Flexible Thinking

Synopsis: Flexible Thinking is Valuable.

Two definitions for flexible:

a) Susceptible to influence or persuasion; tractable

b) Responsive to change; adaptable

In the 3^rd grade multiplication table contest, I made it to the semi-finals. The winner of the contest was the first to fill in the answers to a bunch of problems on a sheet of paper and flip that sheet over. I had made it far because the sheet of paper that our teacher used was always the same, and I had memorized the positions of numbers on the page. Strangely enough, that very same sheet was used in the first round of the multiplication contest, and I advanced a round. My fun ended there, when the teacher introduced a new set of problems. The adjustment proved to be too much for me; chagrined, I filled out the paper quite slowly.

One of the factors that psychologists test to measure creativity is the ability to adapt to novel scenarios. The following explains one such scenario that has been used to test individuals:

For example, [subjects] might be told that some objects are green and others blue; but still other objects might be grue, meaning green until the year 2000 and blue thereafter, or bleen, meaning blue until the year 2000 and green thereafter.¹

The ability to think clearly about novel situations is important for creativity, and for countless situations in life.

My 3^rd grade experience occurred because my thinking inhabited the bottom level of Bloom's Taxonomy, a classification of thinking tasks.

I submit that flexible thinking is required in greater degrees in the upward direction of Bloom's Taxonomy. Often, people who rely on convention get left behind.

This is non-trivial. My evidence is that people make millions or billions by incorporating flexibility in their thinking. It's worth a lot, literally.

1. "A Vision Of Creativity"