Your Words Determine Your Thoughts

Change your words to get a different perspective on your problem.

Words and chains of words that we use in framing a problem play a significant role in the way we approach problems. Consider the following problem: Water lilies double in area every twenty-four hours. On the first day of summer, there is one water lily on the lake. Sixty days later, the lake is completely covered with water lilies. On which day is the lake half covered?

The words “double,” “twenty-four,” “one,” “on which day,” and “sixty” coax most people to divide the sixty days by two and propose the thirtieth day as the solution, but since the lilies increase in area geometrically, this is incorrect. The lilies cover half the pond on the next-to-last day. The word structure of the problem influences us to come up with the incorrect answer. Read Full Article>>

By Michael Michalko, writer for The Creative Post on Apr 08, 2012