Dear Prof Kari Kutti

Wonderful, thank you for your stimulating input on thinking types and
styles.

I would like to add one category that I do not see here which I seem to use
all the time while in the midst of design and strategy building actions
which is (perhaps No. 7.) "Thinking with Visual Scenarios". A dream like
state of still and moving images floating through an imagined & animated
series of possibiities without drawing or articulation but that can be
recalled as memory after an intense period of thought that would be
equivalent to seeing a motion picture inside the head of imagined settings,
players and actions and examining consequences all at the same time. This is
used for constructions, process design as well as scenario mapping for
strategy check about the possible consequences of a statement at a meeting
etc.

I seem to use these kinds of imagination to select and identify images for
my lectures on design and design thinking. I do use sketching to supplenemnt
this free imagination kind of thought as well. My two recent keynote
lectures at Amsterdam and Bangkok can be downloaded from these links here
below.
Amsterdam <https://files.me.com/ranjanmp/rlmjp1>
Bangkok <https://files.me.com/ranjanmp/v2tgxk>

I am off on travel again to the USA in a couple of days to Atlanta (22 to 24
June at UPA Congress - Designing for Social
Change<http://www.upassoc.org/conference/2011/index_alt.html>)
and then Chicago (25 to 27 June) visiting ID IIT and the Millennium Park. I
would love to catch up with list members (if possible) while I am there.

With warm regards

M P Ranjan
from my imac at home on the NID campus
18 June 2011 at 6.50 pm IST

-------------------------------------------------------------
*Prof M P Ranjan*
*Design Thinker and author of blog -
www.Designforindia.com<http://design-for-india.blogspot.com/>
*
E8 Faculty Housing
National Institute of Design
Paldi
Ahmedabad 380 007 India

Tel: (res) 91 79 26610054
email: ranjanmp@g <[log in to unmask]>mail.com

<[log in to unmask]>web site: http://homepage.mac.com/ranjanmp
<http://homepage.mac.com/ranjanmp>web domain: http://www.ranjanmp.in
<http://www.ranjanmp.in/>blog: <http://www.design-for-india.blogspot.com>
education blog: <http://www.design-concepts-and-concerns.blogspot.com>
education blog: http://www.visible-information-india.blogspot.com
<http://www.visible-information-india.blogspot.com/>
------------------------------------------------------------


On 18 June 2011 13:56, Kari Kuutti <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Equating writing with research may be a bit narrow interpretation, and this
> is what Terry is in his polemical way reacting against. Writing is anyway
> without doubt one form of thinking, and a thoughtless researcher should be
> an oxymoron (although that may be the direction older research managers are
> evolving, when running years and years after funding...a bleak future...).
>
> I have tried to teach my doctoral students that as researchers they are
> expected to become professional thinkers, but this thinking comes in many
> guises they should be aware of:
>
> 1. "Pure" thinking without any props. This is of course the most common,
> and we do it all the time from moment to moment. But in a sustained form it
> is quite difficult, needing discipline, practice, and perhaps even natural
> talent, because some (few) people seem to be so much better in it than
> others. I can do it 5 minutes at a time, and there may have been occasions
> that I have been so exited that it has been sustained a quarter of an hour,
> but that's surely my limit without any props.
>
> 2. Thinking by talking (to oneself, either silently or aloud). Thought is
> not flying from flower to flower, but muddles through at a pace of speech.
> For me, this is an essential and valuable partner of writing; whenever
> running in difficulties finding an expression, I resort to talking it to
> myself and varying it until something understandable emerges; silently when
> in company, aloud when alone. Walking around seems help more. (Advice: keep
> the door of your room closed when practicing this, otherwise you will be
> thought being even more weird than you are...).
>
> 3. Thinking by reading.  This is one easiest and often also most enjoyable
> forms of thinking: somebody else has done a lot of preprosessing and
> prepared a series of props of thinking for you to interpret, react, argue,
> and use as springboards for your own thoughts. It is so easy and enjoyable
> that doctoral students should be warned not to use it excessively as an
> escape from more stressful forms of thinking (we older researchers naturally
> know the danger and are more disciplined in this respect).
>
> 4. Thinking by discussing. This is also an easy form, and in a good company
> it may be very enjoyable. It is a bit like reading in the sense that someone
> else is providing the props for your thinking, but unlike reading it is
> directly interactive, and you can get immediate answers to your reactions,
> arguments, and ideas, and it can branch out to unexpected directions. If
> there is a problem, it is that longer narratives are difficult to maintain.
>
> 5. Thinking by writing. As we know, most stressful from all forms of
> thinking: enjoyable during the moments when it flows, but those moments come
> sparsely and are difficult to sustain long. No props, and you have even
> imagine your audience and counterarguments yourself. Small wonder that it
> tends to be avoided by doctoral students (alone?)
>
> 6. Thinking by doing. Interacting in a non-verbal form (hands and other
> body)  with material world and reflecting upon that. I count sketching to
> this class, but it is more wide and varied: whatever the material of
> interaction, thinking can be stimulated. In our own research, we must often
> construct experimental settings for user interaction; get various input- ja
> output technologies working together, prepare the space, tweak that and tune
> this to make the experiment work, and even that kind of practical
> involvement clearly evokes different kind of sensitivities than the other
> forms of thinking listed above.
>
> This list is based on my own experiences and observation; perhaps some
> theorizing could be connected to it. In any case, we should not block any of
> the channels for thinking -- on the contrary, we should perhaps prepare and
> train for them more...
>
> best regards,
> --Kari Kuutti
> Oulu, Finland
>



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