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Loading... Archimedes' Bathtub: The Art and Logic of Breakthrough Thinkingby David N. Perkins
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. DaveShearon | Jun 29, 2008 |   Thought and thinking/Inspiration/Creative thinking Budz888 | Jun 1, 2008 | 0.024 seconds to build listing  no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com Book Description (ISBN 0393047954, Hardcover)A brain-teasing, brain-pleasing look at the often-hidden mechanisms of innovation. From Archimedes' discovery of the principle of water displacement while taking a bath to Einstein's Theory of Relativity, from Brunelleschi's development of perspective drawing to the Impressionist revolution, from the taming of fire to the creation of the laser, "breakthrough thinking"--that is, a sudden, seemingly unaccountable moment of inspiration--has shaped and advanced civilization. But Nature invents, too--through evolutionary watersheds like vertebrate mammals and formerly grounded creatures making the leap to flight. How, then, does breakthrough thinking really work? What, if anything, does human invention have in common with biological evolution? In this sly tour de force of deep analysis and practical exercises, David Perkins explores the common logic behind breakthroughs across many fields, historical periods, and evolutionary epochs. Drawing on a rich knowledge of artificial intelligence and cognitive psychology, Perkins offers a uniquely integrative theory of how breakthroughs occur, along with dozens of delightful mind puzzles and illustrations that will have you quizzing whoever happens to be nearest.(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:57:55 -0400) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
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The author suggests that “breakthrough thinking” isnot really a different type of thinking. There’s no unique mental mechanism that kicks in. Rather, there are types of problems which require some different mental approaches because they are “unreasonable”, they cannot be solved solely by the application of reason. He deems these “ Klondike problems” because of the similarities they share with the problems faced by gold prospectors in the Klondike gold rush:
Wilderness of possibilities – a large solution space
Clueless plateau – with few clues
Narrow canyons – that tend to trap the search process in a solutionless area
Oases of false promise – where the measure of promise is high, but that do not contain a solution.
The structure of these problems creates a distinctive problem solving experience involving a long search, little apparent progress, a precipating event, and a “cognitive snap.” (