50 Comments to “Thinking about How We Think”

1. June 5th, 2007 at 8:43 am
   ME Strauss said

   When an idea is starting, I get a feeling about the subject ot the idea. It’s something like I think we should do a series of books for 13-year-old boys reading way below level.

   That feeling, a good will be the start of an idea. It feels almost like “an idea on the tip of my mind” — it’s similar in the feeling part to how I feel when I have a word “on the tip of my tongue.”

   If I try to find out more about the idea, if I try to see it, I’ll feel the feeling more strongly and the name of a color will come to my mind — light, transparent, lavender blue with lots of white in the base color. I could pick it out of a color chart and show it to you. Every idea has it’s own color palette.

   The colors change and move as the idea gets bigger, but I still have no words to tell you. The more colors, the more I know I soon will and that the idea will be well-thought and solid when I do.

   If I need to talk while the colors are still mixing, I stutter a bit and I look really intense . . . that’s because i’m trying to hold on to the idea in my right brain while I communicate with my left.

   Once the colors settle — they are often accompanied by music — I will discover a sentence that explains what the idea is about. That’s when I can start telling you what I’m thinking of.

   From that point I can flush out the rest of the words.

   Creativity happens in a different way for each of us. Sometimes very differently is the case.

2. June 5th, 2007 at 9:07 am
   Jesse Petersen said

   For me, ideas happen on a completely different planet from Liz. I’m sure she’s grounded on Earth, but I’m somewhere else, for sure.

   I have 2 idea development paths, and they are completely opposite, yet also distictly opposite of Liz.

   My first idea path involves a crazy impulse-like explosion that is usually far outside my comfort zone, thus the craziness. I come up with something that involves skills, tastes, or methods that I either do not posess or enjoy using. These ideas usually end up being brilliant in their own right, but only after they return from orbit and I can melt them into a feasible or comfortable task.

   My more common ideas are those that are grounded in a 5-100 step rapid-fire thought process. I’ve often tried to trace where such ideas come from, but they are usually too far gone with multiple bunny trails and forks in the road. It all happens in a matter of 30-90 seconds, usually when someone is talking. These ideas are usually ambitious, but need some creativity thrown in to make them great, otherwise they flesh out as dull and utilitarian.

   That’s my brain in a nutshell. Watch your step.

3. June 5th, 2007 at 9:23 am
   Robert Hruzek said

   I used to wonder something similar - what “voice” do you hear when reading a book? Is it yours, or does your imagination supply an appropriate voice for each character’s dialog. And what is the voice of non-dialog text?

   Actually, Liz, I’ve never thought your question through before, but after reading Jesse’s response, I see some resonances (with both of them, actually). Thanks, Jesse!

   I also wonder, how would a small child answer this one? Could that be the “ideal”? We adults tend to shut down unbridled creativity due to the influence of experience. Perhaps a small child could give us a better answer?

4. June 5th, 2007 at 9:29 am
   ME Strauss said

   Hi Robert,
   I’ll be talking about how small children think in a post tomorrow. In actuality, they think differently than we do, because their brains are still developing until the age of 8 or 9. So That wouldn’t be a good test. And anyway, we all process information differently — as you can see by the vast difference between the way Jesse and I do.:)

   Hey Jesse,
   Yeah I have a version where I get my ideas whole too. The way I tell that they’re good is that the longer I get to know them, the more I see in what they have to offer.

5. June 5th, 2007 at 10:30 am
   Karin H. said

   Great! Love this!

   Well, to be more specific, does one use a language to think and form ideas?
   What if one is fluent in three languages?

   Ah, fluent in two languages here, Zakman. But IMHO fluency doesn’t come into the equation when thinking, you just ‘take’ the most appropriate language for that moment.

   Ideas seem to ‘pop-up’ in my head (either in English or Dutch ;-)) when I see something interesting - now don’t start a whole new discussion on what is interesting - , read something thought provoking or - the list is endless.
   Somehow my mind must be triggered to think on. That’s how it feels to me anyway. Quiet time helps to distill all those random thoughts and links are then made, created: which ends in those ideas ‘popping-up’.

