#ThinkfullyHabit: Ditch the cookie cutter
When faced with lots of information or data, it may seem most efficient to categorise into groups and filter out the anomalies, but it can be incredibly insightful to focus on what doesn’t fit.
What’s the odd one out? What isn’t behaving as you’d expect?
These could provide significant and valuable indicators of when you need to be thinking differently about your situation.
“The difficulty lies, not in the new ideas, but in escaping from the old ones.”
WHY?
Our brains are constantly processing all of the messy information we absorb by structuring it into categories or patterns. This is incredibly valuable and helps us to make sense of the world without getting overwhelmed, however ‘categorical thinking’ can sometimes provide a warped view of the world*; where we fail to consider differences or nuances and ignore ideas that should challenge existing assumptions.
The 'either-or' mindset can also play tricks on us. Take the audio clip of the word that people hear as either "Yanni" or "Laurel". Or the dress that divided the internet as to whether it was black and blue or white and gold. In both examples, people fall into one of two camps which they believe is right but which doesn't actually reveal the whole picture.
A powerful way to avoid reductionist thinking is to focus in on the incongruous or exceptions to the rules. To hold boundaries 'lightly' and recognise that points of contrast can be fertile ground for generating new ideas.