Lateral Thinking Helps You Become More Creative
Great minds throughout history engaged in it, including Einstein.
When a young Albert Einstein worked as a patent clerk — an occupation for which he was overqualified — he would often finish his duties in a few hours, then spend his afternoons watching trains coming and leaving the station. Back at home, he would tell Mileva Marić (his wife), “I thought about something unusual today ….”
- “What happens if a train goes faster than light?”
- “What will happen to the earth if the sun suddenly vanishes?”
- “Is falling the same as floating in space?”
Walter Isaacson, who penned Einstein’s biography, says, “these mental visualisations are behind the most beautiful, ground-breaking theories Einstein contributed to science.”
Yet, visualisations are not limited to geniuses. Everyone engages in imaginative and creative thinking. You certainly had an aha moment under the shower, while riding the bus, or even before falling asleep. “Every time you relax and think of nothing in particular, your brain goes into a state known as lateral thinking. Everybody does this.” Says Barbara Oakley, author of A Mind For Numbers.
According to creativity expert Edward de Bono, lateral thinking is as important as focused work. When you are not focused on a specific task, your creativity is stronger. Even concepts that were hard to grasp can suddenly become clear. To master a skill at the highest levels argues De Bono, periods of lateral thinking must follow the hours of focused work.
But what exactly happens when the brain goes into lateral thinking? And are there ways to get into this elusive state more easily?
The Neuroscience of Lateral Thinking
According to neuroscientists, focused attention and lateral thinking have completely different neural activities. While focused attention is constricted to the prefrontal cortex, lateral thinking simultaneously engages various parts of the brain. This rich and broad neural activity is ideal for original associations, the big picture perception, and out-of-the-box ideas.
According to Barbara Oakley, lateral thinking is particularly crucial when learning new things. She says, “Figuring out a difficult problem or learning a new concept almost always requires periods when you aren’t consciously working on the problem. When you turn your focused attention back to the problem, you consolidate new ideas and patterns that lateral thinking has delivered.” As a result, effective learning is like effective weight lifting. Periods of rest must follow intense workout sessions. Only then can growth happen.
While you can’t command lateral thinking to happen immediately, certain activities get you more easily into this creative state.
Ways to Ignite Lateral Thinking
One of the best ways to get into lateral thinking is to go for a walk. Solitary walks ignite creativity, as testified by many inventive people throughout history. Alexander Williamson, a world-renowned chemist and inventor, once said: “A solitary walk is worth a week in the laboratory.” “All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.” wrote Friedrich Nietzsche. Charles Dickens was an avid practitioner of brisk walking: “It seems as if walking supplied something to my brain, which it cannot bear, when busy, to lose.”
Sleep is probably the most effective way to swing the doors of lateral thinking wide open. While asleep, your brain is hard at work cementing what you’ve learned during waking hours. You can even prime your mind to dream about specific problems. For example, if you mull over a problem right before drifting to sleep, chances are you will dream of working on it or even solving it.
Short naps are another doorway to lateral thinking, as evidenced by Thomas Edison and Salvador Dali. To energise their creativity, both the inventor and the surrealist painter made a habit of taking short naps.
“When faced with a difficult problem, Edison took a nap. But he did so while sitting in a chair, holding a ball in his hand above a plate on the floor. As he relaxed, his thoughts moved toward free and lateral thinking. When Edison fell asleep, the ball fell from his hands. The clatter woke him so he could grasp the fragments of his fresh thoughts and create new ways.” — Excerpt from A Mind For Numbers.
Advising aspiring artists, Dali wrote:
“You will secretly, in the very depths of your spirit, solve most of your work’s subtle and technical problems, which in your state of waking consciousness, you would never be humanly capable of solving.” — Excerpt from 50 Secrets of Magic Craftsmanship.
But what if you don’t like taking naps? According to scientists, closing your eyes, even for a few heartbeats, deactivates your attention and helps you reevaluate a situation from a fresh perspective. Panoramic looking — gazing at the horizon or scanning your surroundings — also stimulates lateral thinking. Researchers even found that taking breaks to widen your vision helps to restructure your thoughts and improve your focus when back at your desk.
Give your mind the chance to wander. Take a walk, look around, or close your eyes. If you struggle with a problem, do something else until your mind is free of any thought about it. When you’re back at your desk, you’ll find it much easier to focus and do your best work.
Final Thoughts
“Imagination is more important than knowledge.” — Albert Einstein.
Mastery is incomplete without lateral thinking. This more relaxed state of mind is a playground for creative, original, and out-of-the-box ideas. While focused work is how you learn things, it’s lateral thinking that consolidates skills and deepens your understanding.
Activities that promote lateral thinking include: sleeping, showering, walking in nature, taking naps, playing an instrument, meditating, driving, and taking a ride. Sometimes the answers you’ve been looking for come rushing when you least expect them.
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