Jan 22 2009
Techniques for Creative Thinking - Part 3. The Prepared Mind and Be Curious
Next Techniques you can use:
Technique 5 - Chance Favours Only the Prepared Mind
? Things that happen unpredictably, without discerning human intention or observable cause, can be stitched into the process of creative thinking.
? Such accidents tend to happen to those who deserve them. Do not wait for them, but learn to watch out for them.
? To see and recognize a clue in such unexpected events demands sensitivity and observation.
? To interpret the clue and realize its possible significance requires knowledge without preconceptions, imaginative thinking, the habit of reflecting on unexplained observations – and some original flair.
? Again, the importance of having an open mind and a degree of curiosity stands out clearly. You have to constantly ask yourself questions about what is happening around you – and be ready for surprising answers.
I have no exceptional talents, other than a passionate curiosity.
Quotation by Einstein
Technique 6 - Curiosity
? ‘Curiosity in children is but an appetite for knowledge’, said the philosopher John Locke. You should aim to retain throughout your life that eager desire to see, learn or know. Curiosity is the mind on tiptoe.
? Creative thinkers tend to have a habit of curiosity that leads them to give searching attention to what interests them.
? Thinking is a way of trying to find out for yourself. If you always blindly accepted what others told you there would be nothing to be curious about.
? One way to develop your curiosity is to begin to ask more questions, both when you are talking with others and when you are talking in your mind to yourself. Questioning, carefully done, helps you to distinguish between what is known and what is unknown.
Go round asking a lot of damfool questions and taking chances. Only through curiosity can we discover opportunities, and only by gambling can we take advantage of them.
Quotation by Clarence Birdseye
