Critical Thinking
Abstract
The purpose of the posting is to define critical thinking. I am impressed with all kinds of art: drawing, design, music, or writing. All of them impress me, but I will chose my favorite designer, Stefan Sagmeister to help me in creating the definition that I seek. He is a great thinker and a great part of his design is a thinking process that leads him to the outcomes. I will tell you a story about the process of his design making.
Thinking process and outcomes
Sagmeister is a big list maker. One of the lists that he likes to make is "Things that he has learned in life so far". The things listed are the relationship between designed and happiness and he made a large number of items as:
Everyone always things they are right,
Money does not make everyone happy,
Worrying solves nothing, and many others.
From each title on the list, he has made a few projects. Inflatable monkeys display messages on streets, ripping a spider web apart effects on buildings, messages creations on foggy windows project. All of his projects came out from his diary. Diary keeping, by the author, supports his development. The message "Complaining is silly, Either act or forget", was posted on the message board, created the way that the letters progressively faded and then disappeared after several days, leaving a message: No more complaining.
There are many other massages worth idea spreading. Stagmeister speaks about some real happy moments in his life and as a big list maker, he listed them all. He looked at them from a designer step point and eliminated those that has nothing to do with the design. Very surprisingly, a half of them have to do something with the design. While thinking about these, he realized that there are 2 standpoints:
1. Being happy from experiencing design that would then create Comfort, Containment, Delight, and Bliss and
2. Being happy designing. He explores the designer photos and draws conclusions in regard to the designers happiness according to their facial expressions. One of the conclusions that he has made is that the Swiss designers appeared the most unhappy.
Abstract
The purpose of the posting is to define critical thinking. I am impressed with all kinds of art: drawing, design, music, or writing. All of them impress me, but I will chose my favorite designer, Stefan Sagmeister to help me in creating the definition that I seek. He is a great thinker and a great part of his design is a thinking process that leads him to the outcomes. I will tell you a story about the process of his design making.
Thinking process and outcomes
Sagmeister is a big list maker. One of the lists that he likes to make is "Things that he has learned in life so far". The things listed are the relationship between designed and happiness and he made a large number of items as:
Everyone always things they are right,
Money does not make everyone happy,
Worrying solves nothing, and many others.
From each title on the list, he has made a few projects. Inflatable monkeys display messages on streets, ripping a spider web apart effects on buildings, messages creations on foggy windows project. All of his projects came out from his diary. Diary keeping, by the author, supports his development. The message "Complaining is silly, Either act or forget", was posted on the message board, created the way that the letters progressively faded and then disappeared after several days, leaving a message: No more complaining.
There are many other massages worth idea spreading. Stagmeister speaks about some real happy moments in his life and as a big list maker, he listed them all. He looked at them from a designer step point and eliminated those that has nothing to do with the design. Very surprisingly, a half of them have to do something with the design. While thinking about these, he realized that there are 2 standpoints:
1. Being happy from experiencing design that would then create Comfort, Containment, Delight, and Bliss and
2. Being happy designing. He explores the designer photos and draws conclusions in regard to the designers happiness according to their facial expressions. One of the conclusions that he has made is that the Swiss designers appeared the most unhappy.
Sagmeister went once to one symposium called Happiness, where he found the different sections:
Arcadia (100 ways to write happiness),
Nirvana (showed the constable painting, and there is an interesting theory about when you take off the image, that really opens the room for the unrepresentable, being able to involve the viewer more,
Desire (showed paintings from different periods,
Harmony (Mandalas from Tibet).
The majority of his pieces were the visualization of happiness. From the movie industry, after exploring the happiness visualized on the covers, he realized that they have very much dark side to it.
There are the three designs that make Sagmeister happy and here is one of them. Everybody is reading the signs in Subways; nobody ever looks at these signs. You then print your own version of these signs and you wait for the reaction. People are bored while waiting in subway and takes them time to realize that the signs really say something different than they usually say: Do not hold grudges, Ride with despair prohibited, keep hopes up.... Stagmeister also enjoys creating empty bubbles, attaching them on posters and letting others to write in them....What a great way to produce emotions and expressions in media.
One of the lists that Sagmeister created is the list of things that make him like his job:
Thinking about ideas and content freely-with the deadline far away,
Working without interruption on single project,
Using a wide variety of tools and techniques,
Traveling to new places,
Working on projects that matter to him,
Having things come back from printer done well.
Another list comes from one of his diaries:
Everything I do always comes back to me,
Trying to look good limits my life,
Having guts always works out for me.
The author found that self-confidence produces fine results. He had made the project of yellow and green bananas...bananas were the cause for the good mood in the room, by Sagmeister, where the design was exposed.
In his numerous thinking explorations, Sagmeister found that the designer language is important and his language came out of his lifelong lists making. The end goal is to communicate something, to make others think and to overall change outcomes.
Conclusion
After watching the Sagmeister's videos and his so simple, but true, great philosophies, the observer can notice that the author is very brave to change things and that he is excited to see the outcomes. He uses cognitive skills that increase the probability of a desired outcome. His thinking is purposeful, reasoned, and goal oriented. Sagmesister's goal is to produce media and be open to all possible outcomes. His thesis comes from his lists and they also define the context for his thinking process. His assumptions are his beliefs, described in the light of his values and possible biases. He seems to be including counterarguments in his thinking while creating the process. Some steps in the Sagmeister's process of thinking and creating is left open and that is something that cannot be left out in the research project. That is the evidence relevant to the claim and organization of it. There is no conclusion, at least it is not disclosed and it is not needed in this type of media. The messages must be left open for people to conclude on their own, to critically analyze with as much evidence as they have. That is great about thinking and creating media and also so very different from the critical thinking in research. In media, you are given more flexibility to develop conclusions in the light of your own values, and possible biases. The argument is not necessarily convincing, it is open to others' beliefs, motivation, and decision making. The design impacts others accordingly. And, there is one other thing that must be included in the process of thinking and creating, either media or research and one more question to ask. Has someone else already done it?
Conclusion
After watching the Sagmeister's videos and his so simple, but true, great philosophies, the observer can notice that the author is very brave to change things and that he is excited to see the outcomes. He uses cognitive skills that increase the probability of a desired outcome. His thinking is purposeful, reasoned, and goal oriented. Sagmesister's goal is to produce media and be open to all possible outcomes. His thesis comes from his lists and they also define the context for his thinking process. His assumptions are his beliefs, described in the light of his values and possible biases. He seems to be including counterarguments in his thinking while creating the process. Some steps in the Sagmeister's process of thinking and creating is left open and that is something that cannot be left out in the research project. That is the evidence relevant to the claim and organization of it. There is no conclusion, at least it is not disclosed and it is not needed in this type of media. The messages must be left open for people to conclude on their own, to critically analyze with as much evidence as they have. That is great about thinking and creating media and also so very different from the critical thinking in research. In media, you are given more flexibility to develop conclusions in the light of your own values, and possible biases. The argument is not necessarily convincing, it is open to others' beliefs, motivation, and decision making. The design impacts others accordingly. And, there is one other thing that must be included in the process of thinking and creating, either media or research and one more question to ask. Has someone else already done it?
I think that we are ready for the definition: Critical thinking is the use of cognitive skills that increase the probability of a desired outcome with a very important factor and that is a courage to think, create, and communicate thoughts accordingly. Stefan Sagmeister is an example of critical thinking and how visualization of ideas can expand thinking beyond just the cognitive to the emotional.
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