I don't believe in thinking. I believe in meta

====summary of the book========
Idea comes from combination of old elements; the ability to find combinations lies in the ability to see relationships.

This technique follows five steps:

1.Grasp raw materials. From daily tacky boring life. But remember don't be over-manipulated by them. They don't offer metacognitions. They are premises for metacognition, though. Raw materials can be further devided into specific material and general material. Specific technique: card-index method.

2.Feel the raw materials with the tentacles of mind: take one fact, look at it in different lights, feel the meaning of it; bring two or more facts together and see how they fit.

3.Put the problem out of your mind, completely. Let it work while you sleep and relax. Do something else creative (for me it's reading Calvino.)

4.Out of nowhere the idea will appear.

5.Take the idea into the world of reality. Test and modify it.

Final words: Live spatially and passionately, follow the passion (it's the collection of raw materials!)

========my notes and thoughts======
everything in the world can be divided into two categories:

things that offer metacognition

things that don't offer metacognition...it's more about tools, algorithms. it tells us (descriptively) how the world works but it doesn't state why (analytically). but they serve as excellent sources of raw material (i.e. old elments)

And here comes the reason why I have no 'feeling' for quantitative studies. They are just tools. They are inferior in thinking level. They offer too few practical revelation for real life. However, they are good sources of raw material, so I should still take them seriously and try to derive from them as much superior inspiration as possible. Actually I don't hate quantitative studies, I even find them interesting from an inspirational perspective, if they are illustrated in an easy-going, practicality-related way. I just don't think there's any need to pour hundreds of hours in practicing their details.

So here comes one task: rethink everything you went through this semester, or this year, e.g. the frustration of failing to work out a basic feasible solution for a linear programming problem, the aversion to the game-sucker roommate, the fascination from delving in the world of psychoanalysis. Ask: Why? What does this process have in common with other processes in this world? Treat them as research subjects. Observe them. Find patterns.

The myth of open-mindedness: Only when one has experienced close-mindedness could he say he is open-minded.

Keep observing, writing, thinking.

I don't believe in thinking. I believe in metacognition.

Dictionary is a collection of short stories.