Category: 2024

Additionally to what the chapter wrote, I still have a few questions about lateral thinking. There are many aspects to it. From a Utilitarianism way of thinking, lateral thinking is not at all productive unless there is a small chance it might work. For it to have a slight chance of working, it must adhere to some logic. Then in other words, isn’t this “lateral thinking” just the result of vertical thinking based on the preexisting logic? For example, in the picture shown to us in class which was about someone moving a sofa, we made these guesses based on some fundamental logical constraints such as gravity, cause and effect relationships, human motives, and many others. Does this blur the line between lateral thinking and vertical thinking? It might not be evident in this case, because the things acting as constraints are so common that sometimes we don’t see them there. But in some other cases, let’s say where there is a fixed storyline the job is to create something that furthers this storyline, the constraints get more obvious. Therefore, if I am thinking in multiple directions about how the story will keep going, is this lateral thinking or vertical thinking? therefore I believe that the line between vertical thinking and lateral thinking is quite blurred if the thinking result is bound to at least have a chance of being useful.

5 meanings:

1. Dominance: A lion is showing its dominance over a cat. A dinosaur shows up, proving there’s something even bigger and stronger.
2. Danger Warning: The lion tells the cat there’s danger, but the cat ignores it. The danger is a dinosaur.
3. Rescue: The lion is dying, and the cat tries to help. A dinosaur comes and helps too.
4. Drowning Cat: The cat is drowning. The lion and the dinosaur are talking about whether to save her or not.
5. Predator: The lion tries to eat the cat. A dinosaur comes and saves the cat.

(Number 4) Drowning Cat: The cat is drowning. The lion and the dinosaur are talking about whether to save her or not.

1. Comic strip sketch 
2. Mini animation
3. Turing the animal sounds into a conversation (audio)
4. Short children’s book
5. Painting of the scene 

(Number 1) comic strip sketch:

Just sketch 

With color 

I usually avoid reading due to my attention-related problems but I was willing to give this book my undivided attention since I found the material discussed in class very thought provoking.

I think Professor Aaron did a great job of piquing my interest by showing what this book has to offer and then letting us explore it ourselves. In particular, the exercise of creating an L shape with just two cuts on a square paper made me understand the idea of Lateral thinking much better.

The assigned section of reading also answered a big question of mine I had during class. Was this like a growth mindset vs fixed mindset scenario where a growth mindset was objectively better? It felt like it wouldn’t be right to dismiss vertical thinking altogether, would it?

Thankfully, the book answered the question in just the first few paragraph, explaining “Lateral thinking enhances the effectiveness of vertical thinking. Vertical thinking develops the ideas generated by lateral thinking.” This makes much more sense because I was thinking surely lateral thinking doesn’t replace the logical pattern recognition we are naturally good at.

I also really like this quote “The exclusive emphasis on vertical thinking in the past makes it all the more necessary to teach lateral thinking.” I don’t completely understand how to integrate lateral thinking into my thought process yet but I look forward to what this book has to offer.

I truly admire Otis’s passion for what he does. From him, I’ve learned how crucial it is to pursue what we love, as this guides us toward our future aspirations. Although I’ve never played the saxophone myself, I can sense the deep connection Otis feels when he plays. His creativity and excellence in his craft are genuinely inspiring.

Above is our work from the first making exercise. Below is 5 alternative meanings:

• A teddy bear that has been torn and stitched up a lot of times, being placed next to a doll house and some decorations.
• The sentient house is projecting its ideal place, with a supreme human and a garden
• A retired football player, who is heavily injured, visits his childhood home
• A person having fun at a sports carnival in the countryside
• A titan on its way to wreak havoc on human civilization

From the second idea, below is 5 things I could make:

• A 4 page comic
• A short story
• A short film
• A fictional news article
• A stop motion video

Below is the comic that I have made

Original meaning:

everybody is watching you in this game called life, and you have to beat it

5 alternative meanings :

1. The basketball player( Derrick Rose) is drowning and he has to jump out of the water.

2. The basketball player is the best player in the world and he is known as the Sun, and the venue of the game is the ocean.

