Think Creative

I wanted to sit here this morning and drink my coffee and discuss the idea of answers. There is a statement I tend to point out to people who seem unwilling to participate in the process of putting effort into anything. That statement being: For every problem there is a solution! This can obviously apply to any given situation and to any degree of complexity on both sides of the mark, regarding the problem and the solution. What I mean there is that there could be a very difficult problem with a simple solution or a seemingly simple problem that generates a complex and intricate solution. Either way, there is a path. Now that path is created by using the process. A process that can determine a very important factor in the end result. Whether or not you end up with the correct answer or the wrong answer. Now, you may ask yourself something here. How do you know that there is a correct answer? Especially when we are considering creative aspects of the thought process. Creativity is ...

For this puzzle, the object is to take away six matches and leave two squares. OK, the answer. The issue is never with the problem, but with the way you think about it. In time this is possible. What happens at the start is that you look at the issue of two squares as if they have to be the same size. You will probably rack your brain trying to find a clever, easy or even cheating solution. What you don't do is look at the squares as two different sizes. So here is the answer.

So, I was reading up about the process of thinking. A key part of the creative process. Benjamin Bloom, in 1956 determined that there were several levels to which the human brain worked or thought. Listed here are those 6 levels. According to Bloom’s Taxonomy, human thinking skills can be broken down into the following six categories. Knowledge: remembering or recalling appropriate, previously learned information to draw out factual (usually right or wrong) answers. Use words and phrases such as: how many, when, where, list, define, tell, describe, identify, etc., to draw out factual answers, testing students' recall and recognition. Comprehension: grasping or understanding the meaning of informational materials. Use words such as: describe, explain, estimate, predict, identify, differentiate, etc., to encourage students to translate, interpret, and extrapolate. Application: applying previously learned information (or knowledge) to new and unfamiliar situations. Use words such as...

Teaching Visual Communication yesterday and was embroiled in a discussion about culture. Basically what defines culture. Some days back I was also watching an interesting TED talk by Larry Lessig. You can see it  here ! So, both of these ingredients combined by the fact I was trying to teach the students a theory of " the medium is the message " from McLuhan's book "Understanding Media" made everything come together. What I believe the students were finding difficult to understand or conceive is the fact that in some arguments there has to be some evaluation to a metaphysical state rather than a rational real world state. By this, and as trying to be taught yesterday, was the notion of containers. These were described by McLuhan as objects that hold values in the form of a message. This message is released or broadcast and creates an effect. McLuhan nicely uses the lightbulb as a good example. Stating that the mere presence of a lightbulb creates the messag...

OK, as nobody attempted to reply to this, the answer is forthcoming. It is easy to analyse the fact the company is in fact involved with skin products. The twist on the variation of 'New' converted to 'Nu' is a common trick to manipulate words to make them into clever logo derivations. However, in my classes I have the students stumped the reasoning behind the icon above the text. One thing I try to get my students to do is to think laterally. This is the teaching of the originator De Bono, and is a good way to exercise the brain in other possible outcomes to a seemingly obvious or obscure answer. If there are additional tidbits of information added to reveal certain aspects of the logo the challenge becomes simpler and simpler. However, this really shouldn't be the process of a clever thinker, nor a creative mind. Look at the logo. What does it seem to represent? What connection can be seen between this and something to do with skin? Think abstract. Obvious...

Some months back there was a discussion on the subject of 'Associational Block'. As with this subject of blocks there can be considered other aspects of the thinking process that can also create blocks. Many of these aspects are subconscious and hard to even notice, but do exist. The process by which 'Cultural Blocks' affect us not only reside in us due to long exposure to their influential promotors, but also as a deep seated passion that is based on many aspects of the culture we have come from. It should be pointed out that these blocks are not a controlling factor in our decisions on every aspect of our choices. If fact they are rare to spot, but at the same time do exist, and can exist in such a way that you are not aware. Due to the natural process of cultural development we tend to take things for granted. Many of these things can include music, art, food, and fashion. All of which by the way can be considered forms of design. However, when the notions of cul...

It has been a long time since I wrote something for the Creative Thinking blog, and I was talking to one of my readers yesterday, and it inspired me to blog something. Some time back I wrote a post about "association blocks". As part of my teaching I actually list some seven different variations in mental blocks that can stop the free thinking process. I call it the 'free thinking' process as  ultimately the point is, is to have an open mind to allow better thinking. One of the primary blocks that we encounter in the practice of thinking is what is referred to as 'perpetual blocks'. These are all self driven block. Things about ourselves that can hinder the thinking process. Now, some of these are genetic inflictions, some are socially induced afflictions and some are just ways we convince ourselves that we are entitled to be lazy in our thinking. What I will do here is go through the possible reasonings of the blocks and try to get a point of understanding ...

Is a resident of the cave (a prisoner, as it were) likely to want to make the ascent to the outer world? Why or why not? What does the sun symbolize in the allegory? And now, I said, let me show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened:--Behold! human beings living in an underground den, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the den; here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads. Above and behind them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way; and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets. I see. And do you see, I said, men passing along the wall carrying all sorts of vessels, and statues and figures of animals made of wood a...

I was in a discussion the other morning about the development of education and a theme came apparent about two distinct styles of teaching and their values in an educational scenario. These two types of teaching are those of instructional and deductive. To explain them a little more, the approach to instructional is that of having a teaching guiding you through a process. Much as with most modern education and that of the form of vertical thinking. Deductive thinking can be a result to instructive or a stand alone approach to education, but is based on the approach of learning from experience rather than secondary information retrieval. Teaching is an important and powerful way to get ideas, information and process across to large groups of people. The issue with this method is that it has, especially in recent years, become what can only be called "parrot' fashioned. By this it is meant that a teacher educates and the students repeat. This is done, like a parrot, until the ...