Thinking require to solve not-so-ordinary design problems

1. i was thinking…
VINAY DIXIT, may 2014

2. sometimes.
There is a beautiful lady at party .
flawless skin, elegant clothes, perfect
figure. She attracts lot of attention but
sometimes later everyone just drifts
away.
On the other side there is a slight bald, short, thick specs
guy and he has lot people around him listing carefully

3. 1. some people always have new ideas to solve problems? While
others of equal intelligence never do?
2. some people are better qualified to have new ideas and also have
more opportunities
3. new ideas, like accidents, always happen to other people
Ever wondered why…

4. the pebble story
The girl should refuse to take a pebble
The girl should show that there are two
black pebbles in the bag and expose the
money lender as a cheat
Girl should draw the black pebble and
sacrifice herself to save her father to go to
jail
Certainly a different
thinking is needed to solve
this problem

5. It was almost impossible to solve by concentrating on the
pebble to drawn out of the bag. Unless one starts to look at the
pebble that is left behind in the bag
Similarly…
What’s the relationship between
beer, milk and a stranded car
Drawing a queen out of
three cards
How much water and how much
wine in both glasses

6. ability to think fast and efficiently will not help too….
problems are well defined by
programmers, who also indicate the
path along which the problem has
to be explored.
computers are not creative!

7. A toy block built upward where each
block is resting firmly and squarely on
the block below it.
Blocks are scattered around. They may
be connected to each other loosely or
not at all.
Fundamental difference

8. which thinking and when?
Some people like the idea of lateral thinking so much – that they
apply it everywhere…not good 
In reality, vertical and lateral thinking are complementary to each
other. You will always start with vertical thinking to understand
different components of the situation and eventually move to a non-
vertical way of reaching the solution
When ordinary vertical thinking is not able to find a solution to a
problem or a new idea is required, than lateral thinking should be
used.

9. traditional way in which our mind functions
Build and
recognize pattern
The function of thought is to eliminate itself and
allow action to follow directly on recognition
Our mind is an optimizing system that interprets
a situation by recognizing patterns
Probability by
cognition
The essential difference is that with lateral thinking
the whole process is firmly controlled. If lateral
thinking chooses to use chaos it is chaos by direction,
and not chaos through absence of direction. While
with vertical thinking logic is in control of the mind,
whereas with vertical thinking logic is at the service
of the mind.

10. how does one style of thinking uses the brain
Vertical
Logic is in control of mind
Lateral
Logic is at service in mind
Chooses to use chaos by direction, and not chaos through absence of direction

11. where should I begin?
1. develop an alternate view of the situation
2. find and eliminate dominance
3. stay away from rigidity
4. deliberate play

12. the hole story
digging a hole deeper vs digging multiple wholes (elsewhere)
By far greatest amount of scientific
effort is directed towards the
logical enlargement of some
accepted holes
However, some of the great ideas have come from
ignoring existing dug holes and create new ones
Education is designed to make people appreciate the holes that
have been dug for them by their betters. Its communicative
and not creative.
This hole hopping is rare because of education

13. …and hard work doesn’t pay always
Charles Darwin spent more than 20
years working his theory of
evolution
Alfred Russell Wallace paper
contained a clear exposition of
Darwin’s theory of evolution and
Survival of the Fittest
Unfortunately,
new ideas are not
the prerogative of
those who spend
a long time
seeking and
developing
them…

14. How do you make the car run faster ….two opposite ways of thinking…
A process can be
improved by directly
working on it or by
recognizing and
eliminating those
instances that inhibit the
process.
eliminate the
access weight
Install a bigger
engine
Pressing the gas
paddle
Ensuring that the
breaks are fully
released

15. Search for alternate ways of looking at the things is not natural
One such way is to find a pre-define number of ways in which the situation
can be looked at. In time this practice becomes less of an effort in finding
ways to look at a way but becomes natural
Another way is to – reverse the relationship – e.g. instead of thinking that
walls are supporting the roof. Think about walls suspended from the roof.
Instead of earth revolves around the sub, assume sun revolves around the
earth.
It might be interesting to study stupidity in order to understand
intelligence. It might be easier to understand what a stupid person lacks
that the intelligent person possesses.

16. where should I begin?
1. develop an alternate view of the situation
2. find and eliminate dominance
3. stay away from rigidity
4. deliberate play

17. which means there is a dominant idea…or a non-contestable view of the
situation
This is like many problems such
as traffic, sanitation in our old
cities where you can make minor
modifications as to how the city is
organized and structured. But any
major change starting from the
center of it is just not possible.