   (Could it also have something to do with Intellection - always thinking - came third on my strengthfinder results - and Connectedness - seeing, feeling relations everywhere - came fifth?)

   Karin H. (Keep It Simple Sweetheart, specially in business)

6. June 5th, 2007 at 10:32 am
   Stephanie West Allen said

   Hi, Liz. Great topic. I thought you might find this post of interest because it highlights what Dr. Ian Robertson says about thinking in words versus thinking in images:

   http://westallen.typepad.com/idealawg/2007/05/which_kind_of_m.html

7. June 5th, 2007 at 11:50 am
   Troy Worman said

   Ideas come to me in technicolor hairballs of words and images.

8. June 5th, 2007 at 11:53 am
   ME Strauss said

   Hey, Karin,
   Thinking is a fascintating topic to me. And you’ve managed to skirt around the question . . . how do your ideas form?

   I’m really curious about that.

9. June 5th, 2007 at 11:54 am
   ME Strauss said

   Hi Stephanie!
   You know exactly what I would like. Thanks for the link.!

10. June 5th, 2007 at 11:55 am
    ME Strauss said

    Troy,
    That’s such a whole brain image — right and left brain participating. hmmmm

11. June 5th, 2007 at 12:26 pm
    zakman said

    Hello everyone,

    Thanks! My last 20 minutes were well spent - reading your comments!

    What I think? The whole question is a double negative.

    How can you explain in words how you think? The moment you try to explain, it becomes words, not the thought.

    I see it as hugely complex - or as simple as a cup of tea.

    Does the tree in front of your house really exist? Do you have to use words to acknowledge its existence? Or is it just a thought?

    Sorry - am I going off-topic here? It’s all Liz’s falult.

12. June 5th, 2007 at 12:32 pm
    Chris Cree said

    Too many people simply don’t think much of the time. Heck, often times I forget to think.

    Thinking takes effort. At least if you want it to be constructive at all it does, anyway.

13. June 5th, 2007 at 12:58 pm
    Rick Cockrum said

    When I’m awake,thinking is in words and pictures, with emotional overtones. I say home,and see an image of my house. When I’m asleep, it’s pictures and emotional overtones, with words thrown in.

14. June 5th, 2007 at 1:49 pm
    Chris Cree said

    I’m a text guy. I generally think in words, not images nor feelings. In my mind ideas or thoughts are best represented by words.

    Even when I’m thinking about a feeling or something emotional I think about it using words to stitch ideas together.

15. June 5th, 2007 at 2:25 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Zakman!
    You’re so fun and so funny! We can watch how we think without changing our thoughts. I believe so. I do that the same way I can watch the way I brush my hair. It’s a matter of keeping track of the changes as they happen. To steal an over-used metaphor: my brain is the tool I work with. I need to know the finest point of how well I use it and how it works for me in order to get the benefit it offers.

    You are right, It is all my fault. . . . Luckily I’ve improved. At one time all of the wrongs in the world could tracked back to me.

16. June 5th, 2007 at 2:28 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Rick,
    Home is an interesting image, isn’t it? When I say it, I still see the backyard where I grew up.

    It sounds like you might use images when you want to hold a thought that requires thousands of words. Metaphors and images are shorthand for me.

17. June 5th, 2007 at 2:32 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Chris,
    How do you know how to arrange the stuff you put on ships? It seems like you would have to use space and imagery for that. Do you have to talk about things before you can see them in your mind’s eye?

    When I am taking in new information I have to talk about it to see it.

18. June 5th, 2007 at 3:25 pm
    John Benage said

    Hi Liz,

    For me it all comes down to connectivity. My thoughts are often too fast for words to be a part of them.

    Then, when I try to share these with someone or a group, I have to slow down, rewind and explain each step along the way to the “brilliant idea”. This is a painful process…I just want to get to the “brilliant idea”.

    But, if I do not provide each step along the way, others will just think that I have taken a giant leap of logic and dismiss the “briliant idea”.

    As I put my thoughts into words for another to share, I keep thinking, “I’ve already worked this out in my mind. Haven’t you?” This is, of course, not only illogical but rude on my part.

    Soooo…I carefully put each step along the logic chain into words and, surprise! Few of my “brilliant ideas” pass the pains of logic test.

