Thinking about Thinking, Creativity, Innovation and Design
A business model is a plan for the successful operation of a business, identifying sources of revenue, the intended customer base, products, and details of financing. It tells the story around the kind of value the company wants to create. Facebook that has been rather negative in the news lately. It might be because Facebook has an almost …
We came across a booklet that could be a good example for the kind of studies by the envisioned Thinkibility University. At its West Wing, scientists dissect the basic thinking patterns in a scientific discipline. Siddhartha Mukherjee was asking himself: If there is a science of medicine, then science has laws. Physics has laws. Chemistry …
There are several ways to design a new concept deliberately. But what is a new concept? Not many people have a quick answer to this question, other than "differently than expected", "something else as normal", "not seen before" or just "interesting". One of the easiest ways to design a new concept is to escape from …
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 "So Where Is Everybody? – Thinkibility Nibble"
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 …
Besides the practical, economical and ecological advantages of reusing obsolete things, it is good brain workout to give yourself the instruction: 25 Creative Ideas To Reuse ... The amount of required ideas is important to avoid too obvious ideas. Try to make twenty-five at least. If you don't believe this is possible, look at these examples: …
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Since we began this blog, we have discussed a range of Thinking Strategies to enhance capabilities to think about a subject. Thinking Strategies are process designs for thinking. It gives you a global approach for thinking. Thinking Strategies allow you to make a map of the thinking situation before you enter the area. It allows …
Continue reading "Thinking Strategies: It’s Time to Plan the Thinking"
A surgical team in a hospital realised that their activities became more and more complex, partly because of the treatments that they were offering but also by an increase of the number of people involved. They looked for better ideas, outside their box of thinking. They visited an aircraft carrier, a pit stop at auto …
Continue reading "Where To Search for New Ideas? – Thinkibility Nibble"
This post is about patterns or logical bubbles in psycho therapy. As we will see there are some parallels with lateral thinking. There are several reasons why a person attends psychotherapy. Someone may attend psychotherapy because she is suffering because she thinks herself into a situation she doesn't want to be in. She visits a psychotherapist to …
Continue reading "I Am a Depressive Character – You’re Absolutely Right"
Recently we came across a handsome book by Jodie Newman called Business Creativity. In the chapter about Creative Toolkit, we found five tools that we clustered around the theme Change Point of View, because basically they come all down to the same principle. As we earlier pointed out each of us looks at the world …
Continue reading "Change a Point of View – Thinking Strategy"
Is more innovation needed in the social sector? Or is it better to play it safe and not take any risks? Innovation carry risks and how risky an innovation proves to be depends partly on the choices people make in using new ideas or products. A great example of how the choices we make influence …
Continue reading "Social Innovation – New Ideas that Meet Unmet Needs"
In times past there was a barter economy. Goods were exchanged for other goods. Yet the exchange did not have to take place at the same time, it could be up to a year later. A major economic innovation was the invention of money in form of silver, pearls or any other valued, but scarce …
Continue reading "The New Currency Is Time – Thinkibility Nibble"
As a follow-up of an earlier post about Reversals, we present here some more examples. A Reversal reverses the usual sequence or direction of doing something. For instance: Normally a product is delivered after the customer places the order. A Reversal could be that the customer places the order after the product is delivered. What ideas …
Continue reading "World’s Most Interesting Reversals (2) – Thinkibility Boost"
In a Reversal, the usual supposed cause-effect relation between objects or subjects are turned upside down. For example, it is supposed that the establishment of a permanent observation post increases the safety of recreational sailing. A Reversal could set up that the establishment of a permanent observational post rightly effective decreases the safety of sailors. The …
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Optical filters are devices that selectively transmit light of different wavelengths. They absorb some wavelengths of light – that is, colors – while transmitting others. Optical filters define what we see and what is left out. Key concepts and filters Key concepts do exactly the same with what we perceive. They strengthen or weaken information, …
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The art of non-building! Marco Canevacci is a member of Berlin-based architectural collective Plastique Fantastique. An architect who is not interested in building buildings, instead he focuses on structures that are impermanent. Soap bubbles, pneumatic machines and loupes (French for magnifying glasses). The bubbles can be squeezed into any urban scenario and they transform our …
Continue reading "Do You Need New Eyes? – Thinkibility Nibble"
Trends in Innovation In an interesting article in the Harvard Business Review, “Reversing the Decline in Big Ideas” Max Marmer argues; “The number of teams working on transformational ideas in Silicon Valley seems to be declining and homogeneity of founding teams is one of biggest reasons why. We started with the dynamic duo of the …
Continue reading "Trends in Innovation – Think Inside The Box!"
Actions Speak Louder than Words The annual Earth Day is marked by a mix of ideas ranging from inspired initiatives to shameless ideas where the purpose it to get us to buy even more. “Together, we can help to make Every Day Earth Day!” is a great idea but when it is put next to …
What do a driverless car, Google, and democracy in higher education have in common? The German computer scientist Sebastian Thrun is a creative mind working in the zone between the possible and impossible. Resisting impossible ideas are easy but inventors are unhappy, says Sebastian Thrun. Inventors are constantly searching for solutions and they feel the pain of …
Continue reading "World Thinkers’ Ideas – Believe in the Impossible"
What does it feel like to have no voice? Ethical values are important for the Swiss lawyer Antoine Goetschel. He represents abused animals in the court. The clients are mostly dogs but he also represents the interests of other pets, farm animals, and wildlife. Since the 1970s, Swiss animals have been more protected in legislation …
Continue reading "World Thinkers’ Ideas- Lawyer for the Animals"
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