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Radical Thinking Techniques - A Review

The following is a review of the various radical thinking techniques covered so far. You may want to print this page out put it in your favorites. Then, when you need a creative boost in your thinking you can run through the list of ways here.

Get At The Roots

Radical thinking gets at the root of things. Ask the more fundamental questions. How to fight a war, for example, is not nearly as radical as asking what ultimately causes wars and how they might be entirely prevented. Go to the roots of problems.

Question Those Premises

Perhaps the most powerful way to create a radical new idea is to question the premise of an existing idea. A premise is any of the suppositions an argument or idea is based on. For example, if two people argue about the best way to outlaw and punish drug use in order to reduce the incidence of other crimes, the premise is that making drugs illegal actually does reduce crime. Is that true? Common sense, experience and data suggests otherwise. Always question the premises.

Ask Many And Varied Questions

Ask a lot of questions of every sort. Why is this the way it is? How can it be different? What if this never existed? What's the goal here? How have people always approached this subject, and what other approaches are possible? Questions beget questions, and good questions are the beginning of good ideas.

Play With Metaphors

Is a man a thinking animal or a feeling computer? Are laws markers which guide us down the right roads, or chains used to restrain us? If there is a "marketplace of ideas," does that lead to the promotion of those ideas that make the most money over those which are most truthful? Play with metaphors. Sometimes a dozen metaphors can show you a dozen different aspects of something, and perhaps a useful and radical new idea.

Try Different Perspectives

Always look for other perspectives. For example, a business problem could be seen from the perspective of the owner, a customer, suppliers, competing businesses, the earth itself or complete outsiders. Consider how an issue would appear to a person from another culture, or another planet. How would it look from five miles up or five years later? The more unique the perspective is, the more likely you are to have a truly creative idea or two.

Get Beyond Logic And Words

Understand the limitations of words, and avoid the conceptual traps inherent in the use of words. Meditate on things and try to see them without words, or with other words. The famous syllogism says Socrates is a man and men are mortal, so Socrates is mortal. It is perfect logic until the day that some men are not mortal. False premises can lead to perfectly logical and incorrect arguments.

Ask Silly Questions

This is a way to get past the need to appear serious, which gets in the way of creativity. Ask anything just to see where it leads, like, "What if sailboats could fly?" Maybe a boat could be outfitted with helium balloons which are inflated to lift it up into the air when waves get too big? Silly questions are a way to wake up your creativity, and they sometimes lead to an interesting or useful idea.

Challenge Assumptions

This is another one of the most powerful ways to have radical new thoughts. See what assumptions you and others are making, and challenge them. For example, when designing a new sailboat, it is natural to assume that it needs a sail. Question that, and you are left with the question, "what else would propel it?" One solution I have seen is a wings, like those on an airplane, but rising vertically from the boat. The same principle as the sail is at work, but with some advantages (sturdy and more permanent, for starters).

A restaurant needs food, tables, and chairs we assume, but what if we challenge that? What about a place called the "Feed Your Mind Cafe," where you pay to load inspirational and informative audio books onto your MP3 while getting coffee to go? List any assumptions and then go after them, finding alternatives.

Look At Purposes

Question purposes. Is the stated purpose is being served? Is it appropriate? Are there more fundamental purposes? Are there hidden ones? New ones? A restaurant is supposed to feed you, but a new purpose could be to educate you as well. Buy a meal and you get to sit through seminars on various topics of interest. Police are supposed to protect us from criminals, but do they do that very well, and if not, are there better ways to accomplish this? Play around with purposes.

Look At New Ways To Measure

There are often new ways to measure which suggest new ideas. For example, the success of a business is usually measured by the profits it makes, but we could measure it by how fulfilling it is for the owner, how many satisfied customers there are, or how it changes the world. When looking at a thing or issue, ask

1. How has this been measured in the past, and with what results?
2. Why is this being measured?
3. Are there other ways to measure this, and what do they suggest?
4. Are there other methods to measure the same things?

Try Creative Crazy Vivid Visualization

Visualizing things gives new insight, because you see things that verbal explanations miss, and your unconscious mind tries to make sense of the "crazy" images by finding a way to make them possible. For example, a man sees himself running across a vast plain, bounding twenty meters at a time. To make sense of this, your mind suddenly attaches a blimp-like structure to you back. Then your analytical mind takes over and sees that a personal helium blimp could cut your apparent weight to a few pounds, allowing you to jump across rivers and maybe even walk on water with the right footwear. Let your imagination run wild, and exercise your visualization skills.

