Thinkertoys : a handbook of creative-thinking techniques / Michael Michalko.

By:

Michalko, Michael, 1940-

Material type: Text

TextPublication details: Berkeley, Calif. : Ten Speed Press, c2006.Edition: 2nd edDescription: xx, 394 p. : ill. ; 24 cmISBN:

1580087736
9781580087735

Subject(s):

Holdings
Item type	Current library	Call number	Copy number	Status	Barcode
2 Hour Loan	Clonmel Library Reserve - Library Issue Desk	650.019 MIC (Browse shelf(Opens below))	1	Available	R15887WKRC
Standard Loan	Thurles Library Main Collection	650.01 MIC (Browse shelf(Opens below))	1	Available	R19305WKRC
Standard Loan	Thurles Library Main Collection	650.01 MIC (Browse shelf(Opens below))	1	Available	R19304FKRC

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Rethink the Way You Think

In hindsight, every great idea seems obvious. But how can you be the person who comes up with those ideas?
In this revised and expanded edition of his groundbreaking Thinkertoys , creativity expert Michael Michalko reveals life-changing tools that will help you think like a genius. From the linear to the intuitive, this comprehensive handbook details ingenious creative-thinking techniques for approaching problems in unconventional ways. Through fun and thought-provoking exercises, you'll learn how to create original ideas that will improve your personal life and your business life. Michalko's techniques show you how to look at the same information as everyone else and see something different.

With hundreds of hints, tricks, tips, tales, and puzzles, Thinkertoys will open your mind to a world of innovative solutions to everyday and not-so-everyday problems.

Includes index.

Original title: Thinkertoys : a handbook of business creativity for the '90s.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

Preface to the New Edition (p. xi)
The Barking Cat (Introduction) (p. xvii)
initiation (p. 1)
Chapter 1 Original Spin (p. 3)
Chapter 2 Mind Pumping (p. 11)
Chapter 3 Challenges (p. 22)
Chapter 4 Thinkertoys (p. 35)
Part 1 Linear Thinkertoys (p. 41)
Group A
Chapter 5 False Faces (reversal) (p. 43)
Chapter 6 Slice and Dice (attribute listing) (p. 53)
Chapter 7 Cherry Split (fractionation) (p. 60)
Chapter 8 Think Bubbles (mind mapping) (p. 66)
Chapter 9 SCAMPER (questions) (p. 72)
Group B
Chapter 10 Tug-of-War (force-field analysis) (p. 111)
Chapter 11 Idea Box (morphological analysis) (p. 117)
Chapter 12 Idea Grid (FCB grid) (p. 126)
Chapter 13 Lotus Blossom (diagramming) (p. 132)
Chapter 14 Phoenix (questions) (p. 137)
Chapter 15 The great Transpacific Airline and Storm Door Company (matrix) (p. 144)
Chapter 16 Future Fruit (future scenarios) (p. 150)
Group C
Chapter 17 Brutethink (random stimulation) (p. 157)
Chapter 18 Hall of Fame (forced connection) (p. 170)
Chapter 19 Circle of Opportunity (forced connection) (p. 179)
Chapter 20 Ideatoons (pattern language) (p. 184)
Chapter 21 Clever Trevor (talk to a stranger) (p. 190)
Part 2 Intuitive Thinkertoys (p. 199)
Chapter 22 Chilling Out (relaxation) (p. 203)
Chapter 23 Blue Roses (intuition) (p. 210)
Chapter 24 The Three B's (incubation) (p. 218)
Chapter 25 rattlesnakes and Roses (analogies) (p. 223)
Chapter 26 Stone Soup (fantasy questions) (p. 239)
Chapter 27 True and False (janusian thinking) (p. 248)
Chapter 28 Dreamscape (dreams) (p. 256)
Chapter 29 Da Vinci's Technique (drawing) (p. 261)
Chapter 30 Dali's Technique (hypnogogic imagery) (p. 268)
Chapter 31 Not Kansas (imagery) (p. 273)
Chapter 32 The Shadow (psychosynthesis) (p. 281)
Chapter 33 The Book of the Dead (hieroglyphics) (p. 287)
Part 3 The Spirit of Koinonia (p. 293)
Chapter 34 Warming Up (p. 299)
Chapter 35 Brainstorming (p. 311)
Chapter 36 Orthodox Brainstorming (p. 323)
Chapter 37 Raw Creativity (p. 341)
Part 4 Endtoys (p. 363)
Chapter 38 Murder Board (p. 365)
Chapter 39 You Are Not a Field of Grass (p. 374)
Index (p. 381)
About the Author (p. 395)

