about fiction and hope
Everyone likes a good story. Be it written or spoken. As children, me and my bro always like to sit at the laps of my dad (who happens to be a good story teller) and nag him to churn out some stories. He disappoints seldomly. Even till this day, some of his stories remain in our minds.
What’s so captivating about fiction? It doesn’t require much explanation or a past. When you hear “Once upon a time, there was a rich and wicked man”, you (normally) don’t ask, “Why was he rich?” or “How did he become wicked?”. The initial condition is simply stated and accepted. Nor is a continuation or an ending required. Some ends with happily ever after, some just ends, as if the author was suddenly satisfied with his/her work, leaving the reader to guess and speculate.
Stories, unlike life, do not owe anything to the past nor bear the responsibility for the future. As I’m writing this, the lady beside me in the train is reading a novel titled “The night train to Lisbon”. Presumably it’s about the event in that particular night, and nothing more.
Stories, unlike life, do not submit to the logic of this world nor the boundaries of human. The best stories that I’ve read are those that create a world of its own – Lord of the rings, Harry Potter, Artemis Fowl… and so on. It takes you away, however temporary, to a place where only the imagination is the limitation.
All these makes me wonder about the psychology and the emotions behind both the creation and consumption of these fictions. The common notion is that everyone of us is an escapist in one way or another. Stories provide not just a respite, but also the hope for better things to come. Some stories make you feel significant, as if being a part of something, a conspiracy or a conquest. It is not without reason that fictions far outsell the non-fictions.
As I was thinking through all these, I tried to find a common denominator among all the good authors. Imagination and at least some good language and expressive skills surely, but what else?
Then it struck me. Can it be – Hope?
It’s not about hoping for a future or a world like those in these stories. But somehow this hope produces a sort of naiveness, a sort of optimism, expanding the horizon of their imagination. When you have hope, you can do everything and be anything in the future, just ask a child. There’s no tax return for the pot of gold you’d soon strike, no bureaucracy for the company you’d find, no marketing for the product you’d create and so on. They hope…. and start writing.
Maybe? Just maybe. Mrs. Rowling was at brink of poverty when Harry came into her mind. Mr. Tolkien was well educated but never rich. And you can probably at least name a few author whose first book was so mesmerizing but disappoint henceforth. Can it be that once they achieve fame and wealth, this element of hope diminishes? There are not many rich authors who produce good work after they become rich. Somehow the comfortable lifestyle saturates the mind.
Maybe I’m being sour grapes? Well, as with all my thoughts, they are just thoughts.
Six hats of thinking
Introduction
Without us realizing it, most of us have a more-or-less defined role. Some of us are optimists, and would always produce reasons of why something can work or turn out well. Some of us are so-very-cautious, and every step forward requires some prolonged contemplation.
Most of us are something of everything but we tend to lean towards a certain direction of thinking.
The major reason for this is that it is difficult to do two things at one time. Imagine balancing a big book on the top of your head, juggling with two balls with your left hand and unwrapping chocolate bar with your right hand. The same is true for thinking. It is hard to be objective and subjective towards an issue, but both are necessary. It is hard to be critical and optimistic about an idea, and again, both are necessary.
In the end, when there is no framework for us to do our thinking, we tend to lead towards the type of thinking in which we are most comfortable with. The results, although valid, are usually just a narrow view of the overall issue.
The six thinking hats is a method to do one sort of thinking at a time. Instead of trying to do everything at once we ‘wear’ only one hat at a time.
In image processing technology (TV, camera, printing), colours are treated separately before combined together to give a full-colour picture. If a colour is missing (malfunctioning sensors, empty catridges), we would only have a tainted picture (imagine a bluish picture). If only a colour is used, we would only have a picture lacking in details and dimensions (imagine a black-white picture). Analogically each type of thinking should be processed separately before combining them together for full-colour thinking.
About hats
It’s important to note that hats are something easily put on or taken off. It’s not permanently attached to you. This is important because each one must be able to take off and put on each of the hats.
