The Tortoise and the Hare: Changing the Way You Think

In todays global economy, many people have come to understand the importance of innovation and creativity. The development of free market economies, lower initial investments and the emergence of new platforms that help start-up companies quickly build or expand their businesses have made it easier to capitalize on innovation. As a result, many people believe they are one innovative thought away from becoming relevant. So how do you come up with a creative idea?

Creativity Enhancement

        It is important to understand that inspiration is not spontaneous; rather, it is created by a relentless association of old information to form a new idea. This process is known as creativity. As a result, to become more creative we need to able to take an active approach and train our minds by acquiring new information in order to systematically create connections.

         According to James Webb Young, the author of A Technique for Producing Ideas, an idea is not only the combination of old elements it also involves the ability to create “knowledge chains” by seeing relationships (Young, “Training the Mind”). Developing this new internal process of making connections is difficult and will demand a conscious effort. A great way of driving inspiration is to map out and distill all the available information using index cards. Then, begin creating connections between all the available information, this will stimulate an overall understanding of the available information, promote inquisition and drive the formulation of the “aha moment”. 

The Tortoise and the Hare: Changing the Way You Think

         Guy Claxton, an academic psychologist, identifies two separate sections of the mind and contrasts the way in which they work. The “hare brain”, is best described as a form of conscious thinking driven by reason or logic. Conclusions developed by the “hare brain” can be justified using data and research. The “tortoise mind” stimulates creativity as it ponders a problem, usually overtime, rather than earnestly trying to solve it with a definitive answer. John Cleese, an actor and writer, expanded on this concept by saying ‘the enemies of the tortoise mind are anxiety and interruptions. The moment you get anxious or interrupted you go back to the hare’ (Wagner, 2). You must create a safe zone away from the obligations associated with your daily life. Allocate a fixed amount of time everyday to let the unconscious mind articulate and criticize ideas. When you find yourself imprisoned by uncertainty you will invent a way out.

The Power of the Unconscious Mind

An experiment conducted by Dijksterhuis & Van Olden (2006) showed that unconscious is a powerful tool for decision making; however, it requires time to weigh alternatives. Participants had to choose among five posters immediately after seeing the posters, after some time of conscious thought, or after a set period of unconscious thought. After a few weeks, participants were asked about their overall satisfaction of the painting they choose, if they had experienced regret, and how much money they would be willing to sell their poster. Participants who took their time, using the unconscious mind, experienced increased satisfaction and valued their painting at a higher selling price as compared to those who used their conscious mind. This experiment strongly suggests the conscious mind is incapable of processing all available information prior to making a decision. Therefore, when attempting to stimulate creativity you must avoid the use of the ‘hare brain’ until an idea is already formed. Once an idea is created, the critical mind is important for evaluating its feasibility.  

Works Cited

Claxton, Guy. Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind: Why Intelligence Increases When You Think Less. Hopewell, NJ: Ecco, 1999. Print.

Dijksterhuis, A., & van Olden, Z. (2006). On the benefits of thinking unconsciously: Unconscious thought increases post-choice satisfaction. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 42, 627-631.

Wagner, Rodd. "Plummeting Sheep And The Tortoise Mind: John Cleese On 'Liberating' Creativity." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 16 Feb. 2016. Web. 28 Jan. 2017.

Young, James Webb. A Technique for Producing Ideas. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2003. Print.

In todays global economy, many people have come to understand the importance of innovation and creativity. ^[a]The development of free market economies, lower initial investments and the emergence of new platforms that help start-up companies quickly build or expand their businesses have made it easier to capitalize on innovation. As a result, many people believe they are one innovative thought away from becoming relevant. So how do you come up with a creative idea? ^[b]

Creativity Enhancement

        It is important to understand that inspiration is not spontaneous; rather, it is created by a relentless association of old information to form a new idea.^[c] This process is known as creativity. To become more creative we need to take an active approach. and train our minds by acquiring new information in order to systematically create connections.^[d]