3a1 - Generate thought collisions to develop valuable ideas
- From a tightly-packed collision of clouds emerges intense electricity. We call this lightning. And from lightning comes illumination.
- These same set of conditions work for the ==generation of ideas.== We’ve all had our own light bulb moments. They are often fleeting. But do they have to be? What if we could bottle that idea lightning—or at the very least make a few more sparks fly?
- We can. If we just have to create the right conditions.
- The problem is that things get in the way of our ability to think at higher levels for sustained periods of time. Some society-related, some tool-related.
- But now we have transitioned into the age of the linked note. Now we have the ability to quickly deploy a versatile and effective thinking tool.
- Now, imagine being at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Switzerland. It smashes particles together at close to the speed of light. As particles collide, some merge into bigger particles, some break apart into more fundamental elements, and other bits lose their importance in the context.
- The same process can happen for our ideas! We just go to the Switzerland of our note library and build a “Concentrated Thought Collider” (CTC). As notes collide, some notes combine, some notes break off into fundamental statements, and other notes lose their relevance—from being redundant or out of context.
- A concentrated Thought Collider is like the Large Hadron Collider, except instead of accelerating particles, it’s ==accelerating ideas. ==
- And you can deploy as many as you want, when you want. That’s next level thinking. That’s when sparks can fly.
- These sparks happen in special notes called: Maps of Content, also known as MOCs.
- MOCs are not about indexing information. They are about creating relationships. If we focus on creating meaningful relationships, I promise you, that not only will the indexing take care of itself, but you will have created incomparable amounts of additional value that will continue to bring you enrichment in countless ways over the years. This unit shows us how.
# Maximize your thought collisions
- Ideas are forged from thoughts coming together and talking. So why not figure out a way to have related thoughts talk to each other more frequently—and at a higher level of intensity?
- Thought collisions are the ==interaction and exchange of ideas==, i.e., when thoughts interact with other thoughts.
- Steve Jobs recognized the value of concentrated thought collisions in teams where a little bit of friction can create “beautiful polished rocks”. While thought collisions cannot be accurately measured, the term helps us to consider what effective thinking feels like. It forces a valuable question:
How can we maximize the frequency, quality, and reliability of thought collisions?
- One answer? By using Maps of Content (MOCs).
- MOCs (EM-OH-CEEs) become a tightly-packed room where ideas have to jostle for positioning and figure things out. It’s the “the room where it happens"—and it’s the focus of this unit.