Hats are not accessories, not categories. It’s wrong to say: “She is a green-hat thinker”. Instead of labelling people and putting them into boxes the hats are there to encourage people to use all types of thinking.
The White Hat
Think of white as a blank paper, ready to contain datas and information. The white hat means neutral information.
- What information do we have?
- What information is missing?
- How do we get the information we need?
The information may be facts, figures, lists, statistics etc. It can be obvious and direct but can also be deduced.
The Red Hat
Think of fire and warm. The red hat is for emotions, feelings, hunches and intuition.
As the white hat is about objective facts, the red hat is about subjective feelings. Feelings are a very important part of thinking, often times are decisions based of feelings.
The red hat allows the people to put forward our feelings as a part of the thinking without justification. “I have a bad-feeling about this but I can’t explain it” is a valid red-hat statement.
Red hat is permission to put forward feelings, intuitions etc. without the need to justify it. Feelings are valuable as long as they are labelled as such.
Information and Feeling
It’s important to differentiate between information and feelings. Statements like “I feel that this product will sell” but without any backing are red-hat statements. “I feel that the product will sell due to past sales trends and datas” is a white-hat statement.
Statements like “Miss Goh does not like this idea” are white-hat statements because it simply puts down the fact that someone opposes the idea. On the other hand, “I don’t like this idea” is a red-hat statement.
The Black Hat
Think of a stern judge. The black hat is concerned with truth and reality. It is about critical thinking. Questions asked by black hat are:
- Is it true?
- Does it fit?
- Will it work?
- What are the dangers and problems?
The Yellow Hat
Think of sunshine. The yellow hat is full of hope and optimism. It looks into the future, the postives and the benefits. Questions asked by yellow hat are:
- What are the benefits?
- Why should it work?
Logical reasoning
The black and the yellow hat are both logical hats. The reasons behind the assessments must be given. If there are no reasons, you should be using the red hat, because a statement without reasons is a feeling or intuition.
Over-use
Some people want to be cautious and negative all the time. They are always ready to point out why something will not work or cannot be done. This does not mean that the black hat is a ‘bad hat’. Some salt on food is good, too much salt is bad. Over-use of the black hat does not make it a bad hat.
On the other hand, there are people who get carried away by an idea and plunge ahead without facing the realities and practicalities. This is not so much over-use of the yellow hat as failure to use the black hat.
The Green Hat
Think of grass, trees and growth. Think of the energy of growth and fertility. The green hat is the ‘active’ (not reactive) hat, it is the creative hat.
The white hat lays out the information. The red hat allows feelings to be put forward. The black and yellow hats deal with logical assessment. So it falls to the green hat to be the action hat under ideas are put forward.
The five main uses of the green hat are as follows:
- Exploration
- Proposals and suggestions
- Alternatives
- New ideas
- Provocations
The Blue Hat
Think of the blue sky. The sky is above everything. With blue-hat thinking you are above the thinking, you are thinking about thinking. Blue hat is the overview and the process control.
Areas covered by the blue hat are:
- Where are we now?
- What is the next step?
- Programm for thinking
- Summary
- Observation and comment
Sequence
There is no single correct sequence because it will vary with the circumstances. Some of the guildelines are:
- Each hat may be used by any number of times in the sequence.
- In general it is best to use the yellow hat before the black hat since it is difficult to be positive after you have been critical.
- The black hat is used in two ways. The first way is to point out the weaknesses in an idea. This should then be followed by the green hat, which tries to overcome the weakness. The second use of the black hat is for assessment.
- The black hat is always used for final assessment of the idea. The final assessment should be always be followed by the red hat. This is so that we can see how we feel about the idea after we have assessed it.
- If you believe the there are strong feelings about a subject, you always start the thinking with the red hat in order to get those feelings out into the open. Or else the white hat is used to gather information.
Example:
When seeking an idea: White -> Green -> Yellow -> Black -> Green -> Blue -> Black -> Red
When reacting to an idea -> Red -> Yellow -> Black -> Green -> White -> Green -> Black -> Red
End.