviated world we’ve created.

They have their uses, of course. I mean, who has time to say the whole phrase "National Aeronautics and Space Administration" when you can just say "NASA"?

But sometimes it's like we're all competing in some speed-talking Olympics.

Anyway… NLP is an acronym that has been used for at least four different sets of ideas. and although they all have different origins, they all have inherent value for creators.

Introducing “NLP”: first, there’s…

A Short Introduction To “Natural-language Patterns”

Natural-language patterns (NLP) were around long before computers and refer to the recurring and predictable structures, elements, and relationships that exist within human language.

These patterns include things like grammar rules, sentence structures, word order, idioms, and other linguistic features that help us understand and communicate with each other.

They’re all things that we love so much to learn about at school! Although I never heard the term NLP used at School.

Needless to say‌ - a knowledge of Natural-language Patterns is essential for creators.

Naturally, of course, different languages use different language patterns, and such language patterns have evolved naturally over time to be the way they are.

Having been born and brought up in England, I know something about English natural-language patterns. However, now that I am living in Portugal, the natural-language patterns of Portugal often trip me up. Learning Portuguese is a work in progress.

Then there’s…

A Short Introduction To “Natural Language Processing”

Natural Language Processing (NLP) sounds like something your grandma does when she's trying to decipher your teenage slang. But‌ it's a branch of computer science first used during the early 1960s to have machines understand human language; which is impressive when you realise that some humans still can't understand other humans even when using a single language between them!

So Natural Language Processing has evolved into a branch of artificial intelligence (AI) concerned with giving computers the ability to understand text and spoken words.

So, at the time of writing, concepts of AI have been creeping up on us for more than 60 years!

I guess that’s not long in comparison to the evolution of Natural-language Patterns!

Anyway… Search engines such as Google have been using Natural Language Processing (NLP) in their algorithms for many years. I believe its use is improving‌ - and at the time of writing it’s the basis of many trending discussion points such as the value-add of ChatGPT and its fast-evolving competitors.

Then there’s…

A Short Introduction To “Natural-language Programming”

Natural-language Programming (NLP) is the idea that computer programming languages could be based on natural-language patterns such as those used in the English language.

OK… So what could be easier than teaching a computer to understand the nuances of human speech? I mean, we haven't even fully understood the nuances of sarcasm yet, and that's been around since the dawn of time.

Natural-language Programming was first mooted in the 1960s and has been said to be impossible to achieve (almost) ever since; and that's just in English!

As complicated as such a programming language might be, academic experts have said, as late as 2010, that a computer with the capability to handle a “natural-language programming” language would need to be far more complicated than the programming language itself. Not impossible, but very unlikely to happen.

Having conveyed that piece of wisdom, nowadays various AI tools can generate working computer programs from instructions, written in natural language, by humans!

Yes… I've tried this myself, for simple coding, and generated Javascript, HTML and CSS using Engllish.

A claim to fame‌ for a number of AI tools is that they're a step closer to being able to do what wise academics have claimed is very unlikely to happen!

Anyway, having written this post without AI assistance, I asked ChatGPT for a touch of humour to introduce the next section. This is what happened:

Quote: “There's also "Neuro-linguistic Programming" (NLP), which is not, I repeat, not a way to hack into people's brains and make them do your bidding. Or is it? I don't know. I never got past the basics of NLP; I'm just a lowly Chatbot.” - ChatGPT

So here follows my favourite NLP…

A Longer Introduction To “Neuro-linguistic Programming”

This is what this post is really about…

Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) provides a set of ideas and techniques, that started development in the early 1970s as a study of the methods used by certain very successful psychologists and a clinical hypnotherapist who were known for achieving unusual success with challenging patients.

The student and professor partnership of Richard Bandler and John Grinder developed it after they met at the University of California. They figured out that by studying and modeling the behaviour and language patterns of successful people, they could create a system that could be taught to others.

So Neuro-linguistic Programming turned out to be a very powerful system of communication practices that early practitioners called: “the pursuit of excellence”.

There was a time when some people treated Neuro-linguistic Programming as a religion, a cult, or as if it were magic. These legendary impressions have fortunately disappeared over time. Although‌ the results of some NLP processes could‌ be described as magical.

Having attended various NLP courses myself in the early 1980s, that started with the basics and progressed through levels of practitioner competence, I ended up with an “NLP Master Practitioner” Certificate.

However, I’ve found over the years that the basics are more than enough for most situations.

OK… so Neuro-linguistic Programming - derived from a study of natural behaviours of us humans; as indicated through the words “neuro” and “linguistic(s)” is about the effects of language and human neurology on each other.

It draws on principles from fields such as linguistics, psychology, and neuroscience to help people understand, and change, their patterns of communication, thought, and behaviours.

Many Neuro-linguistic techniques have been developed over the years that I mostly won’t go into here.

Now, as with any scientifically organised research, NLP has attracted it’s own jargon. I’ll try to avoid that as much as possible.

The underlying principle of NLP is that the language and behaviours we use have a powerful influence on our own, and others, thoughts and emotions, and vice versa.

Using the word “Programming” appended to the concept of Neuro-linguistic(s) is derived from the powerful changes that NLP can be used to influence in humans. It’s about programming our sub-conscious minds. It is well-known nowadays that by changing our language and behaviour, we can change our thoughts and emotions, and/or by changing our thoughts we can influence our emotions and behaviours.

