Conceptual Blockbusting

Text in black are quotes; text in green are my notes. I sometimes write in Spanish.

• The mind generally does not compulsively continue to unearth additional options. It sacrifices concepts in order to reach a speedy decision. #

• Habit, therefore, allows us to move rapidly, accurately, and safely. It would be impossible for us to complete our mental tasks without habit. #

• We cannot process all of the data available to us in raw form. The mind, therefore, depends heavily on structures, models, and stereotypes. These are part and parcel of habit; without habit, we couldn't process the information we need in order to exist. #

• Habits are often inconsistent with creativity. Creativity implies deviance from past procedure; habits are consistent with it. Habits often destroy creative ideas before they see the light of day. #

• This hit-and-run approach to problem-solving begets all sorts of oddities-and often a chain of solution-causing-problem-requiring-solution, ad infinitum. #

• As another example of the power of stereotyping, I wear neckties. I do not like them and at one time considered never wearing them again. However, I decided that this was a foolish battle, because the stereotyping associated with a necktie is so strong that I can accomplish certain things professionally much easier by wearing one, since people assume I am more important. #

• necktie #

• Creativity has sometimes been called the combining of seemingly disparate parts into a functioning and useful whole. Stereotyped conceptions of the parts hinder their combination into a new whole, where the roles they play may be quite different.Once a label (professor, housewife, black, chair, butterfly, automobile, laxative) has been applied, people are less likely to notice the actual qualities or attributes of what is being labeled. #

• Psychologists write about an unpleasant internal state, called cognitive dissonance, that results from an inconsistency among a person's knowledge, feelings, and behavior. The individual attempts to minimize this dissonance. One way to do this is to devalue information that does not fit one's stereotype. #

• We not only stereotype other people and things, but we stereotype ourselves. Stereotyping is an obvious perceptual block-perhaps the most important one. #

• Difficulty in isolating the problem is often due to the tendency to spend a minimum of effort on problem-definition in order to get to the important matter of solving it. Inadequately defining the problem is a tendency that is downright foolish on an important and extensive problem-solving task. #

• Vertical thinking begins with a single concept and then proceeds with that concept until a solution is reached. Lateral thinking refers to thinking that generates alternative ways of seeing a problem before seeking a solution. #

• Logic is the tool that is used to dig holes deeper and bigger, to make them altogether better holes. But if the hole is in the wrong place, then no amount of improvement is going to put it in the right place. No matter how obvious this may seem to every digger, it is still easier to go on digging in the same place than to start all over again in a new place. Vertical thinking is digging the same hole deeper; lateral thinking is trying again elsewhere. #

• Vertical thinking is digging the same hole deeper; lateral thinking is trying again elsewhere. #

• **Tags:** favorite, problem solving #

• The trickiest aspect of saturation is that you think you have the data, even though you are unable to produce it when needed. #

• Inability to tolerate ambiguity; overriding desires for security, order; "no appetite for chaos" #

• You should allow the mind to struggle with problems over time. Incubation is important in problem-solving. It is poor planning not to allow adequate time for incubation in the solution of an important problem. It is also important to be able to relax in the midst of problem-solving. Your overall compulsiveness is less fanatical when you are relaxed, and the mind is more likely to deal with seemingly "silly" combinations of thoughts. #

• book produced by the Cornell Architectural Department entitled The Bathroom. #

• In other words, the best creative work comes from people who are not only electronically interconnected, but also share cultural values and interact personally in the same physical space. Companies assuming that everyone will live in cyberspace will do fine as long as they are content with a customer base of like-minded people. If they want to go beyond that, they must become appreciative of the values of people like me, who have no interest at all in receiving more advertising messages or carrying G.P.S. receivers and cell-phones while backpacking. #

• In order to maximize the creative output of a group, a manager must be willing and able to encourage his subordinates to think conceptually and to reward them when they succeed. He should, of course, conceptualize on his own. But he should do it somewhat in tandem with the other members of his group, if he is attempting to use them to their fullest. #

• Many psychologists and general semanticists feel that verbal languages are the basis of thinking. For instance, L. S. Vygotsky, in Thought and Language, says, "Thought is born through words." Edward Sapir in Language says that "language and our thought grooves are inextricably interwoven, are, in a sense, one and the same." #

• I have spent quite a bit of time teaching design in a university setting which attracts an extremely verbal group of students. A great deal of effort has been put into their verbal (and mathematical) abilities during their formal education, but little into their visual ability. When they come to Stanford, many are "visual illiterates." They often are not used to drawing, nor to using visual imagery as a thinking mode. #

• The bottom line is that not to consider cognitive diversity in the formation of a group is to lose creative potential. #

• you have nothing to lose and a great deal to gain by questioning. The only thing you need to remember is that everyone is not as enlightened about knowledge as you (now) are, and some people will become unhappy if questioned to the degree that their omniscience becomes suspect. #

• It is often a help in conceptualization to consider attributes instead of commonly used labels. #

• "All right, I need some fresh ideas on this problem I am working on and I have a little time to spend, so I will suspend judgment and see what ideas I can think of. It doesn't matter if my thoughts are weird at times, since no one can see what I am up to." I am then free to conceptualize without judging the practicality of the ideas, since I am not imperiling my ego. After all, I officially announced to myself that I would undergo this activity and therefore it is not typical of my usual mental deportment. #

• The creative person is both more primitive and more cultured, more destructive and more constructive, crazier and saner, than the average person. #

• The fear of asking questions is often predicated on exposing your ignorance to others. The fear goes away when you realize that others are ignorant too. Similarly, you are less afraid of expressing your emotions when you learn that others have similar emotions, whether they have repressed them or not. #

• Authoritative leaders tend to give their subordinates answers, not problems; in addition, they often inspire rebellion. A climate of mutiny is hardly ideal for maximizing the conceptual output of a person or group. Rather than overthrow the ruler, people can rebel by having no ideas at all. #

• The Wisdom of Teams by Katzenback and Smith (Har-yard Business School Press). In this book the authors list six basic elements for good teams. These are:1. Small enough in number2. Adequate in levels of complementary skills3. Truly meaningful purpose4. Specific goal or goals5. Clear working approach6. Sense of mutual accountability #

• Bob Sutton, an organizational behavior professor at Stanford, is fond of saying that non-innovative companies reward success, punish failure, and accept inaction. Innovative companies reward both success and failure (assuming it follows a valiant attempt) and punish inaction. #

• The challenge is to give students enough freedom and encouragement that they will explore, but also enough evaluation and feedback so that they will learn. Once again the right balance of creativity and control. #