Lateral thinking expert Edward de Bono wrote a book: "Six Thinking Hats".

He also notes the idea that you can just look around a room, put two patterns together and see if you can make sense of the result.

Example: you might see a clock in the room, you might see a radio; you might think "clock radio" and decide "hmm, yeah that could be O.K., how about a radio that is also an alarm clock. New invention!"

However; such free association of ideas doesn't always give sensible looking results.

Aurino seems to be having fun with showing the potentially silly-looking possibilities the free association of ideas might get one into.

But remember the "clock radio"; sometimes the connections can deliver!

If you look at my stuff you will find it is not ANY old "nutty" association of ideas; but seriously reasonable say insights, may I suggest.

But it seems that you can find paths, even if rather complex, that link quite diverse ideas.

I did a controlled experiment in free-association thinking re: physics and I got a lot of very good results. Shakespear; "Though this be madness, yet there be method in it" might be interesting to quote even? But I will not be specially bound by that point of view....

what you see is what you get....????

-dolphin

• "not just ANY old nutty association of ideas" - carefuluniverse - October 10, 2003 - 07:00 UTC
  • have to look that up - dolphin - October 11, 2003 - 03:36 UTC