Society rewards those who actively face change, and those who are self-styled.
– Leonard Monlotino
Specially set up a “Reading” section for reading, screening some books worth reading, and providing some summaries. I hope that you have a book on your hand to let the movement of reading continue.
In recent years, psychologists and neuroscientists have studied the various adaptations and creativity that have emerged in biological evolution. Based on the latest developments in brain science, they put forward the concept of “elastic thinking.” It is believed that people who are good at using flexible thinking can show superior adaptability in this rapidly changing world compared with traditional analytical thinking.
To measure the strength of a person’s flexible thinking ability, there are different dimensions of judging criteria. Curiosity and reward mechanism sensitivity are two important criteria for judgment.
(1) Curiosity Test
Please give your own score (1-5) for each statement, then calculate the total score: 1 = very disagree 2 = disagree 3 = neutral 4 = agree 5 = strongly agree
1. I want to explore strange places.
2. I want to travel once without planning the route and itinerary.
3. I feel anxious when I stay at home for too long.
4. I prefer friends who don’t play cards according to common sense.
5. I like to do something terrifying.
6. I want to try bungee jumping.
7. I like wild parties.
8. I like novelty and exciting experiences, even if it may be illegal.
Score: _______
As the pace of change accelerates, people have made great changes in measuring the benefits of accepting new things. Today’s society often rewards those who dare to explore and embrace change. The safe and stable areas of the past are often dangerous spots that are stagnant.
(2) Reward mechanism sensitivity test
Please give your own score (1-5) for each statement, then calculate the total score: 1 = completely disagree 2 = disagree 3 = agree 4 = fully agree
1. I feel excited and energetic when I get what I want.
2. When I want something, I will go all out to get it.
3. It may be fun to do something, I will do it.
4. When I do a good job on something, I like to stick to it.
5. I tried my best to get what I wanted.
6. I am eager for stimulation and new feelings.
7. When good things happen to me, it will have a strong impact on me.
8. If I feel that I have a chance to get what I want, I will do it right away.
9. If I think it’s fun, I’ll try something new.
10. Winning the game will make me excited.
11. When I want to get something, I will do whatever I can.
12. I often act impulsively.
13. When I see the opportunity to do what I like, I will be excited immediately.
Score: _________
In psychology, when a person makes a decision and is proven to be correct and produces good results, the brain sends a “reward” signal to the area responsible for decision making, which promotes further improvement in cognitive ability. A virtuous circle is formed, which is called the “reward effect.”
The reward effect motivates people to think and gives us a sense of satisfaction from solving problems. In this test, people with higher scores are more likely to be rewarded than the average person. They may show a strong motivation to motivate themselves to move toward the goal and remain stuck until the deadlock until the brain is elastic. Thinking enlightened to come up with a solution.
What is elastic thinking?
The Earth has experienced five major species extinctions, with more than 90% of life forms disappearing from the planet each time.
135,000 years ago, a huge disaster that could be caused by climate change brought mankind to the brink of extinction. After the catastrophe, the number of “human” species is only about 600, and it has been growing from 600 people to today.
Many scientists believe that large-scale environmental disasters are equivalent to natural screening of species, eliminating living organisms that lack adaptability, and leaving living organisms that can cope with change. The species left behind is better in some sense and has the potential to become the master of the planet.
In the past thousands of years, the human community has gradually formed a stable social form. Compared with other animals and plants, such social structure has effectively helped us to resist the dangers in the wild.
From the use of tools and fire, to wearing glasses, building bathrooms, owning safes, building financial markets, using GPRS technology, online shopping… The living environment of modern humans is almost entirely created from imagination.
Based on the latest advances in brain science, psychologists and neuroscientists have proposed the concept of “elastic thinking.” Provides a scientific interpretation of this ability to be creative and to respond to change.
Flexible thinking is a non-linear, multi-dimensional information processing method that opposes analytical thinking;
Elite thinking stems from a gene that stimulates adaptability and creativity, and appears in the human genetic map as “dopamine receptor gene D4”;
Flexible thinking influences the evolution of nature and society.
