“Be less curious about people and be more curious about ideas.”
— Marie Curie
If curiosity is the impulse to explore, cognitive flexibility is the skill that makes it possible.
Cognitive flexibility is your brain’s ability to:
• switch frames,
• hold multiple perspectives,
• update your model without melting down.
It’s powered by the executive functions in the PFC:
• Working memory – keeping more than one idea alive at the same time.
• Attention control – shifting focus on purpose, not just chasing notifications.
• Inhibition – the ability to not blurt out your favourite opinion immediately. Without thinking.
When cognitive flexibility is high, you can look at a problem from your view, the athlete’s view, the opponent’s view, the supporter’s view, the algorithm’s view, the future’s view—and not freak out.
When it’s low, everything collapses into binary:
• I’m right / you’re wrong.
• Good team / bad team.
• Hero / villain.
That’s the defining feature of inside-the-box thinking.
Curiosity lives in the gap between “I know” and “Maybe I don’t.
Cognitive flexibility is what lets you stand there without panicking.
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Lesson Seven DFQ is:
What is your own understanding of ‘inside-the-box thinking‘?
(To qualify for your DipX10(SOT) certificate post your answer in the Comment section below).
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Next lesson: Fear vs Curiosity. One Brain. Two stories.
for me inside-the-box thinking is all about outputs as binary, good/bad, i like/ don’t like, win/lose, black/white and leaves nothing in between when we all know that life is not that simple…..ts all about shades of grey, nuance and opportunity to do something different….
This type of thinking seems to be essentially based on thought-habits and fixed perceptions. There is a marked reluctance to consider alternative possibilities and a sense of needing to finish the process as quickly as possible. Overall, it could be best described as extremely limited thinking.
People are increasingly polarised in every way and especially their thinking. Most people do not think at all and simply judge whether they like something or don’t or if they agree with a position or disagree (seeking to learn and discover is increasingly absent). This is inside the box thinking and it is stoping us from cooperating and see alternatives. More so it leads to a relaince on redundant soultions to our challenges when there could be infitinite possibilites if we could let go of our current perspectives and beliefs and entertained more contextually appropriate thinking
In architecture, I guess inside the box thinking is knowing the ingredients.
Take away, TV, sugar, sitting, talking shit, left v right, worries and excuses.
Inside the box thinking to me is predominantly, ”staying within your comfort zone”. In essence, validating what you already know and reinforcing pre-existent beliefs; ”playing it safe”. In time, and depending on the task at hand, it becomes a self -confirmation mechanism because it inhibits liberated thinking and reduces possibilities. In a sense, staying within the box prevents exploration of the new, and the unknown. I would say that at times being in the box keeps you safe and makes decision – making linear, which at times might be just fine. Sadly, in a complex world, it is much more likely than not that one has to step out of the box to push their intellectual boundaries and transcend their thinking to solve problems and identify pertinent issues.
The defining feature of inside the box thinking! Curiosity is the bridge between I know and maybe I do not. This makes me smile, acknowledging many others who do as well as myself. Data doesn’t align? Maybe it’s “let’s hold that thought and investigate!?”
Inside-the-box is when you cannot see the frame you are looking through. It feels like thinking, but mostly it reinforces. The invisible constraint is exactly the point.
Inside-the-box is when you can’t see the frame you’re looking through. It feels like thinking, but it’s mostly reinforcing. The invisible constraint is exactly the point.