Thinking on the Edge

[christophb]

Guy Claxton “Thinking at the Edge”

I was thinking about Cory when I read this from Guy Claxton and SJ’s inability to understand his posts. Thanks to ian for sending me the link.

creativity may sometimes involve periods of wild brainstorming and
experimentation, but more often it involves private sketching, gazing out of the
window, and quietly mulling over notes and possibilities, or what jazz musicians call
‘noodling’ (a kind of absent-minded improvisation).

Keep noodling away Cory, not that this is exactly what your doing over at EIM, but It seems like something useful can come out of this way of thinking... even though it may not be clear to certain people


I liked this part for some reason

(I do not know of any research that proves that such teaching strategies result in
more imaginative, patient, creative students—but I have a strong hunch, and that
hunch could well form the seed of a research project, somewhere down the track.
Any masters students looking for a potential Ph.D. project, please note.)

Chris

[christophb]

I liked this part also.

It is clear that ‘thinking at the edge’ is a new and relatively unvalidated approach
to ‘soft creativity’, as yet. Early reports suggest that both young people and adults
find the process interesting and even exciting. The idea that it can take intelligent
people time to find the words to say what they want to say, can be liberating. The
idea that knowing how to make this time, and to use it skillfully, are aspects of
intelligence itself, can help to undercut the pernicious idea that clever people are
always fast, and that ‘slow’ is an acceptable euphemism for ‘stupid’. (Robert
Sternberg has recently argued that ‘if anything, the essence of intelligence would
seem to be in knowing when to think and act quickly and knowing when to think and
act slowly’; Sternberg, 1999).

I'm not sure if the method of communication on most forums really helps to facilitate this. Do thoughtful answers to tough questions emerge quickly and clearly all the time? Especially with new and evolving knowledge?

Chris

[Diane]

There is a thread here on Guy Claxton's book, Hare Brain Tortoise Mind (among other things that the thread is about), in case anyone wants to look back. I remember being fascinated by the processes that he described as belonging to the "undermind" at the time. Yes, I thought of SJ too, quite a bit in fact, while writing that thread, as she may be flattered to find out, or embarrassed, depending on how her own mind is deepening (or not).

[nari]

Chris,

Thanks for bringing up these topics.

I suspect that communication via cyberspace is part of the problem. The facility allows people to think about a thoughtful response, but it also allows others to think up thoughtless responses.
Those who choose to rant at others with an often irrelevant and first-thoughts-off-the block style reveal themselves as rather frightened hares. It may be the USA system of health control doing this insiduously. It may be that they just grewed that way, becoming scared of hunches and other ideas.

It is interesting to see politicians, for instance, thinking on and off the edge. A hesitant, slightly smiling response to a tough question can be interpreted two ways: it can be seen as "I think that is a good question and I'll try to answer as best as I can" or "I have no idea what you are talking about, but I'll respond as fast as I can because I mustn't appear ignorant or stupid".

Sometimes I feel sorry that obviously quite a few USA PTs are trapped by the rules of insurance companies and the apparent need always to follow orders and directions from others......but I feel sorry for the profession, not them.


Nari

[christophb]

Thanks Diane.

There's a bundle of info for my brain to organize here at soma. I did have a gut feeling that this was talked about before, should have paid attention to that felt sense

Chris

[Diane]

Nari, you are on the mark as usual.
Chris, no worries. It was your undermind working out a space to put all this material for compost.