Sunday, December 30, 2012

Lateral thinking versus linear thinking and the creative process

Lateral thinking versus linear thinking.
If Linear Thinking is nose-down, get it done, then Lateral Thinking is taking a step back to look at the Big Picture.  To paraphrase a famous Chinese poem, Linear Thinking sees trees and Lateral Thinking sees the forest.Ever wonder what inspires people.  I like to create, the process, the planning the execution and trying to make the elements of the project do what I want them to. Solving problems in the creation process is fun too. 
If I end up with what I tried to create, well that is icing on the cake.
I tend to have multiple projects going on at once. They often can influence each other. For instance I have some beautiful small pieces of wood that have been finished into geometric shapes. Originally I just strung them on a chain to have a necklace. Now I'm thinking of linking them with leather to make a hat band.


Hats hats hats currently I'm working on some Fedora style hats in panama straw. I was hung up on how I wanted to finish the brims, what size brims to make etc. Well I decided to keep the brims larger and to simply bind the edges with Petersham and make the head bands classic Petersham bow or tie. Sometimes doing less on a hat is more. The texture of the straw and the colors are enough I don't need any fancy hat band or trim.
So you can see that my thinking style isnt necessarily linear or lateral but perhaps horizontal. I jump back an forth from projects. When I get stuck on one project I change direction and work on another only to come back to the original project usually with a new solution. How do you create what is your thinking process?  And while I ponder all of this you can see me on Not Dead Yet Style 





 

5 comments:

  1. Hmmm I think I want to be linear or horizontal, but function on multiple levels at once. My husband, on the other hand, is completely linear and we can frustrate each other if we allow it!

    Your hat project sounds interesting! Thanks for linking up to Visible Monday.

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  2. I think I think both ways depending on what I am doing.
    Wow, making hats. How amazing!

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  3. I think that men are more linear thinkers and women can do it both ways. So I bet you can think both ways.

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  4. Show us the hats! I'm a visual thinker, how's that?!

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