146. Is and If | Essay
'sup from SUT
What is the difference between asking “What is XYZ?” and asking “What if XYZ?”
The first gets you an answer. The second gets you possibilities.
The first is an example of convergent thinking. The second is an example of divergent thinking. All of us can do both types of thinking, and that’s good and important, because both are necessary, although most of us probably find one kind of thinking more comfortable than the other.
Convergent thinking seeks to collapse (converge) from a range of possibilities onto a single end point. Divergent thinking seeks to expand (diverge) from a single start point to a range of possibilities.
Convergent thinking asks: “How long is the nail?” There is one end point.
Divergent thinking asks: “What can we do with the nail?” There are many possibilities.
When building new things, or growing old things, or solving problems, or making jokes, or doing anything and everything, we need both divergent and convergent thinking. The branching power of divergent thinking without the pruning power of convergent thinking runs the risk of creating wild, uncontrolled chaos, while convergent thinking without divergent thinking runs the risk of doing “excellent” technical work in the wrong strategic direction, for example, solving the wrong problem.
Divergent and convergent thinking don’t always exist in equal parts in single individuals, and I think that simple fact explains the frequency of all kinds of different partnerships. The sum of the whole is clearly greater than the parts.
I highlighted making jokes above. It looks something like this:
Hmm, there could be something funny about XYZ
The set up could be A, or maybe B, and the punchline could be C, or maybe D
What if the character was a this instead of a that?
What is the best “camera angle” to show/tell the joke?
What are the best (and fewest) words needed?
Does this spotlight the right part of the thing that is funny?
And on and on and on….
You get the point. Divergent and convergent. “What if XYZ?” and “What is XYZ?”
I intend to revisit this in the future. In the meantime, today, try watching for both. Try deliberately using both.
And drop a comment!