Thinking:

Creativity

Advanced Systematic Inventive Thinking (ASIT) Technique

Thinking Within a Focused and Constrained Environment To Come Up With Practical, Ultra-creative Ideas

The Danger of Categorization

"It's a pity nature isn't divided into the same categories as universities."

We need categories to be able to handle the huge amount of information we use and control.

That's why we have a hierarchy of folders and files in our computer, and that's why universities are categorized into faculties and departments. Categorization helps you, but can also prevent you from using what you know about one field in another.

There is a well known problem in education called the transference problem. If you teach something in one context, students most likely will not be able to use that knowledge in another⁶ and build synergies.

A rigid budget system is also organized hierarchically according to categories. Even individuals unconsciously create a budget system.

In one of their experiments K&T found that if a person purchases theater tickets at say, $100 and accidentally loses them, he will NOT buy new tickets. But if that person lost $100 he would still go and buy the theater tickets on the same day.

The explanation is that after purchasing the tickets, the money already "belongs" to the theater budget. When lost, new tickets are not purchased because the "theater budget" has been spent.

When losing $100, the money had not yet been "assigned" to a certain budget category, so the theater budget is still available.

When solving problems we also use a categorization system to help us deal with the vast amount of data involved. For example, we make an almost automatic distinction between what's relevant to the problem and what's not.

The problem is that some information may not seem relevant to the PROBLEM, but may be highly relevant to the SOLUTION.

ASIT Advanced Systematic Inventive Thinking   E-book by Dr. Roni Horowitz

"The secret behind real innovative ideas are… constraints" Most creativity methods will help you "open up" your mind, use the right hemisphere, freewheel your ideas… But during my thirteen years of using, developing, researching training and consulting inventive thinking, I've come to the opposite conclusion. I've found that people become dramatically more creative when they act within a focused, constrained framework. Take 30 seconds to think about an idea for a new workout instrument. Yes…do it now. 30 seconds later… Did you come up with any ideas? How many? Were you happy with them? Let's do that again, but this time think about a new workout instrument that can be used in a car while driving. Do you see the difference? Most people report that the flow of ideas, their quality, creativity, and practicality were greatly increased when they were forced to think within the second, narrower framework. "Surprisingly, and paradoxically, the more constrained the situation, the more creative we become." Advanced Systemic Inventive Thinking (ASIT) is based on this simple but extremely important observation. Years of research lead to the development of a constrained thinking environment that is just right! Through its principles and tools ASIT forces you to think within a focused and constrained environment that leaves you no choice but to come up with practical, ultra-creative ideas.