Thinking about Thinking, Creativity, Innovation and Design
Nowadays there are lots of startup challenges. Mostly they define a very broad area in where ideas are sought. It is a rather passive way to innovate. It is assumed that the idea or the startup is already out there, and it only needs some nurturing in the development, mainly at the business side. The... Continue Reading →
Many teachers in analytical/critical thinking and writing clearly forbid students the use of analogies, because, in one sense, all analogies are faulty. However, as George Lakoff, known for his thesis that the lives of individuals are significantly influenced by the central metaphors they use to explain complex phenomena, convincingly argues that all our thinking is metaphorical.... Continue Reading →
Focus defines the input of information that defines the thinking, and by that, the conclusions, solutions or opinions derived from it. In a schedule: information (A) is semi-processed in a funnel (A,B,C) of biases, assumptions and conditions to a logical solution, opinion or conclusion (C). Area A is the focus area, the area where the... Continue Reading →
Normally we are asked to help people or teams to get ideas. Because they are stuck, running around in circles, blocked, don't have inspiration or are just not creative "by nature". However, in most of the cases they lack creative thinking tools by wich they can create deliberately alternative approaches or construct systematically breakthrough ideas.... Continue Reading →
In Ideathons, a deliberate attempt is made to create breakthrough ideas. They are tightly directed 2-hour events. The participants work together in small groups of 5 to 6 thinkers. There are clearly defined areas - not too wide nor too narrow. Areas where there is an urgent need for better ideas. For that purpose, world-renowned... Continue Reading →
Creative thinking can be learnt. How? By using thinking tools. There are many tools for creative thinking, examples can be found in the following books: Edward de Bono presents 13 tools in his book Serious Creativity Grace McGartland has 25 tips and techniques in Thunderbolt Thinking(TM) Arthur VanGundy covers 29 tools in Idea Power Michael... Continue Reading →
In an earlier post we republished Michael Michalko's The Difference between the way the average person thinks and a creative genius thinks" As Michael Michalko noticed that an average person focusses his attention on a specific information and excluding all else. In contrast, a creative genius sees the whole but would move from one detail... Continue Reading →
Nowadays, innovation is very in fashion. As a person, you should be innovative (creative?). A product should be innovative to tempt you to buy it (why?). Research should be dedicated to innovations (instead of discoveries?). Or even worse, boards of directors feel compelled to proclaim a "year of innovation" or ask their employees for... Continue Reading →
In our blog post Daily Thinking – Discovering Patterns we showed some alarming daily thinking habits, like assuming that there is a linear, unambiguously relation between a cause and an effect. For example, it is assumed that increasing e-commerce will reduce traffic. People will less go to shopping malls. However, delivering goods, ordered one by one with take-back guarantee will increase... Continue Reading →
Here a sequel to How to Get a More Beautiful Question? Defining the thinking task before beginning an idea generation session is one of the most neglected stages. Most starting questions are far too broad defined. For instance. “In What Ways Might We (IWWMW) get more clients?”. It is more helpful to break it down in... Continue Reading →
In an earlier post about focus, we stressed the importance of paying attention to the focus of the thinking. Taking a problem or challenge unquestioned as it exposes itself may lead to brilliant solutions for the wrong problem. It is therefore required to pay substantial time and effort to (re)define the focus of the thinking. The problem... Continue Reading →
Concepts occur in solid form and are often not questioned. After all, they have proved their worth and value. Concepts as an abstract or generic ideas, conceived in the mind, are generalized from particular instances. The more "solid" a concept appears the higher the chances are that the concept was conceived in the collective mind... Continue Reading →
There is a misunderstanding that conceptual thinking is abstract in nature. Conceptual thinking is seen as just playing in your head, without physical devices? Conceptual art is the physical result of conceptual thinking. In conceptual art, the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work. When an artist uses a conceptual form of... Continue Reading →
Conceptual Thinking - Thinking with the help of concepts - does have a lot of advantages. concept (Wikidictionary) abstract and general idea; an abstraction understanding retained in the mind, from experience, reasoning and/or imagination; a generalization (generic, basic form), or abstraction (mental impression), of a particular set of instances or occurrences (specific, though different, recorded manifestations of... Continue Reading →
The ability to come up with a lot of alternatives is an important Thinkibility skill, reflecting "mobility" in thinking. As all skills, they have to be trained and maintained by exercises. Recently we came across a funny, but existential exercise. Since the 1950s, scientists have argued the idea that "habitable zones" around stars are the... Continue Reading →
Today, we can by using technology create situations that shows us how powerful our thoughts can be and also how confusing the boundaries between our own body and the environment can be. Below are two examples that pushes the boundaries when it comes to our concepts about thinking, the mind, body and the environment. The... Continue Reading →
With Time Fascism we mean that sometimes time restrictions are used in a way that should be characterized as oppressive, intolerant, dictatorial and/or aggressive. Babies and toddlers are expected to develop within a certain time-frame. Those who for various underlying reasons do not sit, crawl or read or should be known by the authorities, so... Continue Reading →
As an introduction to a series of blogposts about conceptual thinking we will start by paying attention to "ISH-Thinking". A concept is an abstract pattern in the brain that stands for some regular, recurrent aspect of the world, and to which any number of different words can be attached. Sometimes ago we already pointed out... Continue Reading →
Warren Berger presents in his book A More Beautiful Question a simple but effective thinking instruction to get better questions. He also argues that posing better questions become even more relevant as search engines gives a answers and at the same time offer us preset questions before we have even entered the question in full.... Continue Reading →
Will we ever discover what consciousness is? For these days of reflection at the end of 2014 we collected some TED-talks as an introduction to the subject. John Searle: Our shared condition -- consciousness David Chalmers: How do you explain consciousness? David Brooks: The social animal Antonio Damasio: The quest to understand consciousness Graham Hancock -... Continue Reading →
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Thinking about Thinking, Creativity, Innovation and Design
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