Create Your Own Definitions

What is justice? It could be "The principle of moral rightness," or "the solution which satisfies the most people," or "the solution which is most respectful of the rights of those involved," or "a concept created to help people to justify doing what they want to others." Love can be "a strong feeling of attraction," or "a direct interest in, and action towards what is good for another." Play with the definitions of words, invent your own, and you'll have some new insights.

Get New Concepts From Old

One way to generate many new ideas fast is to start with existing ones and improve or change them. The concept of voting to elect political leaders, for example, could lead to the idea of voting directly for new laws, with all citizens becoming legislators. The idea of a submarine might make one wonder if there could be a car that could be driven into and along the bottom of a lake. Looking at a chess board could inspire a new game. Start with what's there and make it into something new and different.

Dream Up Crazy Solutions

This is about throwing ideas out there before your mind has a chance to edit or suppress them. For example, suppose a man wants to climb a mountain but isn't sure he can. He really just wants to sit up there with a glass of wine and enjoy the view. He thinks, "I should just fly up there." It's a silly thought, but eventually it becomes a business; "Mountaintop Parties," events which he arranges with a rented helicopter for transporting the participants. Think of a crazy solution, and see if your mind can make it not so crazy.

Argue From The Other Side

We sometimes miss a lot of ideas because we reflexively defend our own. To avoid this, mentally take the other side of an issue, and do your best to argue from there. You might have a better arguments than your opponent did, and you may learn a thing or two.

Observe Arguments

Watching others debate is more productive than participating, since you can judge the merits of each side more objectively. It can also be a way to generate new and radical ideas. Just note the premises each argument is based on, and any assumptions being made, and challenge them. For example, two politicians arguing over whose health care plan is best won't even notice the implied premise that government should be involved in personal health care issues. Other assumptions will be made as well. See what better ideas come from observing arguments in this way.

Play With Principles

The principle that mutual fund managers know how to pick stocks has been disproven. As a group they actually consistently under-perform the market. A man identifies this new principle of under-performance, verifies it by looking at the statistics, and then has an idea: create a fund that buys all stocks except the ones the mutual funds buy. Removing their bad picks would logically mean beating the market, since those stocks are doing worse than the average and so dragging it down.

Here are three steps to take when playing with principles to create new ideas:

1. Identify or "extract" a principle.
2. Test the validity of the principle.
3. Generate ideas based on the principle or its alternatives.

Find New Differences

This is a good technique for discovering all sorts of new ideas and perspectives. It's a simple three-step process:

1. Note things which are commonly compared and look at the differences normally pointed to;
2. Look for "other" differences that are not normally talked about;
3. Mentally play with these to see what new ideas come to mind.

For example, when people compare dogs and cats as pets, they say dogs are friendlier, and cats eat less. What other differences are often overlooked, and what ideas do they suggest? Cats are commonly smaller, which can be very convenient for small apartment dwellers. This suggests the possibility of a pet store specializing in small pets or even small dogs. Unlike dogs, cats hunt down insects and mice in your home, which suggests that they could be rented out for such a purpose.

Invent New Quotations

Here's one to get you started: "Quotations are philosophical business cards, advertising the product of one's mind." The easiest way to invent new and quotable quotes is to start with existing ones and find a new way to say the same thing, or something new to say about the matter. For example, Albert Einstein said, "Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth," which we could make into, "Love of authority is hatred of truth." The idea here is to create a thought which is put into a line or two, but could be explored much more deeply. (Then start that exploration.)

Find The Good In The Bad

Here's a simple formula:

1. Look at a thing or situation which is usually considered to be something bad.
2. Find the good things in it, or what good could come from it.
3. Work with these more positive perspectives to see what interesting or productive ideas result.

For example, an economic recession is normally considered a bad thing. But there are some good aspects. It can slow inflation, for example, and some of those who lose their jobs will likely find more satisfying careers. This latter ideas suggests the possibility of a service that helps the unemployed start home businesses, perhaps for a percentage of the profits.

See The True And The False

Suppose a friend says that socialism is better than capitalism. Don't dismiss his opinion as worthless just because you disagree. Ask him why he thinks that. He might point out that capitalist corporations do great harm. He may be wrong to think this makes socialism better, but he could also know a lot about the true crimes of large companies. That could lead you to new ideas about how to make capitalism work better. There is usually a bit of truth in most false theories and a bit of falseness in most truthful ideas.

