Hard and Soft

There are two kinds of people in this world: those who divide everything into two groups and those who don’t...Thinking is a continuous process and is being performed knowingly or unknowingly by nature. Let me introduce two types of thinking. Soft and Hard...

Soft thinking is playful, spontaneous, dreamlike, and less concerned with finding the answer as compared to hard thinking. Soft thinking is a necessary part of creativity. But hard thinking is also part of the process. Creativity may thrive on spontaneity but order and analytical thinking is important to be successful.

We might say that hard thinking is like a spotlight. It is bright, clear and intense, but the focus is narrow. Soft thinking is like a floodlight. It is more diffuse, not as intense, but covers a wider area. Where soft thinking tries to find similarities and connections among things, hard thinking focuses on their differences.

Creativity and thinking skills are often assumed in born, but both are learned skills. Allowing children to explore and discover the world at their own pace is vital. Play and playfulness are part of both creativity and thinking. Knowing when to use different types of thinking is important for thinking and creativity. Yet the differences are rarely explored with children.

Keeping awake the sense of wonder in the world is achieved with soft thinking. This thinking is like think diving into an ice cream. Soft and slowly melting kind of thinking. Hard thinking is more like diving into the ice cream cone – precise and exact shape.  The cone has the same shape while the ice cream

Let me tell you about the two main phases in the development of new ideas: the incubation phase and the practical phase. In the incubation phase, ideas are generated and manipulated; in the practical phase, they are evaluated and executed. , the incubation phase generates the new ideas and the practical phase harvests them. Both types of thinking play an important role in the creative process, but usually during different phases. Soft thinking is very useful in the incubation phase, when you are hunting for new ideas, thinking about and manipulating problems. Hard thinking, on the other hand, is best used in the practical phase, when you are evaluating ideas, narrowing in on practical solutions and preparing to carry an idea into action.

 After reading the long passages could you able to narrow down anything? If yes validate it once. In case of no, no worries, just try to come up with the following conclusion. Thinking has the soft and hard parts. All of us falling into one of the categories or both (rarely, some people). But the ratios are varying person to person. So if we can come to the conclusion where we are falling either soft or hard. And we tried to concentrate more on it. That will help us to grow more on personal and professional life. Use your soft thinking to get succeed in hard thinking. J