When you buy a piece of furniture from IKEA, you get a nice linear step-by-step manual for assembling it. When you read a mathematical proof, it’s laid out linearly, from the beginning to end. When you want driving directions from point A to point B, same thing again. Nice, linear, first go here, then turn here, then drive here, and voila, you have arrived.
Linear thinking is perfect for some things. After all, you wouldn’t want a manual that starts from the end, then makes a couple of jumps in the middle, and then tells you how to begin. But again and again, I see people apply linear thinking where non-linear thinking is far more useful.
Creative thinking isn’t linear. The guy who designed IKEA tables didn’t think “Ok, I have exactly 8 type B screws in front of me, and exactly these pieces of wood, now obviously I fit these two pieces together… and these…”. No. It was more like “Ok, I want to build a table. So first I need to get a big flat bit of wood for the desktop, and four legs. And I need something to hold them together. Let me try this…”
Non-linear problem solving
I like to think of this as a picture. You’re at the start, and you want to get to your goal. Along the way, you’ll need to overcome some obstacles.
(a LOT of obstacles, in this case)
If you try to think linearly, (imagine you see the maze from the point of view of the stick guy), you’ll take turns pretty much at random. And you can easily get stuck in dead ends.
If you’re facing a maze, linear thinking would be like trying to figure out the best way by walking through the maze more or less randomly. As a non-linear thinker, however, you would walk outside the maze, go on top of a nearby hill, see where you need to turn at the major intersections, sketch a quick map, and THEN go back in.
And that’s exactly how creative problem solving works. By non-linear thinking. If you’re designing a piece of software, you don’t just sit down and start coding, and the right thing magically appears. You first figure out what you’re building (the goal), what you need to build along the way to get there (major intersections), and some possible problems you could face (dead ends). Only THEN, once you chop up the task ahead into manageable bits (a couple hours’ worth), do you start working linearly on the individual bits.
Here are a few questions I like to ask to get myself thinking the right way:
1. What’s my goal?
2. What are the major checkpoints along the way?
3. What are the potential problems?
4. What’s the next step I can get started on as soon as possible?
Creative problem solving is like painting. You start with an idea of what you want to paint, then roughly sketch the outline, and then fill in the details. And if you ever get stuck, just take a step back, and look at the big picture. The solution will usually appear clear as day.
So, next time you have a problem to solve, just use the methods outlined here. You’ll see for yourself how well they work.
While I was reading this something clicked in my head about the stories I’m writing. Thank you!