In either direction, we are therefore able to change our experience of the world around us.

Another way of thinking of this is that Neuro-linguistic techniques can be used to successfully re-program any less-than-useful sub-conscious thinking processes (beliefs and mindsets) into becoming more useful patterns of thinking and behaviours.

NLP is being used in a variety of settings, including therapy, coaching, entertainment, business, and sports. It’s inherently useful for personal development. It can be used for self-induced development or with the help of a guiding practitioner.

But that’s not why I started this post…

The thing is that understanding the basic building blocks of NLP goes a long way towards improving our levels of awareness, and towards improving our communication skills as creators.

Basic Building Blocks Of Neuro-linguistic Programming

One of the basic building blocks of NLP is the idea that all communications (to self and others) are perceived and experienced through our five senses. I’m sure it won’t surprise you to hear that these senses are:

• Visual: seeing
• Auditory: hearing
• Kinaesthetic: feeling (a misused word for both touch and emotion)
• Gustatory: tasting
• Olfactory: smelling

Inside our brains, our memories are recorded in the tangles of connected cells (synapses) and systems of nerves (in the main) -‌ akin to very futuristic computer hardware although our synapses are mush messier.

Additionally, our memories, held digitally, are all recorded and recalled through combinations of our senses.

We all use all of our senses, but in differing amounts and priorities and…

Everyone has a primary sense that they tend to use more than others.

Some people are more visual than others, meaning that they tend to think in pictures and images. Others are more auditory, meaning that they tend to think in words and sounds first. And still others are more kinaesthetic, and tend to think in feelings and sensations. A small number have vast storages of taste and smell in their brains (gustatory and olfactory).

But there’s much more to this than meets the eye… our perception of anything - whether internally generated (loosely called “thinking”), or externally stimulated - starts with one of the senses (seeing, hearing, feeling, gustatory or olfactory) and is instantly refined through a natural and personal process of triggering other modalities, one after the other.

We might start with a visual perception and switch to hearing and end up with a deep feeling. For example:

• We might see a dog, oblivious to us, sniffing its way up the fence on our side of the street. Our personal process might then imagine the sound of the angry, snarling guard dog that they keep next door, leading to a feeling of fear, and before we know it, we find ourselves automatically crossing to the other side…
• We might stub our big toe on a chair leg, shout loudly in pain, and then imagine (see an internal image of) our battered big toe. We look down and to our surprise it shows no sign of damage whatsoever!
• Most of us are attracted by the smell of coffee and when we notice the aroma we might imagine a steaming cup, or‌ a coffee machine, and find ourselves being drawn towards the feel-good source…

OK… now this is just the tip of the iceberg of the NLP world… so how can a little knowledge of the way humans use senses be useful to us as creators…

How Neuro-linguistics Is Useful To Creators?

There are two main areas to highlight here:

• Learning preferences;
• Use of “senses” in our language.

Learning preferences -

Our preferred senses, lead to most of us finding that it’s easier to learn from media that reflects the different biases towards the senses that we use.

For example… those who primarily think and communicate visually, usually prefer to read or watch videos, while auditory learners may prefer to listen to audio books or podcasts.

So by including different media on our sites, the better we’ll communicate with our audiences. That might seem obvious, and ‌science now provides evidence for why it’s important.

Kinaesthetic learners may prefer to do hands-on activities or take part in role-plays. Obviously, this seems like a challenge for online creators, and a reason that learning to use the language of our senses, is so important…

Use of sense-based language -

When creating content, it's important to use language that provides a balance of experience for our readers between seeing, hearing, and feeling. From a creator’s point of view, the senses of taste and smell can be lumped in with feeling. This approach helps to make sure that our content is accessible to the widest possible audience.

Here are some tips for using language that appeals to all three modalities:

• Use vivid language that appeals to the visual sense. For example, instead of saying "I saw the dog," you could say "I saw the dog's wagging tail."
• Use auditory language that appeals to the hearing sense. For example, instead of saying "I heard the dog bark," you could say "I heard the dog's loud, booming bark."
• Use kinaesthetic language that appeals to the feeling sense. For example, instead of saying "I felt the dog's fur," you could say "I felt the dog's soft, smooth fur."

All three examples attrat an emotional reaction in the reader.

Also, it’s worth highlighting that most people (not all), when making decisions, tend to go through a process of evaluation (that they're unaware of), using their preferred senses, and their eventual decision is made based on how they feel! This process often happens at supersonic speed.

Conclusion

So, all four different meanings of the acronym "NLP" in this post hold inherent value for creators.

• "Natural-language Patterns," refers to the structures, elements, and relationships that exist within human language.
• "Natural Language Processing," is a branch of computer science concerned with giving computers the ability to understand text and spoken words in much the same way humans can.
• "Natural-language Programming," is the idea of creating computer programming languages based on natural-language patterns.
• "Neuro-Linguistic Programming," draws on principles from fields such as linguistics, psychology, and neuroscience to help people understand and change their patterns of communication, thought, and behaviours, both to themselves and others. Above all, from a creator’s point of view, it provides powerful and actionable insights into excellence in communication.

So there you have it… By using language that appeals to all three main modalities, you can create content that is both engaging and effective.

OK... love it, or hate it, or have any questions... just add a comment... I look forward to the chat...
:-)
Richard