18. Which means there is a dominant idea…or a non-contestable view of the
situation
So – what is important is to understand if there is a dominant idea
that exists. And it can be dangerous too.
It’s like – it may be better to read nothing and run into a risk of
coming up with an ideas that is already proposed. Or knowing all
about all the ideas present and you land up in a situation that you are
unable to develop you own idea

19. the jumping
spider
A doctors
diagnosis
New cat door
Which means there is a dominant idea…or a non-contestable view of the
situation
sometime a good teacher’s
views are disapproved by
its students whose own
capacity for ideas is
thereby impaired. Most
often the danger is not one
of the over-awareness of
an idea, but of neglect of
ways of looking at things
that are bottled out by a
dominating idea.

20. An abstract way of understanding the concept of dominant idea
Throughout the exercise the need is to explain figures to
someone who cannot see it

21. a very simple image but unfamiliar to all of us since it doesn’t have a
recognized name. So one can understand it by divide the unfamiliar
figure into familiar parts

22. 1. Two parallel bars separated by two shorter cross-pieces inset from
the ends of the bar
2. Two horizontal slabs supported by two vertical slabs

23. Another version – unlocking Ls
with small adjacent on the
diagonal corners of the.
This arrangement is certainly more
familiar than the previous
arrangements. But it is still difficult to
describe the original figure with this
kind of a division

24. Here is another arrangement that might be less straightforward than others. But
can also be recognized as “I” shapes. The relationship between the two pieces is
extremely simple. So, choices of elements in the description can simply the
relationship involved.

25. So we looked at 5 different ways in which the original figure can be
divided almost without losing anything from the original
which is best?
Whichever conveys the description more effectively and reliably – in
short whichever is more useful.
Obviously context plays a role – availability of pieces, their relationship,
understanding of the creator and also the understand of the person who
is supposed to interpret it. E.g. An engineer may interpret as “Girder
Section”

26. But then familiarity to understand something will grow…

27. Below figures can be easily separated into more familiar ‘T’ shaped
pieces.

28. What about this one…

29. You may start finding it almost everywhere…

30. With growing importance of ‘T’ can lead to one finding ‘T’ in places
where it is very difficult to find

31. And that becomes a dominant ideas!
Dominate ideas make our mind paralyzed to think about a different way
of looking at the situation.
Like it impossible to look into another direction while looking hard in one
direction.

32. where should I begin?
1. develop an alternate view of the situation
2. find and eliminate dominance
3. stay away from rigidity (visual thinking)
4. deliberate play

33. rigidity of words and classification
This kind of a thinking require
continuously breaking relationships,
building new relationships, creating
new elements and - forming,
dissolving, re-forming parts of the
situation in every different shape..
However, rigidity of words will form
rigid classification and will lead rigidity
in the way things are looked at. It is
recommended to stay away from any
rigid words and classification.

34. rigidity of ideas
For example
Traffic signals lights are not
to be used for lighting

35. rigidity of words and classification
www.smarterfaster.com

36. Be a visual thinker rigidity of words and classification

37. where should I begin?
1. develop an alternate view of the situation
2. find and eliminate dominance
3. stay away from rigidity
4. deliberate play

38. Its all by chance…or accidental discovery
• John Pemberton finding Coke
• Hertz finding wireless waves
• Newton found gravity
• Roentgen found xray
• Look at Steve Job’s life…all he played by chance – school drop, posters, Helvetica

39. But if it is all about chance…what I left to me to do?
Assume you are playing a roulette game
with someone else’s money
winnings are yours but you don’t have to bother for
losses.
Not a bad deal right…
Now apply vertical thinking to understand this situation in our
advantage
• First of all you need to understand that there is a
possibility of you playing this game and what sort of prizes
you can win
• You need to learn how to play
• Third step is to play as often as you can to ensure you
leave behind any inhibition that you may have
• Recognize that you have won and pick you price instantly

40. So from roulette perspective there may not
be much of a challenge to recognize your
winnings. But suppose the game was so
complicated that you did not even realize
that you have any winnings – and if you
did not pick them, they would be lost.
The chance process itself will not change,
but if you go better and better at
recognizing when you have won will, your
winnings would increase.

41. Scientists are always finding something – but they never ignore intermediate results.
Because you never know it may yield to another great scientific discovery

42. James Clark Maxwell produced most
important unification theory in the
history physics – Electricity,
magnetism, light – Electromagnetism.
Entire life he just played with things
At 14 he explained laws of reflection of
light by playing with all-pins, thread,
making ellipses.
Someone else had to read out of his paper
at Edinburg Royal Society of Science –
because no one shorts was allowed to
enter.