Grimstone said:
I know people who's though possesses are a,b,c,d,e,f,g. there is no other way for them. I define them as linear thinking.
then there is the guy that starts at one letter and may take the most absurd path you ever seen, but in the end arrives at the destination.
this I define as abstract thinking.
wish is more intelligent? the thought that is defined and follows the path that is set before them. or the thoughts that wander around each letter looking for a new path, for the thrill of a new path?
classic example.
we live on a rock. that rock is like many other rocks in the universe. what is it that you do that can make a true difference on such a scale?
The linear thinker automatically says "nothing"
the abstract thinker will pick up a rock. and move it. "that rock will never be in the same place as before. I have made a change in the universe. small as it may be."
this is not to say that a linear thinker can't be a genius, but I believe that more abstract thinkers are more likely to be so. and thus because they do not fit the "norm" of social perception. are thus, thought Odd.
When we say the " Often the best solution is the simpliest. " is that because we always tend to overcomplicate things ? Is that why they are so easily overlooked ? For me, personally, when I finally understand something in a way that relates to what I already know, and understand how it fits, it is usually so simplistic in nature, so..far removed from the original question that there is that facepalm moment.
The proverb of " If you want to find the easiest way to do a hard job, give the job to a lazy man ", implies that the sometimes brilliant solution can come from somebody who appears mentally flaccid .
I have an interesting vantage point from this, in the respect I dropped out of high school. I had started school 2 grades early, later held back 2 years, failed 9th once, gave up and got my GED and went to earn associate's in commercial design/graphic art . Then I immedietly went to work as a chef.
But I always had a fascination for learning things, read at college freshman level in 3rd grade, etc, at the same time, a total pain in the rear problem child.lol. An interesting turning point for me was in 2nd grade, where I had unknowingly stumbled onto Vedic type maths, but was berated by a frustrated teacher for doing so.
I was immedietly stricken with the thoughts " Are there different modes of thought for arriving at the same results , and how exactly do we see the world , store and access the information ? " ..." Is consensual reality merely a matter of semantics ? "
Could it be...? What was to be gained by willfully accepting only that which was being taught, when I realized that by my own logical deductions, I could get the same result faster ? I knew that I was being taught by somebody who had no passion, even at that age, but this also made me very interested in actually espousing traditional learning and education to some extent, at least what I was being offered, and trying to arrive at the same logical end conclusions of the great thinkers.
It made sense to me that were I able to follow the same trains of thought, and intuitional forays into things, that there would be perhaps a deeper fundamental understanding of how things relate, and why they relate, more importantly.
Now I'm 38, and
going back to school this fall after a life of working and studying things on my own. I've seen demonstrated time and time again, that unorthodox thinking is where brilliance is found, the " outside the box " thoughts, that for some reason or another is overlooked. I posit simplicity. I did quite well for myself in the restaurant business because I was so good at making things simple.
Some would say that a chef has no understanding of science or physics, I would counter that cooking is physics you can eat with a little poesis thrown into boot.
But enough about me
I love to listen to Feynman talk about looking at things from a different perspective, this also is the outside-the-box thinking, imho.
An interesting story:
Last summer, while studying some things relating to the oil spew in the Gulf, I met a chemist omline who had worked for BP in Alaska. He told me that they had a problem on a platform with a type of automatic/manual switch mechanism of some sort that would get iced over. It was a fairly big problem, apparently detrimental to the operation.
The solution was found by a high school dropout, apparently somebody who has a name in the petroleum industry for being a self-taught genius , and is actually hired from time to time for engineering consulting purposes ( I'm not making this up
)
* scribbled on a piece of paper *
" Remove both faceplate mounting screws of switch, pull switch out, rotate 180 degrees and reinsert into faceplate. "
40k he was paid for this...
Genius