Collection
The Irrational and the Unconscious

by David Gray
 
Thomas Edison famously said that genius is 99 percent perspiration and 1 percent inspiration. The emphasis is always on the perspiration: the need for determination and concentration - for rational and conscious effort. Certainly in business, a common attitude is that there is no problem that can't be licked by working a little harder.

But where does the 1 percent come from? How is creative thought different and why is its appearance so erratic and unpredictable? We often do not understand the process of our own thinking very clearly - why some concepts can become suddenly clear to us while others we just cannot get.

Psychological experiments show that human brains are naturally good at some things, like recognition of patterns, but have problems with others, such as abstract logical reasoning.

The materials in this collection explore these often-overlooked aspects of thinking - the roles of the unconscious and the "irrational" workings of the mind. Understanding these things may cause us to rethink the way we approach strategic problem-solving or to identify the natural pitfalls in thinking to which we are often liable.