    Happy to have logic testing me,
    John

19. June 5th, 2007 at 3:28 pm
    Chris Cree said

    Good Questions. I have this weird intuitive streak that I don’t really understand.

    For example I remember one time I was in a simulator in the Navy working on finding a submarine. At one point the instructor froze the simulation came in and asked me to point to where I thought the sub was on the screen.

    I said, “It’s here” and stabbed the screen without thinking about it.

    He shrugged, went back to his console and turned the simulation back on.

    In the debrief he told me the reason he did that was my procedures had gotten so discombobulated that he didn’t think it was worth going on. But when I pointed exactly where the sub was he figured he’d let me finish the problem, which I did. Piece of cake.

    When he asked me how I knew exactly where it was without following the procedures I couldn’t come up with a good answer other than, “I just knew.”

    So what does that say about how I think? Beats me!

    All I know is there are some things I just know.

20. June 5th, 2007 at 6:10 pm
    ME Strauss said

    So, Chris, there are some images hiding out in your brain too.

    You’re an abstract thinker with some real spacial abilities. It’s so natural you just know.

21. June 5th, 2007 at 6:42 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hi John,
    Sorry that your comment got waylaid by the Akismeet monster, apparently he’s hungry today!

    Great ideas can spill out of a brain just as you describe. Wow, thinking faster than you can talk. I think faster than I can type, but lots of folks can do that. I can’t access words nearly as fast or as well as I know the feeling or meaning that I want to share. People often think that I’m hesitating to tell them, when I’m just looking for the right word.

    We’re both trying to get connected for different reasons.

22. June 5th, 2007 at 11:47 pm
    zakman said

    Quote Liz #15: “You are right, It is all my fault. . . . Luckily I’ve improved. At one time all of the wrongs in the world could tracked back to me.”

    That is so funny! I can’t stop laughing!!!

    I hope I don’t recall this while in a meeting with my boss alter today!

    And Liz I really forgot to thank you for raising this question up for discussion. Sorry, but thanks. I think I am a little bit richer reading the thoughts shared here!

    Its 7:45 am, gotta run to work! Bye!!! And remember you can always blame it on Liz!

23. June 6th, 2007 at 1:32 am
    DaveOlson said

    Liz and all…
    I would say that I rarely get original ideas. Usually I get an idea because I see something that I could improve on or modify. That usually makes me a good problem solver.

    The other side of the idea coin is that I can never fully express any idea I have until I get a clear visual for it. If I can see it, I can explain and implement it.

24. June 6th, 2007 at 3:55 am
    Karin H. said

    And you’ve managed to skirt around the question . . . how do your ideas form?

    Have I? Sorry.

    My ideas form through ‘conversations in my head’. So, words for me then. Probing, mixing, changing, chewing over, even flow-charts (oops, that’s images but still in words) ‘pop-up’. That’s how I think, I think.

    Karin H.

25. June 6th, 2007 at 5:27 am
    ME Strauss said

    Now Zackman,
    At one time you could always blame it all on Liz, but no longer. I have specialized. I only take the heat for certain things these days.

    Happy to oblige by asking the question. This one is going further . . . and that’s your fault for starting this ball rolling.

26. June 6th, 2007 at 5:33 am
    ME Strauss said

    Oh Dave!
    Bless you for your comment. It’s the perfect segue into today’s post. You’ll see what I mean once I write and publish it in a few hours.

    Meanwhile, I think the standard we set for original ideas is unbearably high, I’ve only come across one of that out-of-nowhere original kind in life. (It was my son’s, and that was 16 years ago.) Bending and reshaping something into something is making an original idea. Originality, to me, is in the freshness and wonder that of a new approach that others can’t see.

27. June 6th, 2007 at 5:35 am
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Karin,
    An internal dialogue! No wonder your insights are so well thought. I use that in a way when I rehearse what I write. I talk through the words I might use and listen (in my head) to how the phrasing sounds for the music of the language.

28. June 6th, 2007 at 5:43 am
    Karin H. said

    Morning Liz

    I use that in a way when I rehearse what I write.

