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Threaded thinking instead of linear thinking • Mental Nodes

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Linear thinking is a myth. Yet, somehow, the way we teach people to think at school is linear. First, formulate a question. Then, the hypothesis. Third, design a protocol to test your hypothesis. Evaluate the results. Of course, it can be argued the process is circular rather than linear—a learning loop of sort where you formulate a new hypothesis based on the results of the latest experiment—but the process traditionally taught to students still involves thinking in a specific order. But how can I formulate a question if I haven't had the opportunity to think about the topic already? And how do I decide which question is the best to choose if I don't have some pre-existing knowledge? Thinking is not only non-linear, it's messy. It involves a lot of back and forth, dead ends, branching, walking back, merging ideas, changing ideas, contradicting ideas. When I picture what my thoughts look like—the actual process of navigating different ideas in my head—I don't see a nice straight road w

Linear thinking is a myth. Yet, somehow, the way we teach people to think at school is linear. First, formulate a question. Then, the hypothesis. Third, design a protocol to test your hypothesis. Evaluate the results. Of course, it can be argued the process is circular rather than linear—a learning loop of sort where you formulate a new hypothesis based on the results of the latest experiment—but the process traditionally taught to students still involves thinking in a specific order. But how can I formulate a question if I haven't had the opportunity to think about the topic already? And…

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