Previous Page Next Page 
(c)  2025 Columbia University Press. All Rights reserved.

Strategic Intuition: The Creative Spark in Human Achievement resources

Extracted Text (may have errors)

[ 1 ] Flash versus Blink An Introduction to Strategic Intuition It’s an open secret that good ideas come to you as fl ashes of insight, often when you don’t expect them. It’s probably happened to you—in the shower, or stepping onto a train, or stuck in traffi c, falling asleep, swimming, or brushing your teeth in the morning. Suddenly it hits you. It all comes together in your mind. You connect the dots. It can be one big “Aha!” or a series of smaller ones that together show you the way ahead. The fog clears and you see what to do. It seems so obvious. A moment before you had no idea. Now you do. If this kind of fl ash of insight has ever happened to you, you’re in very good company. It is the key element in some of the great- est achievements in human history: how Bill Gates founded Microsoft, how Picasso found his style, how the civil rights move- ment fi nally succeeded, how the Google guys conquered the Internet, how Napoleon conquered Europe, and so on through the ages. It’s how innovators get their innovations, how artists get their creative ideas, how visionaries get their vision, how sci- entists make their discoveries, and how good ideas of every kind arise in the human mind. In recent years neuroscience has made great strides in explain- ing how fl nd reference to fl ashes of ashes of insight work. We fi insight as well in a variety of older fi elds that seek to explain how good ideas for action happen. They appear in Asian philosophy, classical military strategy, business strategy, the history of science, and the newer fi eld of cognitive psychology. By pulling together 40962 Ch01 001-010 r1.indd 1 40962 Ch01 001-010 r1.indd 1 8/10/07 11:40:13 AM8/10/07 11:40:13 AM

Help

loading