Gerald Ajam

Read the ways against each other.

A way of thinking on its own looks complete. It only shows what it leaves out when you hold one thing steady and let the ways vary, which is hard to do while clicking between four pages. This page does it instead.

All four ways

Pick the ways, then pick what to hold constant. Start with a person. The same five people appear on every page, in the same school, facing the same decision, and each way of thinking gives them a different day. Then try “What it cannot see”. Each way’s blind spot is usually what one of the others notices first.

Ways of thinking (pick at least two)

Systems thinking

Understanding what is · wholes and relations

The behaviour comes from the structure, so look at the structure

Design thinking

Making what could be · wholes and relations

Change the situation, and learn what the problem was by trying

Critical thinking

Understanding what is · parts and steps

Take the claim apart and ask what would have to be true

Computational thinking

Making what could be · parts and steps

State the process precisely enough that something else could carry it out

Where to go next

The four in full

Each way’s page carries the whole day, a picture of the way at work outside school, and the reading it comes from.

All four ways
Singapore