Last week, I came upon an interesting article in the New Sunday Times, titled "Recognise Fine Differences" by Mohamad Radzi Mustapa. According to him, categorical thinking is a flawed approach to understand the socially constructed world around us. Due to the evolution from a primitive past in the physical environment, the human mind has the built-in capability to perform automatic categorization of subjects based on general cross-cutting attributes and effectively eliminating the finer differences of details. Obviously this kind of thinking comes from generalizations that are based upon premises supported by unsubstantiated assumptions and unvalidated facts. The danger of this thinking is evident from statements like "Muslims are terrorists!", "Only sexy women invites trouble" or "Girls have better brains than boys". We certainly must always be self-aware of our thought processes less we subcumb to the pitfalls of categorical thinking. Give some credence to the wisdom of "think before you speak" (better still, "think before you act").

This set me off thinking. How do we eleviate ourself from the shackles of such primitive thought processes? What then are the other forms of thinking that we may constructively apply in our daily lives? Here's some that I think may be quite useful:

• Associative thinking. This is one of my favourites but also the hardest for me. The ability to link two or more seemingly unrelated set of ideas to create a larger over-encompassing idea. Very valuable in organizational management, marketing and communications.
  
• Mathematical thinking. The ability to apply symbolic abstractions to model the real world. Hallmark of theoretical sciences like physics and astronomy.
  
• Spatial thinking. Thinking in terms of 3D space. Ability to manipulate space in mind to create new world perceptions. Understands how subjects in the physical realm interact with each other. For instance, how light reflects on a given surface. We see this in the field of design and arts.
  
• Patterns thinking. The ability to model the real world via graphical constructs for detailed analysis. Have similar charateristics with categorical thinking but is more objective. Suitable in domain like software development and system design.

Obviously, an individual must first understand all the strengths and weaknesses for each type of thinking before it can be applied effectively. Just remember, your mind has the capacity to think at a higher level. Categorical thinking in a social context leads to discriminative behavior.

Question, what forms of thinking are applied when one:

• Gets a piece of a jigsaw puzzle and endeavours to create the pieces around it?
• Gets the surrounding pieces of a jigsaw puzzle except for one in the center and endeavours to create that final missing piece?

Other related articles:
What Goes Wrong: The Human Factor