    Polishing I call that, until it shines on paper Or like tasting a good wine, rolling it around before you swallow (since I’m not a wine-drinker it might be the wrong metaphor for me, but sure you know what I mean)

    Karin H.

29. June 6th, 2007 at 5:50 am
    ME Strauss said

    Oh my!
    Coming from publishing, it’s hard to hear you call it that for so many reasons. Isn’t that silly.

30. June 6th, 2007 at 5:54 am
    Karin H. said

    It must be
    Try to imagine what it means for a lady selling oiled/waxed wooden floors

    Karin H.

31. June 6th, 2007 at 6:06 am
    Timothy Singleton said

    VERY cool subject! There is a principle in cybernetics that says you cannot define something in terms of itself since it only leads to redundancy. If you define a word by going to the dictionary, eventually you wind up at the roots of words and letters which are symbols that have no meaning other than in context with each other.

    This has led me to wonder if you can really and truly define your thinking if you are able to only think in one language. To truly understand English, you need to define it in terms of a completely unrelated language like say, Mandarin Chinese (which I am given to understand is based on glyphs…or kenji forms - 6400 of them!) and vice versa.

    So, since the short answer is, “Yes, we really do think” even if your are a monoglot (speaks one language) I suspect there is an internal language which cannot be defined in terms of our spoken/written languages and that…just as in computers, there is a compiler built into our brains that takes written/spoken language and compiles it so we are able to process it.

    I suspect that the logic we use in our brains is quite fuzzy (you have to love the irony of that term) and I say that in the technical use of the term fuzzy logic, not that peoples’ thinking is fuzzy - though it often is.

    I think I shall chew on this all day today.

    Cool, cool question.

32. June 6th, 2007 at 6:14 am
    Jesse Petersen said

    Timothy…FANTASTIC comment!

    Trying to get this straight for us monoglots, are you saying we all think in our own internal “language,” which is then converted into our spoken language? Brilliant insight.

33. June 6th, 2007 at 6:17 am
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Karin,
    What’s interesting to me about your use of the word publishing is that out of the context of blogging I think of it as the end not the beginning.

34. June 6th, 2007 at 6:19 am
    Karin H. said

    Hi Timothy

    I suspect there is an internal language which cannot be defined in terms of our spoken/written languages and that…just as in computers, there is a compiler built into our brains that takes written/spoken language and compiles it so we are able to process it.

    It could be just me, but as bi-lingual (Dutch form origin - spoke, read, wrote, thought till I was 39 in Dutch, English my second language - living and working for 7 years already in the UK) I must say my thinking process - if I can call those tumbling mumbling thoughts constantly in my head a process - I notice more and more that I use the English language to think. So for me it is definitely in one language - strange that it isn’t my ‘mothers-tongue’ that is dominant in this ‘internal’ process?

    Karin H.

35. June 6th, 2007 at 6:20 am
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Tim,
    My purpose here was not to define thinking, but to point out through our understanding of ourselves and our own actions that we each approach a thought differently. If we can watch ourselves reach for a glass of milk and describe how we do that. To me, there is reasonable argument that we can’t to some extend describe how we come to our ideas.

    That is not defining our thinking.

    I agree that to define thinking is a philosophical and incredibly large problem that is far beyond something I’m capable of thinking on.

36. June 6th, 2007 at 6:21 am
    Karin H. said

    Hi Liz

    use of the word publishing

    pOlishing, Liz, I said polishing - before publishing Job-jargon, both ways

    Karin H.

37. June 6th, 2007 at 6:21 am
    ME Strauss said

    The key here is that well process information in slightly different ways — just as we all do other things in slightly different ways.

38. June 6th, 2007 at 6:22 am
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Jesse,
    Great question. More answers to come over the next few days.

39. June 6th, 2007 at 6:24 am
    ME Strauss said

    Oh Karin,
    My eyes aren’t quite open. My apologies. I heard and saw the word that was reflecting what I had said.

    Where’s Dave Olson? Oh Gosh, it’s twice this week. my brain is fried. I’m losing it. All of this thinking has finally done me in. I’m melting. . . . . .

