Thinking about Thinking, Creativity, Innovation and Design
Idea finding or searching for a new concept seems very similar to word finding. When an individual has consistent inability to produce words for things that they want to talk about they are suffering a kind of aphasia. They experience difficulties in answering questions as: What is the name of the category: church building house …
We believe there should be a university that is solely dedicated to the in-depth exploration of “thinking”. Earlier we wrote some Thinkibility Nibbles about how a University that teaches how to think, not what, might look like. In the West Wing scientists and students dissect the existing basic thinking patterns in a scientific discipline. In contrast to this, …
In our series of conceptual thinking, we argued that “thinking boxes” or concepts help us to make sense of the world. At the same time it is restricting us in three ways: if we are not able to escape from standard interpretations of the world, we can’t innovate. It’s about changing perceptions and is called creativity …
According to Wiktionary, a concept is an abstract and general idea, an abstraction. It is an understanding retained in the mind, from experience, reasoning and/or imagination. It is a generalization (generic, basic form, or abstraction (mental impression), of a particular set of instances or occurrences (specific, though different, recorded manifestations of the concept. As you …
Thinking with concepts is very powerful, as we earlier showed in the post Conceptual Thinking. Conceptual Thinking is the ability to identify patterns or links between seemingly unrelated issues. This in contrast to concrete thinking – that is a style of thinking in which the individual sees each situation as unique and is unable to generalize from …
Continue reading “Ways Concepts Are Camouflaged – Thinkibility Boost”
As we noted earlier, in our opinion not many people, even academics, are proficient in Conceptual Thinking. Perhaps because we are not taught to think with the aid of concepts. In following posts we will explore the idea of concepts. What is a concept? To what does it refer to? How does a concept manifest …
Continue reading “What Is a Concept, Basically? – Thinkibility Boost”
What curriculum changes are needed for schools, regarding global changes and sustainability? Current Approach The European Commission’s climate plan is limited to reducing carbon emissions by industries. It has goals, but not strategies on how to reach those goals. It covers sectors such as electricity, mobility, industry, built environment, and agricultural and land use. However, …
Continue reading “Global Changes and the Changed Needs for Education”
In “Education – 21 Century Challenges” about “What should we teach children?” we posed two additional questions: What advice should young people follow? Who or where should they turn for advice when adults’ wisdom may only be outdated biases? We suggested two (visual) approaches; one that departs from the current situation and one that departs from …
In many books about innovation, it is stated that “You just have to be willing to challenge the assumptions of your industry, ask fresh questions, and –get this — embrace your humanness.” Daniel H. Pink Such calls are completely inadequate. Moreover, it suggests that the detection of assumptions is simple. On the contrary, the nature …
Since we started the posts Interesting Reading Areas since 2013 we noticed that most end-of-the-year lists of books consist of books that have already been read by others and many of the lists consist of the same books. Often the lists consist of books that have topped the sales lists during the year. The underlying …
Can weather be described as feathers that mimics the migratory patterns of five birds? What is weather? And how can we reconsider weather? Weather is different in different parts of the world. Sun, snow and rain. Annual changes in temperature – hot and cold. A huge part of weather is invisible – part of air. …
As we last year noted, most end-of-the-year lists of books consists of books that have already been read by others and many of the lists consists of the same books. Often the lists consists of the books that have topped the sales lists during the year. The underlying message could be interpreted as “if you …
From the Manager’s Desk Dear Joanne, today it is Friday, and I have still not received your three breakthrough ideas for this week. Please send me a mail, so we can discuss it in our team meeting on Monday morning. I have wondered many times why employers are so wary to tell their employees to …
Continue reading “I’ve Still Not Received Your Weekly Three Breakthrough Ideas”
We would like to share with you a couple of successive designs as an example how a design process develops in time. First, we wanted to make an ebook without a fancy cover, but marketing experts told us that people buy book-covers, instead of books; even it is an e-Book. The cover should reflect the …
A book about creativity should not only inspire you to create and explore new ideas, it should also provide you with practical tips. Books such as “Thinkertoys” and “Cracking Creativity” by Michael Michalko are just that type of books. You return rather than read straight through to these books. Michalko’s new book “Creative Thinkering” is …
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