FIXED MINDSET;the biggest barrier to Creative Thinking

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Comment by Free Willy on October 6, 2010 at 5:05

Fixed mindset = efficiency. However, this does not guarantee its continuity in time to come. You still need creative thinking to go one step ahead of time to stay competitive. Failure spells disaster unless you wake up to play catch up. Complacency = losing competitive edge.

Comment by Danny Stevens on September 2, 2010 at 4:32

I like Avril's comment. The feeling of certainty makes it easy to move forward and maintain focus.

This suggests a couple of things to me.

The first is the need for a signal "now is a good time to act with certainty". Then we can train people to "switch off" the need to be certain when that signal is not present, freeing them up to question their knowledge and point of view.

The second is the need for an idea like "pretend certainty" which is acknowledged as being what we switch to when the "certainty signal" is given. This makes it easier to stop doing when the signal goes away, because it was "only pretend" in the first place.

Comment by Franis on August 29, 2010 at 14:48

Obviously, somehow I learned how to think abstractly without doing either of those things, (although I did surprise my dad when I beat him at chess accidentally on purpose at five years old. He wasn't paying much attention and didn't notice my game plans.) I think my father taught me to think abstractly with fairy stories, myths and art, and by explaining why he was doing things as he did them. Somehow at a young age, I realized that people were intending to express many things that their actions were supposed to stand for symbolically. This gave me the idea that there was who you were, and then there was how you expressed what you intended that hit or missed the mark of communication.

Please tell me more about these "Think Link" cards - William Jack?

Comment by William Jack Jordan on August 29, 2010 at 12:02

Franis asked about how to teach abstract thought.
Chess played at a high level is very abstract.

Also teaching computer programming?

A simpler way is Eds "Think Link" cards. There are all kinds of simple abstract games you can play with them.

Comment by Bhuvaneshwar Joshi on August 12, 2010 at 6:45

As you rightly put it fixed mindset has its own advantages.I was only referring it in the context of Creative thinking.Yes,self hyponsis is certainly more acceptable and safer that the engineered one from without. EDB Society should compile a list of success stories of the use of EDB techniques for those new to choose from and get motivated..

Comment by Franis on August 10, 2010 at 10:51

I asked this same question of a very successful career coach, (with books over thirty years still in print,) who is in the business of inspiring people by constantly introducing new ideas. She gave an interesting answer. She said that I should tell more stories about how people got themselves painted into a corner. She said the best are funny story about how a problem was curiously solved after someone had a problem.

Most people do not know that human minds (this is brain science) have already decided on a habitual course of action before we are aware a decision has been made. People mistakenly think they have the ability to make a fresh decision - and are surprised when they don't! Mostly everything an adult does is a habit or a ritual.

People want their problem solved - as soon as you show them a way out, they fixate on the problem being solved...not the way you helped them solve it. Learning how a problem gets solved so you can solve other similar problems is another level of imagination that most people do not grasp Abstract thinking is a tricky skill for most people.

Anyone have suggestions about how to teach abstract thought? In a sense, it would be how to teach the "blue hat" thinking ability.