Combinatory play is one of the most important mental skills to develop for creativity and innovation. In Edward De Bono’s new book, ‘How to have creative ideas’, he explains that creativity is a skill that can be learned. He should know, De Bono is one of the leaders in the field of innovation and has been for over 30 years. He teaches people; from 4 year olds to ninety year olds; how to be more creative. He is a polymath from Camridge University with a medical degree to boot, but what he is famous for is: inventor of ‘lateral thinking’ a creative technique that allows people to break out of routine and pedestrian thought. He explains, just like skiing and golfing, creativity is a skill that anyone can learn, practice and use. We are familiar with the idea that we can exercise to improve physical skills i.e. weight training at the gym, practicing our golf swing at the range. Mental skills are no different, the exercises are not as commonly known but people have been developing thinking skills for thousands of years.
Recently there has been a lot of talk about improving thinking skills for the elderly through games like Brainage from Ninetendo, based on the work of neuroscientist Dr. Ryuta Kawashima. Brainage consists of a number of mental games that are played to improve your mental skills; from memory games, to mental arithmetic and logic puzzles like Suduko. This game grew from research showing that the more you exercise your brain the better it gets. Use it or lose it has been the motto for many neuroscientists. Brain stimulation has been shown to reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s, but it is just as applicable to any age group wanting to improve their thinking skills.
Contrary to common thought, the brain potential doesn’t decline automatically with age, but it will decline if it isn’t stimulated! Richard Restak, neuropsychiatrist and clinical professor of neurology at George Washington University Medical Center, has written a number of books on the subject, ‘Mozart's Brain and the Fighter Pilot: Unleashing Your Brain's Potential’ delves into how’s and why’s of brain stimulation. There are many mental exercises and workouts that will improve thinking skills, but Restak explains that building interconnections between different brain functions is the best way to get an overall brain workout. The challenge is how you achieve that. It’s long been known that the brain gets better at the particular mental skill being practiced. Solving crossword puzzles improves a brain function called fluency, or word finding; it is a process in the language centers of the brain; but it is not going to help arithmetic or spatial skills.
How do you build the interconnections across the different brain functions? Is it as simple as working out each individual mental ‘muscle’ group or is some form of cross training required? Combinatory play is the equivalent of cross-training for the brain and builds these interconnections and hence develops the overall fitness of the brain.
What is combinatory play? Combining concepts together to form new connections and ideas. A closely related skill to associative thinking where you find associations between two words i.e. apples and oranges are both are fruit. Combinatory play is a little different since instead of finding associations, it forces connections between two concepts to form a new idea.
There is a lot of talk of how these mechanisms work in the mind, Jeff Hawkins book ‘On Intelligence’ has a new take on the underlying mechanisms of the mind for how combinatory and associative thinking works using what he calls the memory prediction algorithm. Our brains are far better at associating 2 words than they are forcing connections between two words that seem to have no associations. Our ability to associate concepts sometimes limits out ability to be creative. We form ‘associative barriers’ that makes us very efficient at finding common associations but it takes from our ability force new connections. Developing our abilities to force connections between disparate words, overcoming these associative barriers is probably one of the most important skills when it comes to creative and innovative thought. It is no coincidence that the most creative and innovative people through history are experts at forcing new connections through combinatory play.
“Combinatory play seems to be the essential feature in productive thought.” – Albert Einstein
ThinkCube is based on MetaMemes (the early adoption version) a creativity game that uses combinatory play as its core mechanic. A game is the perfect solution to develop higher thinking skills; a fun, low risk, but socially competitive environment. Similar to the physical world where playing a sport is more fun than working on the treadmill, in the mental world it is more fun to play a game than just work on a mental exercise.
ThinkCube provides you with everything you need to practice your combinatory thinking skills in a fun game environment and also to practice on your own. You shouldn’t neglect working the different mental muscles with games like Nintendo’s brainage, crossword puzzles, Suduko etc. Instead adding ThinkCube as the mental cross-trainer will enhance your mental workout routine to fully realize the potential of your mind; the new innovations and breakthrough ideas that it stimulates are just an added bonus!
Happy ThinkCubating,
