Preface to Thinkertoys: Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques

By Michael Michalko

Compare the trees along a wild and windblown lake, with an eroded gully. The pattern of these trees are so made that when the wind blows they all bend in concert, and all of the forces in the system stay in balance. The pattern of the bending trees, plants, and roots make them all self-maintaining and whole.

But think about a piece of land that is very steep, and where erosion is taking place. There aren’t enough trees to hold the earth together. Let’s say it rains in torrents and carries the earth down streams which form gullies. Here the pattern of the trees and plants is poor. The earth is not bound together because there are not enough roots or plants. Each time the wind blows or it rains, the erosion deepens. The pattern of this system is such that the forces which it gives birth to, which arise in it, in the long run act to destroy the system. The system is self-destroying. It does not have the capacity to contain the forces which arise within it.

Nature doesn’t care if patterns are creative or destructive. What matters to nature is the way things self organize, the way they cooperate to form coherent patterns. When you look at nature’s patterns, contents aren’t contained anywhere but are revealed only by the dynamics. With the trees, form and content are inextricably connected and can’t be separated. The healthy pattern of trees bending in concert creates harmony and beauty, whereas, the other pattern is destructive and ugly.

It is the same with people. With the trees, it is the wind, rain, roots and erosion that forms the patterns; with people it is a common body of human behaviors from which patterns blend together to create the person. A positive self image is like the pattern of the trees and wind and is self-maintaining and creative; a poor self image is like the pattern of the gullies and rain and is self-destructive.

I take three blank sheets of paper and put them a few inches apart, side by side. I leave the center one blank. On the right one, I draw a small diamond-shaped dot in the middle of the page. On the left one I draw an irregular squiggle.

Which sheet of paper is more like your real self? I am asking which of the three sheets seem like a better picture of all of you, with all your hopes, fears, and weaknesses, as you are at this point of time. Which comes closest to representing the way you feel about yourself?

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