Cultivating a tendency to question reality from multiple perspectives is an essential part of fueling and fostering the creative impulse within us. We need to focus on cultivating a dialectical approach. This approach is a kind of an internal Socratic dialog, where two people hold opposing beliefs and engage with each other purely upon the merits of their beliefs, hoping to learn rather than to win. Naturally, this process only works when you avoid logical fallacies and personal attacks, and the nature of the conversation is one of care and mutual respect. Learn to have these conversations with yourself.
Do not be content with just exploring your ideas without considering the value of the opposing view. Arguing from both sides can often give you more profound and honest insights into your ideas.Â
Playing the Devil’s advocate is a way of thinking, but it’s also a way of doing. A whole new world opens up as you let go and stop possessing your creative ideas. Approach your creative endeavors in the spirit of the complete opposite. Black becomes white. Bass notes become treble notes. The protagonist becomes the antagonist. Focus on seeing how you can use inversion to discover a deeper sense of beauty and wonder.
Today's idea is a question I want to pose to you that you should ask some friends to strike up an interesting conversation. Is human attraction based on nurture/biology, chemical response, or social construct?
"The ultimate solutions to problems are rational; the process of finding them is not."—William J. J. Gordon
