How to use lateral thinking for solving complex problems

i was thinking…VINAY DIXIT, may 2014

sometimes.There is a beautiful lady at party . flawless skin, elegant clothes, perfect figure. She attracts lot of attention but sometimes later everyone just drifts away.

On the other side there is a slight bald, short, thick specs guy and he has lot people around him listing carefully

1. some people always have new ideas to solve problems? While others of equal intelligence never do?

2. some people are better qualified to have new ideas and also have more opportunities

3. new ideas, like accidents, always happen to other people

Ever wondered why…

the pebble story

The girl should refuse to take a pebbleThe girl should show that there are two black pebbles in the bag and expose the money lender as a cheatGirl should draw the black pebble and sacrifice herself to save her father to go to jail

Certainly a different thinking is needed to solve this problem

It was almost impossible to solve by concentrating on the pebble to drawn out of the bag. Unless one starts to

look at the pebble that is left behind in the bag

Similarly…

What’s the relationship between beer, milk and a stranded car

Drawing a queen out of three cards

How much water and how much wine in both glasses

ability to think fast and efficiently will not help too….

problems are well defined by programmers, who also indicate the path along which the problem has to be explored.

computers are not creative!

A toy block built upward where each block is resting firmly and squarely on the block below it.

Blocks are scattered around. They may be connected to each other loosely or not at all.

Fundamental difference

which thinking and when?

Some people like the idea of lateral thinking so much – that they apply it everywhere…not good

In reality, vertical and lateral thinking are complementary to each other. You will always start with vertical thinking to understand different components of the situation and eventually move to a non-vertical way of reaching the solution

When ordinary vertical thinking is not able to find a solution to a problem or a new idea is required, than lateral thinking should be used.

traditional way in which our mind functionsBuild and recognize pattern

The function of thought is to eliminate itself and allow action to follow directly on recognition

Our mind is an optimizing system that interprets a situation by recognizing patterns

Probability by cognition

The essential difference is that with lateral thinking the whole process is firmly controlled. If lateral thinking chooses to use chaos it is chaos by direction, and not chaos through absence of direction. While with vertical thinking logic is in control of the mind, whereas with vertical thinking logic is at the service of the mind.

how does one style of thinking uses the brain

VerticalLogic is in control of

mind

LateralLogic is at service in

mind

Chooses to use chaos by direction, and not chaos through absence of direction

where should I begin?

1. develop an alternate view of the situation2. find and eliminate dominance3. stay away from rigidity4. deliberate play

the hole storydigging a hole deeper vs digging multiple wholes (elsewhere)

By far greatest amount of scientific effort is directed towards the logical enlargement of some accepted holes

However, some of the great ideas have come from ignoring existing dug holes and create new ones

Education is designed to make people appreciate the holes that have been dug for them by their betters. Its communicative and not creative.

This hole hopping is rare because of education

…and hard work doesn’t pay always

Charles Darwin spent more than 20 years working his theory of evolution

Alfred Russell Wallace paper contained a clear exposition of Darwin’s theory of evolution and Survival of the Fittest

Unfortunately, new ideas are not the prerogative of those who spend a long time seeking and developing them…

How do you make the car run faster ….two opposite ways of thinking…

A process can be improved by directly working on it or by recognizing and eliminating those instances that inhibit the process.

eliminate the access weight

Install a bigger engine

Pressing the gas paddle

Ensuring that the breaks are fully released

Search for alternate ways of looking at the things is not natural

One such way is to find a pre-define number of ways in which the situation can be looked at. In time this practice becomes less of an effort in finding ways to look at a way but becomes natural

Another way is to – reverse the relationship – e.g. instead of thinking that walls are supporting the roof. Think about walls suspended from the roof. Instead of earth revolves around the sub, assume sun revolves around the earth.

It might be interesting to study stupidity in order to understand intelligence. It might be easier to understand what a stupid person lacks that the intelligent person possesses.

where should I begin?

1. develop an alternate view of the situation2. find and eliminate dominance3. stay away from rigidity4. deliberate play

which means there is a dominant idea…or a non-contestable view of the situation

This is like many problems such as traffic, sanitation in our old cities where you can make minor modifications as to how the city is organized and structured. But any major change starting from the center of it is just not possible.

