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How are novel ideas generated?
Anyone who knows an answer to this question should have a great deal of everything … fame, money, respect, or whatever. Such a person might be able to write such articles & we all may pay for it! It would be gorgeous life for him or her!
Let me tell you, I am not “that” person. Else I wouldn’t be spending my time to write this article. Instead I would be working on my “novel” ideas. Well the first part is certainly true but the later is only partially true. I do generate novel ideas; probably a lot more than I can follow up on. But that would be a subject for another article.
So “How do you generate novel ideas?” I do not have a recipe or a guaranteed solution that I can share. But I do have an answer to “how can we try to generate novel ideas?” And “what could be considered as some of the ingredients needed to generate novel ideas?”
Let’s start with a story that I had read as a kid. I was always; always fascinated by great scientists, leaders & historic figures. And of course, even today, I still am.
I was reading a story about Einstein’s childhood. Not sure if it’s true but it goes like this. When Einstein was a small kid, his uncle or someone gave him a flash light or a torch. Einstein was very fascinated by it. He played with it all the time. He had fun pressing the button and see a beam of light coming out and shining on the wall. Sometimes in the night he would try to shine it to the sky and he would see a beam of light disappearing in the darkness and in the vast expanse of the universe. That’s when it occurred to him, the story said, that if he was sitting at the top of the beam, what would he see or where would he go? Such a seemingly simple question but gave him an idea to explore the light, time & space etc. Such a simple yet transformational question!
That’s when it occurred to him. “If I was sitting at the top of a beam of light, what would I see & what would I pass along the way or where would I go?” Little Einstein might have wondered!
I was amazed by the story. I remember telling this story to everyone I could meet. Even after decades; I am still amazed by this story but in a different way. If the story is true then surely little Einstein had a lot of fun with the flash light alright. Hundreds of ideas & questions might have come to his mind. He might have generated a question or an idea each time he pressed the button or just at the plain sight of the flash light. But after a while his questions might have got deeper and deeper and more & more difficult to answer. And then might have come “THE” transformational question. He might have played with that question and who knows might have decided to save it for a rainy day. Well… I don’t know what really happened and the story didn’t elaborate on it either.
Why am I telling you this? Please hang on to this thought for a minute until you read the next story.
Recently I came across an article on listening. The author argued that in order for someone to start listening one needs to listen a whole lot. If you are expecting something substantial to come out of someone, you need to give that person a chance to express anything before you can actually hear something valuable.
It’s like finding a gem stone; tons of ugly coal needs to be unearthed. Well the ugly coal too is useful in some other ways as we all know.
Now coming back to my story on Einstein and why I shared that with you.
I strongly believe that in order to get “that” millennium idea (or question) he must have had to generate a tons of ideas. And as a matter of fact, in my personal experience it certainly works for me.
I generally get ideas when I am quietly having my early in the morning tea. I just let the ideas come out without being judgmental about them. But then sometimes, suddenly, a strange idea comes out and just sticks. I can’t move away from it and that’s when I realize that, that’s the idea I need to follow. And I normally do. When I realized this, I have made a habit to get up early and have a cup of tea quietly. I have been doing this for several years. Whether its a weekend of weekday, vacation or busy schedule, I still, to date, get up early and have a cup of tea quietly. Its fun to sit in the dark sipping hot tea and just let your mind wander. Try it sometime.
There is another technique I practice. I try to think of problems. It doesn’t matter if those problems are small or large, simple or complex, local or global, personal or social, technical or not. And sometimes one problem stands out and just grabs me until I have saved it in my memory box. Yes, I do have a list of such problems in my savings.
I think, creating a surrounding or atmosphere that let’s you wander your mind, is more important than a specific recipe I described above. Which comes down to a personal experience after all. Being curious, asking questions (to yourself rather than others) and trying to think of answers is the automatic next step.
Wandering thoughts to ideas and questions to more powerful ideas and then comes the idea of the day or idea of the life. Unless you let “the ugly coal” out of your mind, you wont be able to get “a gem of an idea”.
It’s a game and one needs to play it. I play it all the time and not that I get prize winning ideas or anything but sometimes a seemingly simple idea makes my day.
I feel an Einstein for that day. And to me that is THE reward!
If scientists are the modern day Gods, could this be a way of worshiping? Or is that why they say “God helps those who help themselves”.
So are you helping yourself and playing the game of idea generation?
Picture Credits: Original pictures from https://newvitruvian.com/
Information, Knowledge, Skill & Presence Of Mind!
What’s most important? Frankly, I don’t know the answer!
I do tend to think it really depends on what you are up to. I remember a story read as a child.
The story writer started the story with a question “what is the best weapon?” Of course there are multiple answers, but he had a point to make. The story read something like this.
Somewhere in a small town in south India, people were celebrating a festival. During a procession, as the crowd started getting loud an elephant in the close proximity went wild. The elephant couldn’t be controlled by the “mahout”, the rider. The elephant started towards the crowd and it was a disaster in making.
Now the question is, how do you control such a beast when the best weapon (or tool) to control is the harpoon that the mahout has failed to control it?
As the story goes, as the wild elephant charges towards the crowd, a by stander watching & realizing the problem ahead, looks around and sees a dog. He quickly gets an idea. He picks up the dog and throws towards the elephant. The dog hits the elephant on his eye and the elephant is startled for a moment. The mahout seizes the moment and uses his harpoon to divert the elephant away from crowd. The disaster is averted.
The story writer provided the moral of story as “presence of mind” is the best weapon or tool.
I was impressed with the moral. As I grew up this story used to make me think if there needs to be more to it.
As I gained more & more perspective on the knowledge, information & skill topic, I pondered on the outcome. One of the thing that comes to mind related to story above is, how do you control such a beast with any amount of knowledge?
