ALTERNATIVE THINKING
The search of alternative ways of looking at things is not natural. The
natural tendency of the mind is to become impressed by the most probable
interpretation, and then to proceed from that. In order to overcome this
natural tendency it is necessary to be deliberate and even artificial. One
technique that seems deceptively simple is to predetermine the number of
ways in which any situation can be looked at. The number may be three, five
or more. Each problem that is encountered is then deliberately looked at in
this number of ways. At first the process seems very artificial. Many of the
interpretations that are manufactured to order seem quite absurd when
compared with the natural and obvious interpretation. Yet no matter how
absurd the forced interpretations may seem, the quota must be filled. In
time and with practice it becomes less of an effort to find other ways of
looking at situation, and these other ways seem very nearly as reasonable as
the most obvious way.
Another useful technique is to turn upside down deliberately by consciously
reversing some relationship. Instead of looking at the walls of a house as
support for the roof, the walls may be considered as suspended from the
roof. Instead of moving an aeroplane through the air so that the wings may
build up lift, keep the body of the plane still and only move the wings
through the air, as in a helicopter. Instead of assuming that the sun moves
around the earth, assume that the earth moves round the sun. - Instead of
something moving in a curve through space, assume that space itself is
curved. To reverse or otherwise alter a relationship as in these three
instances is easy, because wherever the direction is defined the opposite
direction is, by implication, equally defined.