Page 151 - Keys to College Success

get analytical

ANALYZE A STATEMENT

Complete the following on paper or in digital format.
Consider the statement below; then analyze it by answering the questions that follow.

“There’s no point in pursuing a career area that you love if it isn’t going to earn you a living.”
1. Is this statement fact or opinion? Why?
2. What examples can you think of that support or negate this statement?
3. What perspective(s) are guiding this statement?
4. What assumption(s) underlie the statement? What negative effects might result from accepting these assumptions
and therefore agreeing with the statement?
5. As a result of your critical thinking, what is your evaluation of this statement?

HOW CAN YOU IMPROVE YOUR
creative thinking skills?

When you think of the word creativity, do painters, musicians, and actors come
to mind? Although creativity is often equated with visual and performing arts, it is
actually a universal human capability, reflected in every aspect of human experience.
“The human mind . . . has the creative impulse built into its operating system, hard-
wired into its most essential programming code,” says Jonah Lehrer, author of Imagine:
How Creativity Works. To begin to grasp the range of accomplishment that depends
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on creative thinking, look at the examples in Key 5.5.
How can you define creativity? Basically, to think creatively is to generate new
ideas that promote useful change, whether the change consists of world-altering com-
munication technology or a tooth-brushing technique that prevents cavities. Such func-
tional ideas can come from:
■ Combining existing elements in an innovative way (using a weak adhesive to mark
pages in a book, a 3M scientist created Post-it Notes).
■ Generating analogies—comparisons based on a resemblance of things otherwise
unlike—from looking at how things are related (after examining how burrs stuck to
his dog’s fur after a walk in the woods, the inventor of Velcro imagined how a simi-
lar system of hooks and loops could make two pieces of fabric stick to each other).
■ Pondering a longstanding problem (after viewing hundreds of hours of video of
labor-intensive mopping, members of a design firm came up with the idea of having
a disposable floor cleaning material, and the Swiffer was born).

Understand the Process
More than just a flash of insight, creativity is a process. Scientists track this “insight
experience” through stages including the impasse (a period of frustration and blockage
in the face of a problem or goal), the revelation (the moment when the idea bursts into
being), and then the refining of the idea. The process often involves stretches of time
and multiple stumbles along the way. 14

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