ThinkerToys+Chapter+Three

Thinkertoys Home Challenges

"He who knows when he can fight and when he cannot will be victorious." Sun Tzu

A successful business person pays attention to problems converting the problems into opportunities and deciding which opportunities are worth pursuing. The opportunities become productive challenges.

LEARNING TO PAY ATTENTION

Anyone can learn how to pay attention.

EXERCISE

Select a color at random. Spend an entire day looking for items that are that color or contain it. Pregnant women notice other pregnant women. Runners notice runners. People with broken arms notice other broken arms.



FOCUS

Write down business problems or your attention will be constantly shifting, causing you to be indecisive. Start a journal of problems that you find to be personally interesting and that would be worthwhile to resolve.

What would you like to have or to accomplish? What do you wish would happen with your job? What do you wish you had more time to do? What would you like to get others to do? How can I help kids think more critically? How can we pass the 'tests' so that we can do other things in class?

The mere act of writing a challenge may trigger your mind to create something meaningful to fill in the gaps and solve it.

BUGS

Ideas that grow out of irritation. Like pearls from oysters.

Create a "bug list" - a list of challenges that are most interesting to you.

Decide. Do the benefits outweigh the costs in terms of your time and energy?

If so, it is important to ACCEPT the challenge. There is a different level of commitment if you actually ACCEPT the challenge and dedicate yourself to it.

CREATE A CHALLENGE STATEMENT
The more time you devote to perfecting the wording of your challenge, the closer you will be to a solution.

Sumo Wrestlers spend most of the match sizing up their opponents and getting centered. They size up their opponents, adjust, adjust, adjust, and then attack.

With a challenge if you spend time centering your problem with questions it will help you look at things from different perspectives and that will help to stretch your eyes wide open.

BLUEPRINT
>> Divide it into subproblems >> Solve the subproblems >> Keep asking "how else?" and "why else?"
 * 1) Write it as a definite question, beginning "In what ways might I ...?"
 * 2) Vary the wording of the challenge by substituting synonyms for key words.
 * 3) Stretch the challenge to see the broader perspectives.
 * 4) Squeeze the challenge to see the narrow perspective.

Write a definite question In what ways might I develop a unique food product?

Vary the wording In what ways might I transform a product into a surprising food?


 * //Stretching the challenge//**

Ask "why". Keep asking why. in what ways might I sell more IBM computers? Why do I want to sell more IBM computers? Because our overall computer sales are down. Why do I want to sell more computers? In over to improve our overall sales volume. Why do I want to increase our sales volume? In order to improve our business. Why do I want to improve our business? To increase my personal wealth.


 * //Squeezing the challenge//**

What Where When Why How

//**Squeezing the Challenge Further**//

Ask "how else?" or "what else?"