3. The basketball player is making his final shot in this other dimension where after he makes the shot, reality glitches.

4. He is trying to save the fish by dunking the final ball, and then the fish that are hanging on to the net fall back into the water.

5. The basketball player, who is regarded as the best in the world and known as the Sun, plays his final game in an oceanic arena where the boundaries of reality shift.

I’ve chosen #2

5 possible things I can make:

1. An epic sports movie trailer that cuts between intense basketball action sequences and majestic ocean/sun imagery, building anticipation for the ultimate championship showdown between Titans set oceanside.

2. A concept art series depicting a futuristic basketball arena constructed on stilts in the middle of the ocean, with transparent court floors showing the marine life swimming below.

3. A brand campaign for a new line of beach basketball apparel and equipment, featuring the “Sun King” star player as the face endorsing gear designed for oceanside/sandy court play.

4. A graphic comic book cover chronicling the mystical journey of the chosen basketball hero who must master playing on ocean courts against the evil king to harness the spiritual power of the sun and waves.

5. tapestry depicting the basketball “sun god” locked in a symbolic struggle while slam-dunking into the crashing waves of the cosmic ocean

Ive chosen #4

Creation:

Lateral Thinking response

I really enjoyed the ideas around vertical thinking (using logic to build on existing knowledge) versus lateral thinking (rearranging information in insightful new ways to create novel concepts). The author makes a solid point – vertical thinking alone isn’t enough for true innovation. We need the ability to break free from ingrained patterns and gain fresh perspectives.

Lateral thinking provides that “sideways” view to spot new areas worth exploring. It’s the spark for the creativity and game-changing insights that drive breakthroughs across all kinds of fields. While you can’t just magically summon an epiphany, the cool thing is lateral thinking is a skill that can actually be developed deliberately.

I loved the metaphor that you’ll never dig a brand new hole by just digging the same one deeper. Sometimes you have to start breaking ground in a different spot. Lateral thinking allows you to identify those untapped locations. The more you practice, the more natural it becomes to combine information in those insightful, out-of-the-box ways.

Integrating the vertical and lateral modes seems key for any field aiming to stay relevant and progressive long-term. It’s all about balancing extending existing knowledge with continually exploring uncharted perspectives.

My thoughts on Otis Sandsjö 

Our recent class visit from Otis Sandsjö was a real highlight. His saxophone improvisation had such a unique sound, unlike anything I’ve heard before—really fresh and captivating. I also loved hearing about how he finds inspiration and sparks his creativity. It was cool to get a glimpse into his creative process, making the whole experience both inspiring and enjoyable.

As a math major, I have been trained, in all my courses, the practice of vertical thinking. The mathematics that I study are strictly based on provability of axiomatic procedures – in which we start off from some known axioms, and then prove one theorem after one another like pushing dominoes. This process, as what the book will describe, is staying in one hole but digging it very deep (one set of theories is based on one set of axioms). Upon reading this short introduction, I suppose that the process of redesigning the axioms then incorporates lateral thinking. This reminds me of a recent research I did with a professor on probability theory. We managed to replace one of the three basic probability axioms, then we worked out some interesting theorems and observations. This process, indeed, includes destructing what’s previously given and making new things out of new starting points, and therefore lateral thinking.

Thoughts on Otis

1. He’s a friendly person that I feel like is easy to get to.
2. I like his improvisation a lot! I have been playing saxophone for a long time, but I’m not quite sure how he made the airy sound. It’s pretty impressive.
3. He’s very creative.
4. He genuinely enjoys what he’s doing and encouraging us to do things that we enjoy. I like his mentality.