Mine A Concept

Working with one good concept can yield many new and possibly useful ideas. For example, you might start with the observation that children are naturally creative, but this creativity is discouraged by both parents and schools. This could lead to a dozen ideas on how to teach creative thinking skills to children, or even ideas on how to reform schools or the thinking of parents. Dig deep into one simple concept and you can find a dozen gems.

Turn Ideas Around

The idea here is to take any existing concept and twist it around while adding or subtracting from it. The idea of "going to school" becomes "school coming to us." Maybe a traveling college (in an RV or truck?) could bring classes to smaller communities so people there could work on their degrees without having to move to larger cities. Listening to the radio could become radios that listen to us. Why would we want such a thing? They analyze voices for stress and automatically play relaxing music as necessary. Just describe a concept in a few words and then rearrange those words.

Cause Problems To Solve Them

How do you make a person healthy? You could get ideas for this by thinking of every possible way to make them unhealthy; bad food, no exercise, no love, constant stress, and so on. Each of these will suggest different ideas about creating and maintaining a healthy body and mind. Looking for ways to create a problem or make it worse can be an effective way to identify all the elements that are part of it.

Use A Modifying Word List

Look at a problem or issue or thing and ask, "What if it was..." Then insert a word from your list and see what ideas emerge. What if a house was bigger, smaller, farther away, closer, newer, older or invisible? In the minute it took to write that, I saw small houses for single workers, close to their jobs, eliminating the need for a car, and several other ideas. This is a powerful technique.

Use Dreams

Put a notepad and pen next to your bed, and have a light handy as well. Just before going to sleep, concentrate for a minute or two on an area where you want new ideas. Jot down any that come in dreams. If you review your dreams before getting out of bed in the morning, you'll remember more of them.

Better Thinking Habits

The above are mostly techniques for generating new and radical ideas. The following are some suggestions for how to train your brain for better thinking, how to develop good mental habits and how to get rid of bad habits that interfere with creative thought.

Argue Less

Having a discussion is a great way to explore and develop new ideas, but an argument puts concrete boots on your intellectual feet. To avoid excessive arguing, present your ideas in a way that suggests, "This is what I think, but I'm open to changing my mind," and be ready to change your mind. You can also avoid the competitive aspects of talking to others about ideas, by writing. You may still involve your ego in your ideas, but it's easier to change your mind on paper - especially if your words are unpublished.

Use Critical Analysis

The creative process should be free and open. But when you have to choose the best of the ideas generated, and make them even better, critical analysis enters the picture. Among the many challenging questions you can ask about your ideas, here are four to start with:

1. What other factors are involved?
2. Is the principle, proposal or idea even plausible in practice?
3. Does the way in which the principle is implemented affect the outcome?
4. If you had to argue against the principle, what could you say?

Avoid Identification With Your Own Thoughts

Don't get hung up on what your own mind tells you. For example, it will tell you that it is important to win an argument of to develop an idea just because it is "yours." The result can be defending your words as though they are your "self" and missing out on some great opportunities to learn more and have new ideas. Like a baby's fascination with his own excrement, adults tend to cling to tightly to an idea and theory just because it came out of them. We need to outgrow that if we want a flexible, powerful and mature mind.

Have Fewer Opinions

Do I need to have an opinion on dinosaurs, political action committees, magazine design and a dozen other subjects I've never spent an hour studying? Not really. Why does it matter? Because when and if the time comes to think about these things, if I'm not already invested in any position, I'll be freer to consider all the evidence, and able to see more objectively. Even in area where we have strong opinions, it often is without necessity. Consciously "de-opinionate" yourself, and start saying "one idea is..." rather than, "this is what I believe." You will open your mind to more possibilities.

Question Your Own Motivations

We easily question the reasons for other's beliefs. "He sells vitamins, so of course he has to say they work," we might think, or "She's a Republican, so of course that's how she feels." Yet we usually don't do that with your own ideas, opinions, and beliefs. Start noticing what motivations other than a desire for truth might be prompting you to think in certain ways. The process of this self-observation could lead to a radical new perspective on something, or at least a change of mind.

Challenge Your Own Assumptions

This goes beyond questioning motivations to challenging all the foundations of your thoughts. For example, you might assume the (often) negative dialog in your head is "you," but is that true? You don't call every random image in your mind your "self," so why identify with that internal stream of thoughts? Your thoughts are not you - it's a radical but liberating idea. We habitually build up beliefs and develop our ideas without examining their foundations, but there may be something to discover if we look. These foundations may even be cracked. We all have premises and assumptions which are never questioned, but are used as the basis for much of our thinking.

