How to break through your own thinking frame

If the traditional way of thinking is to let you solve problems step by step, then flexible thinking is to let you jump out of the traditional thinking framework, see the overall situation and win by surprise.

Let's start with a person whose name is David Wallerstein. We are not familiar with him, but what he did has affected almost all of us. Wallerstein worked for a chain cinema in the 1960s. At that time, the main income of the cinema was not from the box office, but popcorn and coke. In fact, it still does today. Wallerstein is mainly responsible for increasing the sales of popcorn and cola.

At first, wallerstein used traditional methods, such as buy one get one free, daytime discount and so on. , but it has no effect. One day, wallerstein suddenly had an epiphany. He thought that maybe everyone really wanted to eat more popcorn, but they didn't want to be seen buying two bags, because it would make them look particularly greedy. You should know that gluttony is a deep-rooted taboo in western culture and one of the seven deadly sins in the Bible. Wouldn't it be great if they could get rid of their emotional resistance to buying a second bag of popcorn? What if you don't want to buy two bags and want to eat more? Wallerstein introduced a vat of popcorn. As a result, not only the sales of popcorn soared, but also the sales of coke went up. That's understandable. If you eat too much, of course you drink too much.

Therefore, flexible thinking is a bit like jumping out of the box, holding a knife sideways, and winning by surprise. But it is not easy to get people out of the traditional thinking frame. Let's listen to wallerstein's experience in McDonald's.

In the mid-1970s, wallerstein entered McDonald's, and he persuaded ray kroc, the founder of McDonald's, to sell French fries in larger packages. At that time, Clark said, "If customers want to eat more French fries, they can buy two packs." Anyway, when McDonald's adopted this strategy, it was already 1990, which has been used for nearly 20 years. At that time, oversized packaging was nothing new, and it had long been popular.

When people think, they will form a fixed thinking frame according to past experience or social environment. This frame of thinking determines the way and perspective we look at things. For example, how we look at an object, what we value in the object, what we ignore, and what is the default premise are all in this framework, which is scientifically called paradigm, also called paradigm. And if a major event happens in a certain field and changes the original assumptions or laws, it is called paradigm shift.

This word was put forward by thomas kuhn, an American philosopher of science, in his book The Structure of Scientific Revolution. For example, when people find that the earth is round rather than flat, almost all previous analysis and understanding of the earth should be reconsidered. Fundamentally speaking, paradigm shift is to let people get rid of the original shackles and restrictions and open up new possibilities for people's thoughts and actions.

Whether in personal life or science, everyone has formed his own thinking frame and his own role model through experience accumulation. After that, some people have been standing still, and some people have been evolving their own thinking framework. People who realize the self-paradigm shift, that is, people who constantly upgrade their cognition, are more adaptable to the changing environment and have more advantages.

But if we want to form a new thinking framework and make a breakthrough, we still have to rely on flexible thinking. Then how can we cultivate flexible thinking?

Cultivate flexible thinking

There are two main ways to cultivate flexible thinking, one is to empty; One is to do brain-wasting work first, and then do it when your brain is tired. Both methods may sound a little strange, so let's talk about them in detail.

There are roughly two kinds of thinking states in the human brain, one is responsible for concentration, and the brain mode in this state is called executive network. For example, if you listen to our column carefully and follow my explanation, you will use the executive network of your brain, but this executive network can only help you complete the task, but it can't make you creative.

Another network, the default network, is the core thinking state of flexible thinking. By default, the brain under the network is in an empty state, and many times, we don't even realize its existence. But it is this default network that helps us understand recent experiences and learning contents, integrate and absorb new experiences, generate creativity and propose breakthrough solutions.

In the article, the author talked about his experience in cooperation with Hawking. When they talk and communicate, Hawking can only type about six words per minute for physical reasons, and the response time is longer. The author said that while he was waiting for Hawking's reply, his brain was in an empty state. Thinking about the East and the West gave him more inspiration and deeper thinking, and his cooperation with Hawking was also very successful.