Occam's Razor

Occam's razor is a principle that guides theory construction and evaluation, suggesting that explanations positing fewer entities or kinds of entities are to be preferred over those that posit more. In simpler terms, the simplest explanation is often the best one. This principle holds that theories or solutions should not be unnecessarily complex and that simplicity should be favored when possible.

This principle is based on the idea that simpler theories are easier to verify and simpler solutions are easier to execute. By avoiding overly complex solutions, we can focus on what works best in a given situation. Occam's razor can be applied in a wide range of situations as a means of making quick decisions and establishing basic truths, even without empirical evidence.

Occam's razor is a powerful mental model for making initial conclusions, especially when the full scope of information is not yet available. By using Occam's razor to prioritize simplicity, we can more efficiently navigate complex problems and arrive at effective solutions.

Divergent Critical Thinking

The quest for creativity's "Holy Grail" lies in the ability to generate novelty, which is characterized by qualities of newness, originality, and uniqueness. Achieving this requires engaging in divergent critical thinking, which involves generating multiple, distinct ideas and solutions to a problem.

Critical thinking involves objectively analyzing and evaluating issues to arrive at judgments. As natural sentient beings, humans possess the innate ability to use logical, deductive reasoning to study and observe the world around us, and to create repeatable outcomes by referencing recorded events. To avoid biased outcomes, we must make inferences based on specific evidence. Inferences play a crucial role in various fields such as detective work, medicine, and mechanics, as we infer motives, purposes, and intentions.

Divergent thinking, also known as lateral thinking, is a spontaneous and free-flowing process that entails generating many unique ideas or solutions to a problem. It is complemented by convergent thinking, which follows a set of logical steps to arrive at a single solution, often the "correct" one. In divergent thinking, many possible solutions are explored in a short time, and unexpected connections are made. These ideas are then organized and structured using convergent thinking.

Convergent thinking, by contrast, involves using established rules and logical reasoning to deduce solutions to problems based on known information. Overall, critical thinking, imagination, and creativity are core tenets of humanity, and our ability and willingness to engage in these processes define us as a species.

Third Source #2 Case of J.P. Guilford

Joy Paul Guilford (March 7, 1897, Marquette, Nebraska – November 26, 1987, Los Angeles) was a US psychologist, best remembered for his psychometric study of human intelligence, including the important distinction between convergent and divergent production.

According to Guilford's Structure of Intellect (SI) theory, an individual's performance on intelligence tests can be traced back to the underlying mental abilities or factors of intelligence. SI theory comprises up to 150 different intellectual abilities organized along three dimensions—Operations, Content, and Products.

Operations Dimension

SI includes six operations or general intellectual processes:

Cognition—The ability to understand, comprehend, discover, and become aware of information.

Memory recording—The ability to encode information.

Memory retention—The ability to recall information.

Divergent production—The ability to generate multiple solutions to a problem; creativity.

Convergent production—The ability to deduce a single solution to a problem; rule-following or problem-solving.

Evaluation—The ability to judge whether or not information is accurate, consistent, or valid.

Content Dimension

SI includes five broad areas of information to which the human intellect applies the six operations:

Visual—Information perceived through seeing.

Auditory—Information perceived through hearing.

Kinesthetic—Information perceived through one's own physical actions.

Symbolic—Information perceived as symbols or signs that have no meaning by themselves; e.g., Arabic numerals or the letters of an alphabet.

Semantic-Which is concerned with verbal meaning and ideas.

Behavioral—Information perceived as acts of people.

Product Dimension

As the name suggests, this dimension contains results of applying particular operations to specific contents. The SI model includes six products, in increasing complexity:

Units—Single items of knowledge.

Classes—Sets of units sharing common attributes.

Relations—Units linked as opposites or in associations, sequences, or analogies.

Systems—Multiple relations interrelated to comprise structures or networks.

Transformations—Changes, perspectives, conversions, or mutations to knowledge.

Implications—Predictions, inferences, consequences, or anticipations of knowledge.

Third Source #1 Case of Graham Wallas

Graham Wallas (31 May 1858 - 9 August 1932) was an English socialist, social psychologist, educationalist, a leader of the Fabian Society and a co-founder of the London School of Economics.

Wallas argued in Great Society (1914) that a social-psychological analysis could explain the problems created by the impact of the industrial revolution on modern society. He contrasts the role of nature and nurture in modern society, concluding that humanity must depend largely on the improvements in nurture, and put his faith in the development of stronger international operation.

Art of Thought, published in 1926, Wallas presented one of the first models of the creative process. In the Wallas stage model, creative insights and illuminations may be explained by a process consisting of 5 stages:

1. Preparation (preparatory work on a problem that focuses the individual's mind on the problem and explores the problem's dimensions)

2. Incubation (where the problem is internalized into the unconscious mind and nothing appears externally to be happening)

3. Intimation (the creative person gets a "feeling" that a solution is on its way)

4. Illumination or insight (where the creative idea bursts forth from its precociousness processing into conscious awareness)

5. Verification (where the idea is consciously verified, elaborated, and then applied)

Alchemy of the Mind

A human being has the ability to act on choice and free will. Consequences of such actions are unknown. However probability of inventing such choices can create new and unique decisions. Based on simplistic principles of desires, threats, and permanency, scenarios of life can be designed.

Notes #1

The Mind

Minds are a collective piece to the universe. It is our way of knowing. Whenever man becomes selfish or forgetful, the quicker we understand everything and the less matter it has at hand.

So biologically we have a brain, yes. Its tangible, composed of organic material. Opposite is our minds, yes. Its intangible, not made of any composites of matter. So in every sense of the definition, our world what we call reality is composites by both our brains and our minds; both tangibility and intangibility.

What does this have to deal with creativity? Well in dealing with the mind and creativity, we begin by using our human senses to identify creative things i.e. responding to the stimuli in our brains that is unfamiliar with our memories or experiences. It may not be so original to another individual, its however unique to the person whomever has never encounter such cause.

The method in identifying creativity is part of using introspection and observation of our own experience. The other is collecting indirect evidence of studying behavior. Impressions are incorporated into memories, thus form the body of experiences. Individual behavior is determined by the combination of new impressions with the memory of previous experiences. In this case, the mind can handle complex situations through the use of abstraction, combination, and use of logical conclusions which may result in decisive action or creative ideas.

Post comments below on what your senses are and what you're thoughts on what creativity is.