Borrow Instead Of Buying Ideas

Ideas are loans from the "intellisphere." Own them and they'll own you. Consider when you have disavowed a previous belief, and as a result how much clearer your thinking is now. How do you avoid identification with or "ownership" of ideas? Don't think, "I believe this," but rather "I am believing this," to remind yourself that believing is a potentially temporary state. Then to encourage the right frame of mind, reward yourself when you change your mind because of new evidence.

Become Interested In Opposing Ideas

The most intelligent and reasonable people can believe the stupidest things! On the other hand, they may have a reasonable basis for their beliefs, since we all have different experiences and knowledge. Also, a person may be entirely wrong in his conclusions, but there still may be something to learn from how he arrived at them, so try to see what he is seeing. This process reminds us that we can be wrong no matter how smart we are, which makes us less likely to stubbornly cling to false ideas.

Be Open To Changing Your Mind

Be ready and willing to change your mind based on new evidence and experience. Critical thinking is crucial in the sciences, and a good scientist is ready and willing to drop the beliefs of a lifetime if better ones come along. Occasionally ask yourself what evidence would change your mind. Doing so makes the actual change - if necessary - easier for your ego to accept.

Understand The Difference Between Logic And Reason

The most irrational ideas and actions can be produced logically from a given set of premises. The premise of a flat Earth made it perfectly logical to assume a ship was doomed if it continued heading west. Logic is a systematic way to arrive at conclusions starting with certain premises. But the latter can be right or wrong (or something in-between). In other words, the perfect logic of your own arguments may lead to perfectly wrong conclusions, so be wary.

Admit Ignorance

Most people don't like to say "I don't know." It's common to invent explanations, but here's a better habit: When you don't know understand something, say, "Hmm... I don't know. I'm not sure. I'll wait for more information or evidence." Speculation has its place, but when speculation becomes explanation, it stops the search for truth and prevents the truth from even being seen when it becomes evident.

Have An Open Mind

An open mind means being willing to consider new perspectives and theories. It also means being willing to drop old ideas if they are disproven or replaced with better ones. It does not suggest that you should believe things without evidence or fail to apply critical thinking to a matter.

Listen To Others

We often have discussions with others in a way that doesn't allow for much learning. We pretend to listen while thinking about what we will say next, for example. Try really listening, and ask questions about what the other person said, rather than simply sharing your own beliefs. You are more likely to learn from what others say than what you say, since you do already know your own thoughts.

Stand By Your Own Mind

If you are not convinced of something, don't ever feel that you have to believe it anyhow, just because all the experts or the whole world believes. By all means, search more deeply for the truth. But remember that the whole world and all the experts in it have historically been wrong about many things. You can't actually use any mind but your own, so don't give that power away.

Accept The Uncertainty and Flux Of Life

We can understand a hundred factors that cause the weather and still not know if it will rain next Friday. We can study every book of economics and not know what will happen to the stock market in ten years. Life in general is in many ways unpredictable, as are our own individual lives. Be assured that you will believe different things in five or fifty years. Accepting this change as normal keeps your mind open to learning what you need.

Be Creative And Analytical

Being creative doesn't mean much if it is limited to spewing out one idea after another. There is a time to let the ideas flow, and a time to look at them more closely. Sometimes, like when brainstorming, you need to withhold analysis until later. Other times it is your thoughtful analysis of a problem or situation that leads to the most creative ideas and solutions.

Be Reflective

Observe not only the things and people around you, but also yourself and your relationship to the outside world. How do the things you see influence what you are thinking and feeling? What do you see about how you reflexively interact with your own thoughts? Do you resist certain types of ideas, and how does that affect your creativity and productivity?

Be Skeptical, But Not Cynical

A skeptic says "give me reason to believe." A cynic says, "there is no reason to believe." We can't progress from a premise of "nothing is true and nothing worthwhile." But a skeptic can assume reality exists and operates according to certain principles (what better premises do we have?). And even if we live in a world of temporary beliefs and "probable truth," we have the possibility of knowledge and creativity.

Take Action

Make it a point to do something with some of your new ideas. Otherwise you're telling your unconscious mind that such thoughts are unimportant, and it will then let fewer creative ideas rise to consciousness. You can at least write a few thoughts in a journal from time to time to "keep the pump primed."

Work While The Brain Is Working

When is the best time to have new ideas? When you just had some. Your mind gets "warmed up" just like your body does. When you are in a creative state take advantage of it.

I hope you enjoyed the course,

Steve

www.RadicalNewThoughts.com