Which means there is a dominant idea…or a non-contestable view of the situationSo – what is important is to understand if there is a dominant idea that exists. And it can be dangerous too. It’s like – it may be better to read nothing and run into a risk of coming up with an ideas that is already proposed. Or knowing all about all the ideas present and you land up in a situation that you are unable to develop you own idea

the jumping spider

A doctors diagnosis

New cat door

Which means there is a dominant idea…or a non-contestable view of the situation

sometime a good teacher’s views are disapproved by its students whose own capacity for ideas is thereby impaired. Most often the danger is not one of the over-awareness of an idea, but of neglect of ways of looking at things that are bottled out by a dominating idea.

An abstract way of understanding the concept of dominant idea

Throughout the exercise the need is to explain figures to someone who cannot see it

a very simple image but unfamiliar to all of us since it doesn’t have a recognized name. So one can understand it by divide the unfamiliar figure into familiar parts

1. Two parallel bars separated by two shorter cross-pieces inset from the ends of the bar

2. Two horizontal slabs supported by two vertical slabs

Another version – unlocking Ls with small adjacent on the diagonal corners of the.

This arrangement is certainly more familiar than the previous arrangements. But it is still difficult to describe the original figure with this kind of a division

Here is another arrangement that might be less straightforward than others. But can also be recognized as “I” shapes. The relationship between the two pieces is extremely simple. So, choices of elements in the description can simply the relationship involved.

So we looked at 5 different ways in which the original figure can be divided almost without losing anything from the original

which is best?Whichever conveys the description more effectively and reliably – in short whichever is more useful.

Obviously context plays a role – availability of pieces, their relationship, understanding of the creator and also the understand of the person who is supposed to interpret it. E.g. An engineer may interpret as “Girder Section”

But then familiarity to understand something will grow…

Below figures can be easily separated into more familiar ‘T’ shaped pieces.

What about this one…

You may start finding it almost everywhere…

With growing importance of ‘T’ can lead to one finding ‘T’ in places where it is very difficult to find

And that becomes a dominant ideas!

Dominate ideas make our mind paralyzed to think about a different way of looking at the situation.

Like it impossible to look into another direction while looking hard in one direction.

where should I begin?

1. develop an alternate view of the situation2. find and eliminate dominance3. stay away from rigidity (visual thinking)4. deliberate play

rigidity of words and classification

This kind of a thinking require continuously breaking relationships, building new relationships, creating new elements and - forming, dissolving, re-forming parts of the situation in every different shape.. However, rigidity of words will form rigid classification and will lead rigidity in the way things are looked at. It is recommended to stay away from any rigid words and classification.

rigidity of ideas

For exampleTraffic signals lights are not to be used for lighting

rigidity of words and classification

www.smarterfaster.com

Be a visual thinker rigidity of words and classification

where should I begin?

1. develop an alternate view of the situation2. find and eliminate dominance3. stay away from rigidity4. deliberate play

Its all by chance…or accidental discovery

• John Pemberton finding Coke• Hertz finding wireless waves• Newton found gravity• Roentgen found xray• Look at Steve Job’s life…all he played by chance – school drop, posters, Helvetica

But if it is all about chance…what I left to me to do?

Assume you are playing a roulette gamewith someone else’s moneywinnings are yours but you don’t have to bother for losses. Not a bad deal right…Now apply vertical thinking to understand this situation in our advantage

• First of all you need to understand that there is a possibility of you playing this game and what sort of prizes you can win

• You need to learn how to play • Third step is to play as often as you can to ensure you leave

behind any inhibition that you may have• Recognize that you have won and pick you price instantly

So from roulette perspective there may not be much of a challenge to recognize your winnings. But suppose the game was so complicated that you did not even realize that you have any winnings – and if you did not pick them, they would be lost.

The chance process itself will not change, but if you go better and better at recognizing when you have won will, your winnings would increase.

Scientists are always finding something – but they never ignore intermediate results. Because you never know it may yield to another great scientific discovery

James Clark Maxwell produced most important unification theory in the history physics – Electricity, magnetism, light – Electromagnetism.

Entire life he just played with things

At 14 he explained laws of reflection of light by playing with all-pins, thread, making ellipses.

Someone else had to read out of his paper at Edinburg Royal Society of Science – because no one shorts was allowed to enter.