40. June 6th, 2007 at 7:55 am
    Timothy Singleton said

    “To me, there is reasonable argument that we can’t to some extend describe how we come to our ideas.” - Liz

    Absolutely, but I think we know HOW to get to our ideas…it is verbalizing the process that is difficult. We call it the subconscious maybe…but I wonder if it is indeed SUBconcious. Perhaps it is just so different that when we are thinking in our spoken language we are unable to verbalize it even to ourselves in our head.

    For instance, I knew some young athletes who were struggling with trig in high school (classmates.) They were convinced they were just not equipped to perform well in trig class. My response was they performed high speed trigonometry and calculus every time the went up, to the side, and simultaneously shot the ball. They are instantaneously performing trig in three dimensions as a function of time as well as calculus in order to put the ball into the net and translating that into when and how hard to release the ball. It helped some, I think.

    Anyways, I see what you are saying…but the question has certainly set off quite a few neat questions in my own head. It might also explain why what I see in my head about a storyline is not what someone else sees in their head when they read my words.

    Oh, and Good Morning, Liz!

    Tim

41. June 6th, 2007 at 8:16 am
    ME Strauss said

    Good morning, Tim!
    It’s amazing how many people believe that since all hands that work basicially in the same way that all brains do as well. It’s just not true.

    The folks who start with that faulty premise close out those who think differently and their ideas by that premise. A different way of thinking becomes another person acting stupidly or being difficult. Because the premise that all brains work alike rules out the chance that another comes to understanding through a different path.

    That one premise is the seed of so much conflict and misunderstanding.

42. June 7th, 2007 at 9:11 pm
    Ellen Weber said

    What a thoughtful set of ideas to prove the point that we think differently. No wonder we get different results.

    Not much to add to so many great ideas … except that negative thoughts add cortisol - a chemical that sinks our moods and slows down progress. Positive thoughts - do just the opposite through a chemical … serotonin … released in the brain.

    When you think your brain releases chemicals and an electrical transmission moves across your brain so that you grow aware of what you think. That’s kind of cool when you “think” about it:-)

    Thanks for the sparks over here.

43. June 8th, 2007 at 6:03 am
    zakman said

    Thanks Ellen for your input.

    I never really thought (pun not intended) of the thought process like a chemical, scientifically explainable exercise in the brain.

    That adds a brand new perspective out of the box.

    I do get some idea about release of chemicals that moderate our negative and positive thoughts. (However, which comes first? The chemical or the thought? Does it have anything to do with depression?)

    What happens when one is in panic/immediate danger? I’d think that you just act then. Survival is my basic instinct.

    I can tell you what happens when I’m in sudden panic. I think. All my senses come alive, and I can really, consciously feel myself think. I can even recall perfectly well how and what I thought when the panic ‘happened.’

44. June 8th, 2007 at 6:06 am
    zakman said

    Update on #43

    But I’m never really sure about the ‘language’ I thought in.

45. June 8th, 2007 at 8:43 am
    ME Strauss said

    Hey Ellen,
    Thanks for adding the science and your insights to the conversation. I’ve leery to go there. We’re lucky to have you — you know it so deeply and explain it so well.

    I can’t get enough of that brainy stuff.

46. June 10th, 2007 at 9:48 am
    Sunday Reading 10 June 2007 said

    [...] us, engendered a large number of thoughtful comments. The first of these is Liz Strauss’ Thinking about How We Think. The post was inspired by an email from Zackman of Celebrity Brands. How do you think? How do you [...]

47. June 14th, 2007 at 7:22 am
    Ray said

    All the answers to the question how do we think are all very nice and all, I only got one problem after getting answers to all my own personal questions I seem to get more questions from the answers and that is a problem I have with every thing in this world
    I never seem to be satisfied whit any answer.

48. June 14th, 2007 at 10:02 am
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Ray!
    I’m the same way and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Curiosity has introduced me to so many people, places, and ideas. The questions made my writing easier by giving me lots to explore and write about.

49. June 15th, 2007 at 5:40 am
    Timothy Singleton said

    Hey, Ray, I do the same thing. I am convinced when this happens it is the question I am not happy with.

50. June 15th, 2007 at 5:59 am
    ME Strauss said

    Ah, Tim,
    Great point. Questions that are off the mark elicit answers that aren’t very satisfying.