Page 59 - (DK) How to be a GENIUS?
P. 59

Inspired thinking
                                                                                       An expert chess player may seem
                                                                                       to make the right move using
                                                                                        intuition rather than logic. But this
         Wait a minute! It                                                              “inspired thinking” is more likely
       smells like someone                                                              to be the result of intense study
        has been baking a                                                               and experience, which enables
         cake. Why would                                                                the player to recognize particular
        they be doing that?                                                              arrangements of the chess pieces
                                                                                         on the board. This automatically
                                                                                         triggers a memory of the next
                                                                                         move, which usually turns out
                                                                                         to be the right one.










                                                         What? A balloon?
                                                     I thought I was imagining
                                                      it, but there’s definitely
                                                       something going on!

                                                                                           Surprise!





      Out of the blue
      Sometimes someone grappling
      with a problem finds that the solution
      seems to come “out of the blue”
      after working on something else
      for a while. This is probably because
      irrelevant details get forgotten, so the
      main elements of the problem come
      into sharper focus. The person may
      also come across new information
      that makes everything slot into place.



                                                                                                         Woof!

                                                Dream wor
                                                             rk
                                                             e may
                                              Occasionally people
                                             even dream the solut tion to a
                                            problem. In the winter r of 1861,
                                          G                  Kekulé was
                                          German chemist August
                                          t
                                          trying to figure out the st ructure of a
                                           benzene molecule. Whil le dozing in
                                                              d f a snake
                                              f

                                               th
                                         fro  t f th fire, he dreame ed  o f  k
                                          ont
                                              o
                                                  fi
                                                 e
                                                      h d
                                           biting its tail. According  to Kekulé,
                                            this gave him the clue
                                                             e that the
                                            molecule was a ring o
                                                             of carbon
                                                             oms.
                                                and hydrogen ato
                                                                                           Benzene molecule
                                                                                             s structure
                                                                                                                  57
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