#Original Thought

Thinking Newly About What Everyone Sees

Ultimately, Schopenhauer’s challenge becomes a habit. Keep a commonplace book like Leonardo’s notebooks—collect observations, then regularly ask, “What assumption makes this seem obvious?” Practice “slow looking” (Tishman, Slow Looking, 2017) by spending sustained time with a single object or chart. Rotate perspectives: user, maintainer, outsider, adversary. Finally, schedule inversion and “Five Whys” sessions for persistent problems. Over time, these rituals fuse attention with imagination. The world does not change; your interpretations do. And in that subtle shift—from what everyone sees to what no one has yet thought—new options quietly appear. [...]

Discovery Consists of Seeing What Everybody Has Seen and Thinking What Nobody Has Thought - Albert Szent-Györgyi

Albert Szent-Györgyi, a Nobel Prize-winning physiologist, was himself a discoverer in the scientific field. This quote mirrors his belief in the role of creativity and perspective in scientific achievements, such as his discovery of Vitamin C. [...]