Two Methods of Thinking
In school, we are taught to think by listening, by reading and by reasoning. Sometimes it might seem that the only way to think is logically with words, but that is not the only way.
The two different manners of thinking—academic and creative:
- Academic. Deduction and analysis, logical. Firm conclusion from given premises. Used properly, you can never make an error; however, you also can never deduce any information that is not contained in the premises. A good question: what is the source of premises in deduction? They come from experience; they are pattern-completed (frozen) concepts.
- Creative. Pattern-matching, like analogy, where we treat partial matches like exact fits, fill-in missing pieces or just ignoring the differences. It’s possible to make errors. It’s possible to jump to a good answer without complete information. The active completion of data into patterns is the source of much intuition and creativity.
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