Connect the dots

• Why?

  • knowing how ideas evolve into systems and system thinking
  • recognizing when it’s best to use a mental model over the other
  • Consciously getting better at X mental model
    • knowing that they exist in the first place gives you the possibility to actively get better at them depending on the type of problems not a single skill
  • transfer skill from one field to another
    • eg exploring non-linear ways to play guitar kind of like you’d be making a website

• Dots - smaller solutions to specific/general problems

  • Divergent Thinking solve by generating many ideas/possible solutions
  • Convergent Thinking solve by evaluate & narrowing options/solutions

• Network - dots structured together - the hard part

  • linear thinking maximally optimized solution to stable problems
  • non-linear thinking solutions adapts to changing problems

• All together

  • eg designing a new learning app
    • Divergent + Nonlinear: Explore user needs, sketch wild ideas, map emotional journeys
    • Convergent + Nonlinear: Identify recurring pain points, synthesize patterns, prioritize features
    • Convergent + Linear: Build roadmap, define milestones, write specs
    • Divergent + Linear: Brainstorm UI variations within constraints
  • Divergent/Convergent
    • simple explenation
    • Decision-Making Styles
    • Very similar Cognitive Approaches
      • Top-Down - break down bigger picture into many pieces
        • deduction and organizing information hierarchically
      • Bottom-Up - bring togheter pieces to get bigger picture
        • induction & building understanding from the ground up
  • linear/non-linear
    • Great ideas: born (non-linear) then used (linear)
    • non-linear - in a way it’s “more” valuable
      • going against unknown & complex problems
        • more mental taxing
        • makes us do the next step
      • translates into linear when on high-level
      • favors humanistic
    • linear
      • often distilled from non-linear
        • maximizes & make it more efficient
      • replicable & scalable solutions
      • favors engineering/science

• Generally

  • prio raw knowledge is the fuel, all of the above the engine
    • all this is about managing and making info from info
    • w/o prio raw info you can’t just make things up
      • unless u have high amount of knowledge on other related fields & you’re trying to blend them w analogy & abstraction
    • eg people in design knows that
      • remixing content it’s very important
        • looking at great examples of existing designs, references, curated inspiration & making moodboards
  • people get inspired by seemingly useless things
    • because they remix the raw info into something better
    • “Genius isn’t in the source-it’s in the synthesis”
    • e.g.
      • Leonardo da Vinci birds & flying machine
      • you talking to a LLM

• archived

  • “Connect the dots” was a Steve Jobs thing? Not really
    • “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.”