Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Multi-Dimensionsal Thinking

Everybody looks at things from different angles. But they can be seen in different dimensions also. Earlier I never realised that Lateral thinking in one dimension and vertical is other. These dimesions look pretty obvious. If I consider the above two as x axis thinking and y axis thinking, then there can be a z dimesion to thinking also. I call it as shift of platform for thinking and there can be many platforms to shift to. Suppose Somebody says I think about a apple. It is Red, It's sweet and It is round. He is doing One dimensional thinking. Suppose one MBA comes and says that it can be exported to another country as it is of great Quality its another dimension of thinking in the same platform. But Somebody thinks about first person's perception of an apple and of its difference to some body else's, He is thinking at a different platform, and which you can say is in z directions. Suppose another person thinks not about quality of apple but thinks about the definition of quality itself first, he is again thinking at a different platform which I say is in 'w' direction.
Philosophers in early times used to ponder a lot about basic things for hours. This was because they used to shift between different platforms of thinking. But we as modern human being don't have this opportunity. You may have just thought that this is because any lack of time or due to our business in normal lives. But I say that this is because our thinking has been restricted to certain dimensions of thinking only. In our schools and other social institutions we are made to think only in certain fixed dimensions. And that makes those facilities of brain more dominant to others. And the effect is loss of natural creativity and ability of multidimensional thinking, as everytime we think, our thinking patteren is dominated by the way we are taught to think.
I certainly agree that there can be many things that our brain is not capable to think of. and perceptions only govern our Ideas. For example wheels were invented round because sun is round. Triangle shape was generated because Mountains are like triangles. But There can be many shapes in the world which we have no perception for and hence those are never created.
We are not able to see Time dimension, we are only able to feel it through our memory. But it does exist. I think we would have certainly been more able to discover things, had we not had so many preconceived notions. In this way Science is killing itself by imposing patterns of thinking on individual minds.
Einstein definitely was a multidimensional thinker and so can one be. One has just got to try to think with out preconceived notions. On would realise that one enjoys it . And slowly slowly some day this way one must be able to shift platforms of thinking.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Good Start! Need to carry on!
An interesting thought about multidimensional thinking, I agree there can be multiple ways of analysing/solving problem but how do you train yourself to think in a multidimensional way and how not to give up !!