Category Archives: Thinking

Do we teach originality?

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Interesting to see a comment about creativity by Cynthia Hall, Headmistress of Wycombe Abbey Girls’ School, in a piece in the Daily Telegraph yesterday (“A-levels crush creativity, says top head”).

Her point is that the Internet means that it is now all too easy to find out how to pass exams. Models answers are readily available, so students simply follow the rules to achieve top grades. However, creativity and originality may be declining as a result.

This reminds me of a conversation I had with a friend who teachers building and construction in Sydney. He said that it’s now possible for students to ask for “marking criteria” and they follow these to get top grades. However, the criteria are also used by teachers marking papers, with the result that there is now no room to mark up someone that answers a question in an original manner. These days an original answer simply gets a fail.

Orders of Magnitude

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What have I been up this? I’m glad you ask, dear reader. On Thursday I did a half-day workshop at the London Business School for a group of South African students. The workshop was on futures thinking and was interesting because many of the trends that I usually talk about do not apply in South Africa. For example, demographics are very different and the country faces some particular health issues also. If you are not familiar with the Mont Fleur or Dinokeng Scenarios for South Africa check them out (see link comments below).

The other thing I did this week was have dinner with Napier Collyns, co-founder of GBN. Or rather I didn’t. He was seated too far away and we only snatched five minutes conversation about reading, generational shifts and intelligence. This event was put together by a very smart guy called Noah Raford who is studying for a PhD in crowd-sourced scenarios at MIT.

Anyway, I did have a fascinating chat with one guy much older than myself who was lamenting the death of slide rules. His point was that we have lost thinking in terms of orders of magnitude. In the olden (slide rule) days one only got answers ranging from 1-10. You had to apply an order of magnitude to this and this made you think. I thought this was an interesting point.

Baby Mozart

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The idea of the ‘Mozart Effect’ in children dates from 1993 when Frances Rauscher, a psychologist, wrote a paper that appeared in the American science journal Nature. The paper summarised a study in which Rauscher asked 36 college students to listen to 10 minutes of Mozart or 10 minutes of relaxation music. Immediately after listening to one or other form of music the students were asked to complete a series of spatial reasoning tests, including a test involving imagining what a piece of paper folded several times and then cut with scissors would look like once it was unfolded. The finding was that the students who had been listening to Mozart were better at these tasks than the students who had not.

What happened next was actually more interesting than the experiment. The media got hold of the story and started to extrapolate. First the media drew the conclusion that the effects of a simple paper folding exercise could be applied to broad intelligence and second they somehow drew the conclusion that what had worked with college students could also be applied to small children and even foetuses. This obviously excited all kinds of excitable people and pretty soon politicians were jumping on the musical bandwagon. In 1998, the Governor of the American state of Georgia insisted that all new mothers be given classic music to play to their infants whilst in the state of Florida it was mandated that day-care centres play classical music to their infant students.

Why did this happen? According to Nikhil Swaminathan, writing in the Scientific American, the reason was that the research seemed to connect directly with a belief in infant determinism (the idea that what happens to a child in their very early years has a critical, and possibly irreversible, impact on the rest of their life). Some musicians and ‘ologists still believe that music therapy has a profound effect on young brains, and there is some evidence (e.g. Alfred Tomatis) to suggest that music affects conditions such as dyslexia, autism and attention deficit disorders. But overall the jury is still out as to whether the effects are anything more than insignificant or temporary.

A German study by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in 2007 claimed that the Mozart Effect was nonexistent and many individuals have argued that young children would be better off learning an instrument rather than listening to a recording of Mozart. It could even be argued that placing a small child in front of a television to passively listen to music is actually damaging because it is once again an example of the negation of parental care. The parent is free to do something else whilst the child watches or listens to music but the child is then deprived of physical contact and misses out on free play.

Thinking & Culture

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A study led by Takahiko Masuda at the University of Alberta (Canada) has found that when Westerners look at an image they tend to isolate a central subject whereas East Asians tend toward seeing the image in its contextual entirety. For instance, when asked to look at a picture of an individual and judge his or her mood, a group of Japanese took into account the facial expressions of the background group whereas Western volunteers didn’t consider the expressions of the people in the background. Nobody to my knowledge has run this test using an fMRI scanner but it could be interesting to try it. Again, this all links back to different types of thinking and, in particular, how different individuals and cultures (and perhaps even institutions) acquire, process and retain certain kinds of knowledge.

