Practical Tools and Wise Quotes on All Matters Creative

Part B: Psychobabble

How To Invent (Almost) Anything > Part B: Psychobabble

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Quick: What is the second most difficult thing in the world to understand? Other people, of course, because the most difficult thing to understand is ourselves. Using our brains to understand our brains is a reflexive twist that sometimes threatens to turn us inside out, but it is worth the effort, as our brains are the only real tool with which we can invent.

Part of the problem is that our minds are remarkably good at self-defence, throwing out potential new ideas with a deft dodge or even a more terminal twist of the knife. We constantly babble away to ourselves, whispering dire consequences that deny our creative possibilities. We thus need to learn to use the internal arts on ourselves, smoothing past the inner critic to rediscover the creative potential that has become dormant in so many of us.

The first step on this path is to throw back the covers and take a peek at what lies (in all senses of the word) beneath. As with our playing with simple science, the imperfect view that we gain sure beats no view and offers us a whole raft of tools with which to prise out the seeds of ideas that we can turn into the great inventions of tomorrow.

7. How The Brain Works

• 7.1. A Quick History of Brain Science
• 7.2. The Real Parts of the Brain
• 7.3. How We Think: Patterns of the Mind
  • 7.3.1. How We Think: Reaching Out to Communicate
  • 7.3.2. How We Think: Thought Patterns
  • 7.3.3. How We Think: Memory Patterns
  • 7.3.4. How We Think: Left Brain, Right Brain
• 7.4. Classification: Making Sense of the World
  • 7.4.1. Classification: Chunking the World
  • 7.4.2. Classification: Languaging Chunks
  • 7.4.3. Classification: Short-term Memory
  • 7.4.4. Classification: Long-term Memory
  • 7.4.5. Classification: Class-ification
  • 7.4.6. Classification: Rapid Classification
  • 7.4.7. Classification: Big Patterns: Mental Models
• 7.5. Association: Just Like That
  • 7.5.1. Association: Neural Networks
  • 7.5.2. Association: Just Like That
  • 7.5.3. Association: Associated Emotions
• 7.6. Invention 'So What?'

8. The Motivating Fire

• 8.1. An Evolutionary Background
• 8.2. The Evolutionary Ruleset
• 8.3. The General Adaptation Syndrome
• 8.4. Basic Drivers
  • 8.4.1. A Sense of Control
  • 8.4.2. A Sense of Identity
  • 8.4.3. The Need for Novelty
  • 8.4.4. Aesthetic Needs
• 8.5. Transactional Analysis
• 8.6. How The Brain Does It
  • 8.6.1. Emotions
  • 8.6.2. Emotional States
  • 8.6.3. How to Get Into a Creative Mental State
• 8.7. Goals
• 8.8. Invention 'So What?'

9. Managing in a Complex World

• 9.1. Sensing
  • 9.1.1. Sensing: Uneven Senses
  • 9.1.2. Sensing: The Zoom Lens
  • 9.1.3. Sensing: Attentive Creativity
• 9.2. Inferring Meaning
  • 9.2.1 Inferring: Classification
  • 9.2.2. Inferring: Comparing Interests
  • 9.2.3. Inferring: Comparing With the Future
  • 9.2.4. Inferring: Judging
• 9.3. Deep Thinking
  • 9.3.1 Thinking: The Inner World
  • 9.3.2. Thinking: A Constructed Reality
  • 9.3.3. Thinking: The Emotional State
  • 9.3.4. Thinking: Multiple Personalities
  • 9.3.5. Thinking: Assumptions and Beliefs
  • 9.3.6. Thinking: Values
  • 9.3.7. Thinking: Attitudes
• 9.4. Inner Space
• 9.5. Formulating Intent
  • 9.5.1. Formulating: The Refinement Loop
  • 9.5.2. Formulating: Short-cutting
  • 9.5.3. Formulating: Creating Alternatives
  • 9.5.4. Formulating: Selecting the Best Course of Action
• 9.6. Translating Intent Into Action
  • 9.6.1. Translating: Intent Bias
  • 9.6.2. Words, Music and Dance

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