Every day children teach us (if we're paying attention) that there are often other ways to utilize objects than their intended design might suggest. Who says Magna-tiles are more about engineering than the arts? My oldest grandson L demonstrates that like all well-designed toys, they are both STEM and STEAM.
There's a name for this limiting thinking habit: functional fixedness. You know— stuck thinking or perhaps fast vs slow thinking. We all do this. Taylorism and assembly-line thinking is inherent in many systems. In the name of efficiency and productivity, education sometimes teaches us to see (tidy) categories instead of (messy) spectrums. But those spectrums? That's where the imagination goes jet-skiing.
This is what I love about us humans: for every brilliant monomath along comes a playful polymath from left field. Let's be honest, you know a guy, don't you? Like this guy. 😂 Everyone knows this guy. Or consider *mic drop* this gal.
I've been a stuck thinker more times than not, but I'm also the guy who once made a hornet sword when I could have simply bought some wasp spray. Efficient? Um, it worked (temporarily), but here's the thing: it was 100% more FUN!
Dear friends, do you play Picasso face, aka are you a part-time MacGyver, aka how do you avoid stuck thinking?
Doing something over and over the same way is BORING and can inspire me to do it more creatively. Thanks for that functional fixedness label.
ReplyDeleteThat photo is brilliant! Like, enlarge it, frame it, hang it on the wall, BRILLIANT!
ReplyDeleteWhere were Magnatiles when I was a kid? I was so bored with Tinker Toys and Lincoln Logs. My grandson Theo has an enormous number of Magnatiles, and we love creating all kinds of things with them.
ReplyDeleteCreativity keeps Real Life from being boring. And we can indulge the kid that resides in each of us.