My New Book

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Given that my new book is out in October (April onwards outside UK) I think it’s time to start dripping in some of the content as a series of blog posts. Please note that the final published version will be somewhat different from the blogged version due to ongoing changes. The book’s title is Future Minds: How the Digital Age is Changing Our Minds, Why this Matters and What We Can Do About it. Here we go…

Digital technology is a double-edged chalice. It liberates but it enslaves. It gives us freedom and access but it also creates isolation and reduces compassion. But can something as seemingly innocent as a mobile phone or a Google search really change the way that people think and act? This is a very important question. It is also a question that is actively engaging the minds of a number of eminent scientists, particularly those who study the physiology of the brain. According to Professor Susan Greenfield, a brain researcher at the University of Oxford, “We could be sleepwalking into a new world of technology without even considering what it is doing to our brains.”

For example, is it just a coincidence that 79% of children in Britain now have a TV in their bedroom and that Ritalin prescriptions (for attention deficit disorder) have grown by 300% over the last decade? Or the fact that 1/3 of US kids live in a home in which the TV is on “always” or “most of the time”, that 80% of toys now contain an electronic component, or that tech gadgets are now the Christmas presents of choice in the US – amongst preschoolers?

Where Do People Do Their Best Thinking?

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You may remember that as part of my new book (Future Minds) I spoke to a few people asking them the question: “Where and when do you do your best thinking?” Here are some more responses…

“Over the decades, I think that my best thinking has occurred when I am visiting a foreign country, have my obligations out of the way, and am sitting in a pleasant spot – in a café, near a lake – with a piece of paper in front of me.”

“Usually when I am not working, and most often when I am travelling!”

“The most relevant (issue) for me is ideas needed for a piece of writing. As a drummer I am generally required to avoid deep thinking of any sort. So it’s probably whilst driving on a motorway, or on the start of a transatlantic flight. I think it’s to do with some distractions so that the thinking is a little freer – there is nothing worse than tidying the desk, sharpening a pencil and sensing the creative part of the brain creeping out the back door… also there’s a nice reward element that can be employed. No motorway fry up, or extra dry martini before there’s an opening line invented.”

“Lying in bed in the dark, with the white noise generator producing a soothing whoosh, I sometimes have a few seconds of modest insight.”

“I love doing household chores: loading the dishwasher, scrubbing the floors, scouring the pans; the polishing, the cleaning. All the time I am thinking of ways to improve upon the equipment; what would bring forward the technology.”

“I’ve had creative thoughts while walking down the street, in the shower, on the squash court, in the bathroom (of course), while shaving… .”

“I do my best thinking in bed – sometimes even when asleep. I wake up having solved a problem.”

The Dangers of Personalisation

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Is serendipity dead? I think things are moving in that direction. One of the unforseen consequences of digitalisation is that we are able to personalise incoming information. This is great on one level, but on another it allows for people to reinforce their own prejudices. More and more we are able to select sources of information (including news but also people) that match our own views. We are therefore less likely to have our views challenged and we are more likely to become hostile to opinions (or people) that do not match our own thinking. This is not good for quality debate or understanding.

Where Do People Think?

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As part of my new book I decided to conduct some research looking at where people did their best thinking. Here are the results. The sample was 624 people. Please note that in some cases I have grouped similar responses (e.g. “outside” and “in the fresh air” were both counted as “outside”).

Question: Where and when do you do your best thinking?
The Top Ten most frequent answers (ranked 1-10 in descending order)

1. When I’m alone
2. Last thing at night/in bed
3. In the shower
4. First thing in the morning
5. In the car /driving
6. When I’m reading a book/newspaper/magazine
7. In the bath
8. Outside
9. Anywhere
10. When I’m jogging/running

Other answers (random list of responses, not ranked)

– When travelling

– When my feet start wandering my mind tends to do the same

– On holiday

– Late at night (1am, 2am and 3am were frequently mentioned)

– On airplanes

– Listening to the radio

– Over lunch

– Over dinner (breakfast was never mentioned)

– Unrelated discussions with new people

– Walking the dog Driving

– On trains

– When I’m not under pressure

– After I’ve slept on a problem

– When I’m not thinking about things

– On the bus

– In a café

– When I’m least expecting it

– When I’m not in front of a screen

– In church listening to music

– On Eurostar sipping a glass of wine

– Sitting on a beach

– Daydreaming

– Looking out of the window

– Whenever I have a pencil in my hand

– At the theatre

– At the cinema

– Taking a long walk

– Bathroom

– Graveyards

– Cycling

– Cooking by myself

– In the pub

– Running

– On top of mountains

– Playing golf

– Running machines

– Waiting for waves (surfing)