Elite thinking has different manifestations in different biological groups, and intelligent life is particularly obvious.
Ants and bees are typical social insects that are the most successful of all insects from an evolutionary perspective.
If you put some ants on a 10 square meter site and then suddenly expand the perimeter to 20 square meters, they will quickly process new information and adjust the pattern of searching for food, exploring this in a more efficient way. Large area. Although there is no one antCan understand what has changed, but as a group, they are aware of the changes and respond to the changes.
As ants, their information processing model is rigid, but as a group, they use a “bottom-up” flexible processing model. This model is different from the way a core leader arranges work from top to bottom, and the elastic model reacts more quickly. This collective intelligence enables them to undertake more complex group tasks.
The neuronal tissue in the human brain is very similar to the ant colony. The processing power of a single neuron is very limited, and the connection and signal transmission between a large number of neurons constitute thinking and intelligence.
According to the different information processing methods of neurons, the thinking process can be divided into analytical thinking and elastic thinking.
In the analytical thinking phase, neurons work like a tree-like search graph of a computer, helping us to derive another fact or idea from one fact. From top to bottom, conveyed step by step.
When the elastic mind starts, the neurons spontaneously organize into a gang-like way of working, creating and creating without a reference sample. From the bottom up, elastic strain.
Why is flexible thinking so important?
The purpose of cognition is not to discover the truth, but to find a solution. Elastic thinking is more capable of providing solutions in a changing or limited situation than step-by-step analytical thinking.
A friend sent a picture and wanted to hang it on the wall. It happened that there was no hammer at home. How are you going to solve the nail problem?
Analytical people tend to buy a hammer or take the opportunity to buy a home kit for future needs.
People with flexible thinking tend to solve problems at present, they advocate “temporary and clever usage”, and the locks and big dictionaries at home may become temporary tools for nails.
Flexible thinking brings two core competencies to smart life: coping with change and creating inventions.
For example, I have a problem: How many steps do you have to put the elephant in the refrigerator?
Analytical thinking: Three steps, open the refrigerator door, put the elephant in, and close the refrigerator door.
Flexible thinking: Maybe I can invent a magical potion that shrinks the elephant.
The inventions and creations that all the predecessors of human society can’t imagine are inseparable from the merits of flexible thinking. In a rapidly changing world, people with flexible thinking are more flexible and flexible.
As a diversified ability, it is different from a well-organized and consistent cognitive approach, covering the ability of customary uncertainty and contradictory state, the ability to broaden new thinking paradigms, and the creation and integration of various types of information. ability. It can be said that elastic thinking, itHidden in our instinct.
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Flexible thinking helps us become more competitive in the future society
Analytical thinking is a linear thinking that helps organisms infer additional ideas from relevant ideas based on facts or theories. Under the influence of analytical thinking, the higher-level execution area of the brain will issue instructions, and each nerve will execute from top to bottom.
The computer that plays Go, the simple artificial intelligence instrument, simulates this top-down running program.
However, current artificial intelligence still can’t handle the simple problems that many young children can understand. The capital of human-machine games lies in the powerful elastic thinking in the brain.
Compared with rational analytical thinking, whether it is individuals or organizations, flexible thinking is more conducive to breaking or re-creating rules to better achieve innovation. In this era of rapid changes in business models, professional fields, political ecology and personal living environment, our success and happiness require a little “elastic thinking.”
This article is organized from “elastic-flexive thinking in a world of rapid change“,[United States] Leonard • Leonard Mlodinow, Zhang Mei, Zhang Yi, CITIC Publishing Group, 2019 edition.
About the author
Leonard Mlodinow
A famous American theoretical physicist who teaches at the California Institute of Technology;
Hocking’s “History of Time (Popular Version)” and “Big Design” co-authors, his masterpieces are “The Footsteps of Drunkards”, “Fairman’s Rainbow”, etc., and have been nominated for the Royal Society Book Awards many times;
The interpreter of Hollywood giants such as “Star Trek: The Next Generation”, and the computer games produced by Steven Spielberg and Disney Company have won many awards in the field of electric games.