Functional Fixedness is a cognitive bias where individuals tend to see objects or concepts only in their traditionally intended uses, limiting creativity and problem-solving. It hampers innovative Thinking, creating barriers to finding alternative solutions. Identifying and addressing functional fixedness can unlock new possibilities in design and problem-solving.
Characteristics:
- Traditional Usage: Objects perceived with limitations in their typical functions.
- Impaired Creativity: Hinders innovative and unconventional thinking.
- Problem-Solving Barriers: Creates obstacles to finding alternative solutions to a problem.
Use Cases:
- Tool Use: Difficulty identifying alternative uses for familiar tools.
- Engineering Design: Overlooking unconventional applications for materials or components.
- Problem-Solving Tasks: Affects creativity in solving complex problems.
Benefits:
- Tradition and Stability: Maintains stability and order in object usage.
- Efficient Thinking: Allows quick identification of familiar object functions.
- Preservation of Purpose: Maintains the intended purpose of objects.
Challenges:
- Creativity Limitation: Hampers creative problem-solving.
- Innovation Obstacles: Inhibits innovative product design and development.
- Rigid Thinking: May lead to rigid thinking patterns.
Examples:
- Candle Problem: Struggle to see a box of thumbtacks as a candle holder.
- Wine Bottle as a Vase: Overlooking using an empty wine bottle as a vase.
- Improvised Tools: Failure to use everyday objects as improvised tools for specific tasks.
- Scissors as a Nutcracker: When faced with a stubborn nut, someone may not consider using a pair of scissors to crack it open, as they are fixed on the traditional nutcracker’s purpose.
- Key as a Screwdriver: In situations where a screwdriver is needed, individuals might not think to use a key from their keyring, even though it can fit into the screw’s slot.
- Book as a Laptop Stand: A person with a laptop overheating issue may not immediately think of using a thick book as a makeshift laptop stand to improve airflow.
- Furniture Rearrangement: When trying to optimize the layout of a room, functional fixedness may limit someone’s ability to see alternative placements for furniture beyond their conventional locations.
- Cookware Innovation: Inventing new cooking utensils or kitchen gadgets may be hindered by functional fixedness, preventing designers from considering novel uses of materials or shapes.
- Product Packaging: Designers may struggle to create innovative packaging solutions for products, as they are fixed on traditional packaging formats and materials.
- Medical Instruments: In the medical field, functional fixedness can limit the development of new instruments or devices for specific procedures.
- Office Supplies: Employees in an office setting may not consider alternative uses for common office supplies, such as using a binder clip as a cable organizer.
Functional Fixedness: Key Takeaways
- Functional Fixedness: A cognitive bias where individuals see objects or concepts only in their traditional uses, limiting creativity and problem-solving.
- Characteristics:
- Traditional Usage: Objects are perceived with limitations in their usual functions.
- Impaired Creativity: Hinders innovative and unconventional thinking.
- Problem-Solving Barriers: Creates obstacles to finding alternative solutions.
- Use Cases:
- Tool Use: Difficulty identifying alternative uses for familiar tools.
- Engineering Design: Overlooking unconventional applications for materials or components.
- Problem-Solving Tasks: Affects creativity in solving complex problems.
- Benefits:
- Tradition and Stability: Maintains stability and order in object usage.
- Efficient Thinking: Allows quick identification of familiar object functions.
- Preservation of Purpose: Maintains the intended purpose of objects.
- Challenges:
- Creativity Limitation: Hampers creative problem-solving.
- Innovation Obstacles: Inhibits innovative product design and development.
- Rigid Thinking: May lead to rigid thinking patterns.
- Examples:
- Candle Problem: Struggle to see a box of thumbtacks as a candle holder.
- Wine Bottle as a Vase: Overlooking using an empty wine bottle as a vase.
- Improvised Tools: Failure to use everyday objects as improvised tools for specific tasks.
Connected Thinking Frameworks
Convergent vs. Divergent Thinking
Convergent thinking occurs when the solution to a problem can be found by applying established rules and logical reasoning. Whereas divergent thinking is an unstructured problem-solving method where participants are encouraged to develop many innovative ideas or solutions to a given problem. Where convergent thinking might work for larger, mature organizations where divergent thinking is more suited for startups and innovative companies.
Critical Thinking
Critical thinking involves analyzing observations, facts, evidence, and arguments to form a judgment about what someone reads, hears, says, or writes.
