Analogous Thinking

This week students were presented with lateral thinking puzzles that challenged their analogous thinking patterns. (Many children who are gifted have an early onset of abstract thinking capabilities compared to peers, lending them unique analogical problem solving approaches performed at different levels of abstraction as they age.)

After the interesting introductory activity, students were exposed to research regarding why analogous thinking is connected to creative problem solving. With the remaining time, we dived into examples from the lives of professionals and historical figures who used analogous thinking as a critical thinking tool to solve problems ranging from radiation exposure to gravity.

What is analogical thinking?

First and foremost, it is a powerful problem-solving exercise for scientists, creatives, and people solving everyday problems. When we use solutions, information, and ideas from one domain to solve a problem in a different domain, we are engaging in this process naturally. It’s great to be aware we can train our mind to think this way on a more regular basis by first noticing it in the stories of creative breakthroughs and innovations throughout history, and then employing specific exercises.

Quotes related to our activities:

The story of the moon and the tide:

“Each time he got stuck, Kepler unleashed a fusillade of analogies. Not just light, heat, odor, currents and boatmen, but optics of lenses, balance scales, a broom, magnets, a magnetic broom, orators gazing at a crowd, and more. He interrogated each one ruthlessly, every time alighting on new questions. He eventually decided that celestial bodies pulled one another, and larger bodies had more pull. That led him to claim (correctly) that the moon influences tides on Earth. Galileo, the embodiment of bold truths, mocked him for the ridiculous idea of ‘the moon's dominion over the waters.’” - David Epstein, Range

The story of the periodic table:

“Mendeleev placed his elements into groups of seven. He was said to have been inspired by the card game known as solitaire in North America and patience elsewhere. In the game, cards are arranged by suit, horizontally, and by number, vertically…At the time (1860s), elements were normally grouped in two ways: either by their atomic weight - the number of protons plus neutrons in the nucleus of each of their atoms - or by their common properties-whether they were metals or gasses, for instance. Mendeleyev's breakthrough was to see that the two could be combined in a single table. Because the properties repeated themselves periodically, the system became known as the Periodic Table." - Bill Bryson, A Really Short History of Nearly Everything

The story of Velcro:

“George De Mestral enjoyed hunting in the mountains and on one particular occasion in 1941, as the story goes, he was prompted to investigate the means by which those stubborn cockleburs adhered to his clothes. Upon examining the seed pod under a microscope he noticed hundreds of tiny hooks that covered the outer husk of the seed pod. It's likely that de Mestral required many exposures to the stubborn cocklebur to prompt his inquiry, however, given his inventive mind, he somehow made a connection between what he observed and its possible commercial use.” - Article, Analogical Thinking: A Method For Solving Problems

The story of the Eiffel Tower:

“In the 1860s, a Swiss engineer visited the laboratory of a scientist studying human bones. There he saw a cross-section of a human femur, or thigh bone. He realized that the curved layers of bone he saw inside the femur were nature's solution to supporting a body's weight in the most efficient way. Years later, the internal structure of the thigh bone inspired the curved iron beams of the Eiffel Tower.” - From the book “Bones” by Steve Jenkins

See attachments below:

“About 10 percent of people solve "Duncker's radiation problem" initially. Presented with both the radiation problem and the fortress story, about 30 percent solve it and save the patient. Given both of those plus the fire chief story, half solve it. Given the fortress and the fire chief stories and then told to use them to help solve the radiation problem, 80 percent save the patient.” - David Epstein, Range

How can you improve your analogical thinking?

Increase Your Pool of Knowledge. You can make better connections when you have more things to compare and contrast. Learn a lot… about a lot! Keep the pool deep so you can dive in as needed.
Practice Using Lateral Thinking Puzzles, Riddles, and Jokes. These help you to see solutions to problems that aren’t immediately obvious. Think outside the box.
Know Your Problem. Albert Einstein is quoted as having said that if he only had an hour to save the world, he would spend 55 minutes defining the problem and only 5 minutes solving it. A problem well defined is half solved.
Practice. Write poems. Build things. Read literature with metaphors and similes. Look for connections between seemingly unrelated things while engaging in your favorite creative activity of choice.

Go Deeper:

Here is a link to a 64 page pdf titled “Analogical Reasoning: A New Look at an Old Problem” : https://www.colorado.edu/ics/sites/default/files/attached-files/92-10.pdf

My slideshow of analogies:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Xi8kGfkvSrwuQ07KVcyYRXYmfSM4Mg6L6A5pt0Jtarg/edit?usp=sharing

Screenshots below from the book "Range" by David Epstein: