Chapter 14

Chapter 14: Reformulation

14.1 Using reformulations
14.2 The body-support concept
14.3 Means and ends
14.4 Seeing squares
14.5 Brainstorming
14.6 The investment principle
14.7 Parts and holes
14.8 The power of negative thinking
14.9 The interaction-square

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14.1 Using reformulations, p 141
New ideas often have roots in older ones, adapted for new
purposes.

14.2 The body-support concept, p 142
In everyday life, there is a special significance in dividing a
table into "top" and "legs". This is because the tabletop serves
our principal use for a table, as "thing to put things on".
[...] And it would make no sense to imagine dividing that table
in half, vertically [...]. [The] more profound idea is that of
building a mental bridge between a thing and a purpose.

14.4 Seeing squares, p 144
Most people find the nine-dot problem hard to solve because they
assume that the dots form a square that bounds the working
space. [...]

         . . .    join the dots in 4 straights
         . . .    without lifting the pen
         . . .

It is tempting to assume that our visual processes work only in
one direction [...]:
  world -> sensation -> perception -> recognition -> cognition
But this does not explain how what we see is influenced by what
we expect to see. [...] The situation must be like this:
  sensation -> description <- expectation

14.6 The investment principle, p 146
Our oldest ideas have unfair advantages over those that come
later. The earlier we learn a skill, the more methods we can
acquire for using it. Each new idea must then compete against
the larger mass of skills the old ideas have accumulated.

The trouble is that we are always immersed in the "short-run".