Biases
The concept of cognitive biases was introduced and popularized by the work of Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman in 1972. Biases are seen as systematic errors and flaws that make humans deviate from the standards of rationality, thus making us inept at making good decisions under uncertainty.
Second-Order Thinking
Second-order thinking is a means of assessing the implications of our decisions by considering future consequences. Second-order thinking is a mental model that considers all future possibilities. It encourages individuals to think outside of the box so that they can prepare for every and eventuality. It also discourages the tendency for individuals to default to the most obvious choice.
Lateral Thinking
Lateral thinking is a business strategy that involves approaching a problem from a different direction. The strategy attempts to remove traditionally formulaic and routine approaches to problem-solving by advocating creative thinking, therefore finding unconventional ways to solve a known problem. This sort of non-linear approach to problem-solving, can at times, create a big impact.
Bounded Rationality
Bounded rationality is a concept attributed to Herbert Simon, an economist and political scientist interested in decision-making and how we make decisions in the real world. In fact, he believed that rather than optimizing (which was the mainstream view in the past decades) humans follow what he called satisficing.
Dunning-Kruger Effect
The Dunning-Kruger effect describes a cognitive bias where people with low ability in a task overestimate their ability to perform that task well. Consumers or businesses that do not possess the requisite knowledge make bad decisions. What’s more, knowledge gaps prevent the person or business from seeing their mistakes.
Occam’s Razor
Occam’s Razor states that one should not increase (beyond reason) the number of entities required to explain anything. All things being equal, the simplest solution is often the best one. The principle is attributed to 14th-century English theologian William of Ockham.
Lindy Effect
The Lindy Effect is a theory about the ageing of non-perishable things, like technology or ideas. Popularized by author Nicholas Nassim Taleb, the Lindy Effect states that non-perishable things like technology age – linearly – in reverse. Therefore, the older an idea or a technology, the same will be its life expectancy.
Antifragility
Antifragility was first coined as a term by author, and options trader Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Antifragility is a characteristic of systems that thrive as a result of stressors, volatility, and randomness. Therefore, Antifragile is the opposite of fragile. Where a fragile thing breaks up to volatility; a robust thing resists volatility. An antifragile thing gets stronger from volatility (provided the level of stressors and randomness doesn’t pass a certain threshold).
Systems Thinking
Systems thinking is a holistic means of investigating the factors and interactions that could contribute to a potential outcome. It is about thinking non-linearly, and understanding the second-order consequences of actions and input into the system.
Vertical Thinking
Vertical thinking, on the other hand, is a problem-solving approach that favors a selective, analytical, structured, and sequential mindset. The focus of vertical thinking is to arrive at a reasoned, defined solution.
Maslow’s Hammer
Maslow’s Hammer, otherwise known as the law of the instrument or the Einstellung effect, is a cognitive bias causing an over-reliance on a familiar tool. This can be expressed as the tendency to overuse a known tool (perhaps a hammer) to solve issues that might require a different tool. This problem is persistent in the business world where perhaps known tools or frameworks might be used in the wrong context (like business plans used as planning tools instead of only investors’ pitches).
Peter Principle
The Peter Principle was first described by Canadian sociologist Lawrence J. Peter in his 1969 book The Peter Principle. The Peter Principle states that people are continually promoted within an organization until they reach their level of incompetence.
Straw Man Fallacy
The straw man fallacy describes an argument that misrepresents an opponent’s stance to make rebuttal more convenient. The straw man fallacy is a type of informal logical fallacy, defined as a flaw in the structure of an argument that renders it invalid.
Streisand Effect
The Streisand Effect is a paradoxical phenomenon where the act of suppressing information to reduce visibility causes it to become more visible. In 2003, Streisand attempted to suppress aerial photographs of her Californian home by suing photographer Kenneth Adelman for an invasion of privacy. Adelman, who Streisand assumed was paparazzi, was instead taking photographs to document and study coastal erosion. In her quest for more privacy, Streisand’s efforts had the opposite effect.
Heuristic
As highlighted by German psychologist Gerd Gigerenzer in the paper “Heuristic Decision Making,” the term heuristic is of Greek origin, meaning “serving to find out or discover.” More precisely, a heuristic is a fast and accurate way to make decisions in the real world, which is driven by uncertainty.
Recognition Heuristic
The recognition heuristic is a psychological model of judgment and decision making. It is part of a suite of simple and economical heuristics proposed by psychologists Daniel Goldstein and Gerd Gigerenzer. The recognition heuristic argues that inferences are made about an object based on whether it is recognized or not.
Representativeness Heuristic