So for this assignment, we have to take the assignment we did previously on Thursday and interpret 5 alternative meanings for it. Here is the thing I designed for yesterday:

I also thought it would look pretty good on a T-Shirt, so I made a quick mockup!

I found it a little hard to look from an outsider’s perspective since I design the whole piece, but I these are the few ways I tried interpreting from a different perspective.

1. a piece of abstract art
2. a promotional image for a new board game related thing
3. a display of an artist’s personal perspective and passions
4. a showcase of a designer’s color palette
5. a demonstration of how restriction to using a specific shape can actually spark a lot of creativity

Next I had to choose 5 things I could possibly make based on one interpretation. For that I chose to interpret it as a promotional image for a new board game related thing. Here are some of the things I came up with

>The first of which was a competitive Connect 4 browser game called Connect4.com, to mimic the feel of chess.com using the UI. The loading screens would be a looping animation of Connect 4 pieces satisfyingly being placed down.

> The second idea I had was like a hipster clothing brand. I’ve been really into this Japanese clothing brand called NONSENSE recently so I felt it was only natural that it was subconsciously part of my design.

>The third idea was a board game cafe back in Abu Dhabi. I think a board game cafe would be a great place to hang out on Saadiyat or maybe even on campus. I’ve been staying up with my friends playing the card game and board game I made recently so that’s where that idea came from.

>The fourth idea was the idea of a board game called Muffin time that somehow utilizes an alarm clock that screams muffin time randomly. Maybe the point of the game would be a competition of reaction speed. The inspiration of this was that one episode of spongebob where Patrick sets an alarm clock to eat his Krabby Patty at midnight, but now there’s several patricks all wanting to eat that Krabby Patty.

>The last idea was to make a whole currency using the Connect 4 design scheme. The coins already exist so why not extrapolate it to paper bills, or even a connect 4 credit card?

I ended up really liking the idea of the Connect 4 browser game site, so I ended up making a mockup UI to demonstrate my idea. I’m pretty proud of how it turned out. 

Everything here except for the icons on the left were personally designed by me yesterday. I really like how it came out and I’d love to flesh it out more and maybe actually make a real game. I hope the chat log comes off both authentic and immersive, like this is a real site that real people are chatting on.

I also made a mockup for the loading screen! Like I mentioned in my initial ideas, there would be a satisfying animated loading screen.

I didn’t really have the time to actually animate the pieces moving down but I hope it’s clear that it’s meant to be a satisfying loop of the five red pieces falling down from left to right (maybe it’ll be right to left for players who have their language set to a right-to-left-reading language like Arabic).

Thank you for reading my blog! I hope you liked the designs I created!

The text provides a compelling exploration of lateral thinking as a distinct and valuable mode of thought, emphasizing its role in creativity and innovation. It underscores the necessity of this kind of thinking in overcoming the limitations of traditional vertical thinking, which although rigorous, often restricts the generation of new ideas and perspectives.

The detailed exploration of how lateral thinking contrasts with, and complements, vertical thinking offers a robust framework for understanding how different thinking styles can be harnessed to foster innovation. This is particularly relevant today, as the rapid pace of change in various fields demands both the generation of new ideas and the efficient handling of information.

I’m intrigued by the notion that lateral thinking not only serves as a tool for creativity but also as a mechanism for restructuring old patterns of thought, which is crucial for progress in any field. This idea of ‘thinking outside the box’ to find new solutions to old problems is more relevant now than ever, especially in areas like technology and business, where traditional solutions often fall short in addressing new challenges.

Moreover, the concept that lateral thinking can be deliberately practiced and is not just an innate talent is particularly empowering. It suggests that anyone can enhance their creative capabilities by adopting new ways of thinking and approaching problems.

The discussion about how lateral thinking is taught and applied across various age groups and disciplines highlights its universal applicability and importance. It is a reminder that fostering such skills should be a fundamental aspect of education systems worldwide, encouraging a generation of thinkers who are not only knowledgeable but also innovatively adept.