It didn’t occur to me until I was in a dire situation of life & death (or may be similar). I was learning to fly a plane and had practiced several hours with my instructor in a Single Engine Land plane. A neat little Cessna 172. I also passed the written test with 100% score. A perfect score that the guy at the exam center told me was a rare occasion. So I thought, I am one of the best students. Hang on… I was to learn a lesson of life time. One day my instructor told me I was good at the things and can fly solo and practice more. So he signed me off for a solo flight.
I was excited, nervous a little bit but surely confident. This was my 1st solo flight. Every thing went okay as planned, nice take off and good pattern, however on my approach I realized there was a little more crosswind but I was fine. I came down nicely & steadily and not sure what exactly happened (well I know now) but the plane porpoised. It touched & bounced back and touched again and bounced again. As a reflex action I just increased the speed got the plane slightly up and let it come down on its own.
Now looking back, I realized two things. I had the information but had not practiced for this situation. So didn’t have knowledge. Or did I? I surely showed a presence of mind. But where did it come from?
I don’t know if I have a correct answer till date but I certainly have a theory. The presence of mind is not something that you have as a skill, it’s the knowledge you have developed by using the information you had collected and used in situations to develop a deeper understanding. In my situation, while practicing with my instructor, somehow this deeper understanding was being developed without my awareness. This deeper understanding created the actions which one could call presence of mind.
So for me, I have answered the question. Develop a deeper understanding by collecting information, using it to turn it in to knowledge and develop a skill by practicing at it.
What do you think?
Picture Credit: https://newvitruvian.com
How is Orexian Foundation different in it’s offering?
Orexian Foundation looks at learning as an activity that’s complementary to school. Our thinking is that everyone has a unique ability, interest and pace when it comes to learning. We believe that there is a need to facilitate this process.
What we learn/gather in school or in colleges is “information”. It needs be to be transformed in to “knowledge”.
Knowledge needs to be gained by experience & learning.
What it means is, we need to apply the information and gain insights (of using the information : experience) and develop our understanding of this process (learning).
Let me explain with an example.
Say, I go to a driving school. And I learn to drive and then take a test. I get the license. What this has done to me so far is, I have most of the information on how to drive as well as how not to.
But it hasn’t taught me, how do I drive a car vs a suv vs a truck.
And rightfully so it doesn’t make a world of difference between these, unless unique situations present themselves, where these differences are larger and the right information you already have requires to be applied.
Say, you are driving at 70mph and need to apply brakes. You do have the information that it takes different times for different vehicles to come to stop based on their weight, size etc. Also you know that it depends on the condition of the road.
But you have never experienced it yourself in different situations, how these vehicles handle because you have not had an opportunity to put your learning (information) to work (i.e. practice in different scenarios). So you don’t really know what to expect when you apply the brakes. Of course the vehicle is going to stop because it’s the known function of that feature “brakes”.
But only after you have driven different vehicles over a period of time; you may have experienced these nuances and therefore may have developed knowledge about “braking”.
So now, when are letting your kid drive for the first time, you tell him or her what to do or how to anticipate a situation in a particular scenario. You are now imparting the knowledge you have. For the kid though, this may still be an information.
At Orexian Foundation, through our carefully identified projects & unique method of “facilitating the learning”, we create an opportunity for the kids to apply their learning, experience it, develop deeper understanding and therefore become knowledgeable.
After all, tomorrow is not known to us! So if we are well prepared, only then can we Build A Better Tomorrow!
Grades or No Grades
My son & I discuss a lot on education. He is a doctor (medicine) and I am an Engineer. We both have absolutely no background on teaching… other than the “teachers gene”. Teaching runs in our family. From my great grand father to my father, my grand father & grand mother on my moms side including my mom, my uncle & my brother & his wife, all are/were teachers. So we joke about a teaching gene and we think it gives my son & I the privilege to speak about education. Ha Ha!
Well one of the qualms we have about the education, is grades. I am 3rd grader, she is in 6th grade and so on.
Grades is like a fraternity in my opinion except you don’t get to enjoy it most of the time unless you are in top 20% or bottom.
Well let me explain. When one says he/she is in 11th grade… does it mean that he/she has an equal grasp on all subjects? The scores won’t certainly agree. Someone is better at one subject but sucks at the other is what we are used to see all the time. Still we say he is in 8th grade so he is more informed that someone who is in 6th grade. May be “more informed is true” but “more knowledgeable”, would be questionable.
So someone at grade 6 could be well above that grade for certain subject and vice versa.
Of course my point is not to argue against school nor I am saying change the whole thing but what I am saying is we NEED TO provide avenues & opportunities to those who want to explore and learn at their own pace.
That’s exactly Orexian Foundation has in mind. Complementing the learning at the school by providing what they are missing out on.
Check out the references-
1. Revolution of self directed learning.
2. What if students controlled their own learning?
3. Changing Education Paradigm by Sir Ken Robinson.
There are many… I do like the schools though. Learning together, becoming a part of a group not only gives a sense of security but also strengthens the learning.
Anyways… that’s all for the day!
Now what do you think? Is it a first grader written blog or an engineer’s design note? 🙂 (Neither have good readability)
Picture Credit: https://newvitruvian.com
Hello S4Fers
Today is the day of great pride to introduce our new site to you all. It’s the result of several months of thinking and churning of new ideas and vetting them with peers and experts in the area. We at Orexian Foundation are excited to offer a range of activities for kids and families alike. Our ideas are based on a simple assumption that “Every mind is curious.. you need to trigger it and offer an opportunity”. In the offerings you will find a fun way to learn and spend time and get a fulfilling experience.