Excerpt provided by Syndetics

Introduction THE BARKING CAT What would you think of someone who said, "I would like to have a cat, provided it barked"? The common desire to be creative, provided it's something that can be easily willed or wished, is precisely equivalent. The thinking techniques that lead to creativity are no less rigid than the biological principles that determine the characteristics of cats. Creativity is not an accident, not something that is genetically determined. It is not a result of some easily learned magic trick or secret, but a consequence of your intention to be creative and your determination to learn and use creative-thinking strategies. The illustration below shows the word "FLOP," which we all know and understand. Look at it again. Can you see anything else? Once we see the word "FLOP," we tend to exclude all other possibilities, despite the strange shapes of the letters. Yet if you look at the "O" in flop, you can see a white "I." Now if you read the white outlines as letters with the "I," you will see the word "FLIP." Flip-flop is the complete message. Once found, it seems so obvious that you wonder why you were, at first, blind to it. By changing your perspective, you expand your possibilities until you see something that you were unable to see before. This is what you will experience when you use Thinkertoys. You will find yourself looking at the same information everyone else is looking at yet seeing something different. This new and different way of seeing things will lead you to new ideas and unique insights. Thinkertoys train you how to get ideas. They are specific hands-on techniques that enable you to come up with big or small ideas; ideas that make money, solve problems, beat the competition, and further your career; ideas for new products and new ways of doing things. The techniques were selected for their practicality and range from the classic to the most modern. They are divided into linear techniques, which allow you to manipulate information in ways that will generate new ideas, and intuitive techniques, which show you how to find ideas by using your intuition and imagination. A popular children's puzzle shows six fishermen whose lines are tangled together to form a sort of maze. One of the lines has caught a fish; the problem is to find which fisherman it belongs to. You are supposed to do this by following each line through the maze, which may take up to six tries, depending on your luck. It is obviously easier to start at the other end and trace the line from the fish to the fisherman, as you have only one possible starting place, not six. This is how I researched and developed Thinkertoys. Instead of presenting a catalog of all known creative techniques and abandoning you to puzzle out which ones actually work, I started with the ideas (fish) and worked backwards to each creator (fisherman). Then I identified the technique that caught the idea. Some readers will feel that they profit more from the linear techniques and will discount the intuitive ones. Others will prefer the intuitive and discount the linear. You can produce ideas using both the linear and intuitive techniques, and should not limit yourself to one or the other--the more ideas you generate the better. This book will change how you perceive your own creativity, while stripping creativity itself of its mystique. You will, perhaps for the first time, see endless possibilities stretching before you. You will learn how to: • Generate ideas at will. • Find new ways to make money. • Create new business opportunities. &bul Excerpted from Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques by Michael Michalko All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Michael Michalko is one of the most highly acclaimed creativity experts in the world. As an officer in the U.S. Army, he organized a team of NATO intelligence specialists and international academics in Frankfurt, Germany, to research, collect, and categorize all known inventive-thinking methods. His team applied these methods to various NATO military, political, and economic problems and produced a variety of breakthrough ideas and creative solutions to new and old problems. After leaving military service, he was contracted by the CIA to facilitate think tanks using his creative-thinking techniques. He specializes in providing creativity workshops, seminars, and think tanks for clients who range from individuals to Fortune 500 companies.