People undervalue the power of everyday places. There are a few quiet places I owe the best finds of my mind, and all of them look like but usual places. I think that the key to thinking is repetition, not novelty of impressions. When we are used to think at the same place, our thinking power grows, because we use that place as a container for our thoughts — we can easily start where we left off.
“The most thought-provoking thing in our thought-provoking time is that we are still not thinking” (Heidegger).
Thoughts are vectors, not destinations.
Thinking priority
Four things are needed to implement a project: people, money, time, and thinking. The first three are in most cases utterly lacking. So, being good at thinking is crucial.
An example of what I mean is David Allen’s natural planning model. Asking “Why?” is so simple, and yet so often it is asked when it is too late.
Being smart isn’t an inborn quality. Thinking is a skill that needs training, and however beautiful are the anticipated results, training requires some effort. And yet, 30 years after Edward de Bono’s CoRT, a thinking course still isn’t included in most school’s curricula. Perhaps that’s why so many projects fail, even those with plenty of money, time and workforce.
The most important fact about creativity is that unconnected things can’t stay in the conscience longer than several seconds.
Thinking is connecting things. So, thinking is a sort of communication, and communication is a sort of thinking.
An individual can be better at long-term thinking than a big corporation. The problem with market economy is that you often get the true consequences long after you’ve paid money, so short-term thinking prevails.