Learn and Think Better
Change what you can see, and you change what becomes possible.
Learn and Think Better is an ongoing enquiry into human cognition: perception, possibility space and how what you can see shapes what you can do.
That enquiry gives rise to ideas, tools, maps, writing and more. What we make changes as our understanding develops.
A NEW WAY OF SEEING
Seeing something you
couldn’t see before
You’re looking at a drawing of an old woman. Then something shifts, and you can see a young woman instead. It’s the same picture, but you’re seeing something different.
That familiar visual illusion makes something easy to notice: what we see is a representation of what’s there. There can be more to see than our current way of looking makes available.
A new concept can have a similar effect. Take the idea that two apparently contradictory things can both be true. Once you have that distinction, you can start asking how each might be true, under what conditions, or over what timescale. You have another way to look at a situation that might previously have seemed to require picking a side.
That relationship between perception and possibility is one of the questions we keep coming back to. What happens when something that was previously obscured comes clearly into view? What can you consider doing that you couldn’t see as an option before?
Possibility, in this sense, is specific. It’s being able to see a direction you could take, an idea you could develop, something you could make. You still have to find out whether it will work. But now you have something to work with.
FROM UNDERSTANDING TO USE
How understanding becomes something useful
One of the things that fascinates us is how knowledge can become an instrument
someone else can use. A telescope puts an understanding of light to work,
giving someone access to things they couldn’t otherwise see.
Tools for thinking
We’re interested in what that can look like for thinking. How could a way of examining something become a tool another person can use? When would an idea be better expressed in writing, or made visible in a model?
Useful, and evolving
A tool or piece of writing reflects what we understand at the time. It can be useful now and still be improved, replaced or eventually retired.
A continuing enquiry
We expect to keep learning. Finding an answer can open up another set of questions, and what we discover next may call for a different form altogether. That continuing enquiry is what Learn and Think Better is organised around.
One thing that’s emerged: PRISM
PRISM is a working prototype that makes one part of this enquiry tangible.
It’s a visual workspace where you can bring an idea, question or situation and examine it through different lenses. It’s designed to make other ways of looking available, so you can consider what they reveal and whether that changes what you might do.
PRISM is one current expression of our interest in perception and possibility. Its own page explains it in more detail.
You can also see what we’re currently working on, or read how Learn and Think Better came to take this form.
Hear about what we’re discovering and building
If you’re interested in these questions too, you can receive emails about what we’re finding, thinking about and making.
When something comes into view that’s worth a closer look, we’ll share it with you.