– When I get bored

– Before I drift off to sleep

– Looking out to sea

– When I put myself in the shoes of other people

Here are a few comments verbatim:

“Often the ‘spark’ comes when I am not supposed to be thinking. I’m afraid I am a smoker — now sentenced to pursue this awful habit outside. I think smoking is about relaxing (for me at least) — so I let my mind stop being boxed in by whatever I was doing before hand. That’s when it gets to work on its own, and that’s when it works most laterally — both in terms of what it ‘chooses’ to decide to mull on and in terms of connections it makes between things. I sometimes find it hard to retain the thoughts when having to get back to the day job of the next immediate challenge — usually have to write it down or say it to someone. This works particularly well late at night or when it’s quiet. Or alternatively “in the bath” — a bit of a cliché but true. I think the other time I think well is when I am stealing ideas from others! People say things, which lead you to make good, new connections — to see things in ways you had not previously. I’ve often said that the best ideas I have came from someone else. This is where ‘sparks’ can be molded into something more concrete that you can really do something with. So at work I like to think with 1 or (no more than) 2 people through an iterative thought process. Two brains are often better than one for really good constructive thinking. Too many brains and the process gets tough.”

Director of Strategy

“My ‘best thinking’ seems to occur when my mind is somewhat relaxed and I am not focussing hard on the issue I am actually concerned about. Initially I always have to go through a personal briefing phase with a new issue / problem / challenge – as being aware of all the facts is clearly essential. This could well involve discussions with others. But after that I don’t usually just sit still and think hard — like Sherlock Holmes with his pipe. I find it very hard to do that. Rather the issue ‘simmers’ in my mind and ideas occur, say, when I am walking the dog or driving the car…”

General Manager, Strategy

“I do my best thinking when I’m listening to the radio really loud and driving really fast. After that it is when I’m being provoked by passionate people. After that a boring airplane.”

Group Chief Marketing Officer

“Some of my best and most complicated thinking (thinking with numbers attached) happens late at night when it’s quiet and I’ve had a few drinks. In can also happen in pubs when I’m oblivious to everyone and everything around me.”

Political advisor & playwright

“On the running machine.”

Head of Design

“When walking through town. Something about the right balance of stimulus and meditation that you get when immersed in a big city. Concentration and distraction in balance and oxygen in my lungs.”

Blogger in Residence

“’Not at work’ would be our collective response from the Insights team! We deliberately hold all our ideation sessions offsite in an effort to break habits and surroundings. And always try to stagger a session over night or over a weekend so that people have time to absorb and think outside of business hours – either in the shower, driving, taking exercise, walking the dog – allowing the mind to wander and ponder!”

Head of Insights & Planning

“Without doubt as soon as I wake in the morning. By organising and reviewing the coming day in my head I find that I am more organised and efficient. This half hour of true privacy also allows for important personal things to present their priorities — which is often hard when you are active during the day. Thinking before doing really works — Einstein once said that if he had 10 days to cut down a tree, he would spend 9 of them sharpening his axe.”

Managing Director

“I usually do my best thinking on a morning run — the crisper the air, the better. My favourite running circuit is in Gloucestershire — on a small country lane near called Far Peak (Nr Cirencester). It is hilly and can be quite trying — if I have let the running regimen slip over the preceding weeks — it is a sure fire way of dissolving the mental cobwebs. I like big sky, open fields and lots of fresh air — I guess it’s an oxygen thing — but decisions or “cloudy issues” often feel more manageable after a brisk 50 minute run.”

Head of Digital

“37,000 feet and with a gin and tonic.Always have my best insights then.”

CEO

“Before falling asleep or half an hour after waken up and in the shower.”

Research Director

“I do my best thinking when my brain is uncluttered by the debris of modern day detail… is my MOT up to date, should I switch gas providers, did I send that email, which recycling bin does this go into, have I paid my congestion charge, why did I ever fork out for a debenture at Murrayfield, do my socks match, I must spend more time with the kids, pension or ISA, how does anyone get round to using their airmiles, will the neighbour’s new extension be a nuisance, where is that receipt, does that shrub need more water…or less, did my boss notice that it was me who cut him up on the way into work this morning …. Bizarrely my very best thoughts appear when somehow my brain engages on a single challenge seconds from dropping off to sleep.”

Planning Director