Creative thinking is one of the soft skills that has been emphasized in recent years, but please ignore what people commonly say about it for now. I don’t agree with any of that at all.
Because it doesn’t capture the essence of creation in the slightest. Terms like brainstorming, design thinking, or hypothesis testing come up, but they assume forward movement and driving progress. That’s not it. Creation is the preceding stage: “play.” Therefore, we must create room for each person to go at their own pace while still being able to concentrate deeply.
So, in this chapter, we’ll boldly reframe it.
Creative thinking is a type of soft skill, on par with major categories like communication and management. It is not, in itself, a soft-skill development method, but it can be used as one.
Creative thinking is done individually, with the goal of arriving at the essence. The essence is “something that has come into view”—it might be a summary or organization of the situation, or a concrete decision. You then take concrete action based on that essence, but creative thinking does not cover that part. It deals only with the stage before action: up to the point of deriving the essence.
Creative thinking switches between the following modes:
Divergent mode is the mode for gathering information. You collect information, scatter ideas (including brainstorming), and dive deeply into input experiences or subjects to “fill your head with them.” As the name suggests, this is the scattering stage, but you must leave it in a visible form. It cannot remain only in your head.
Convergent mode is the mode for organizing information. You structure the information you diverged. To start, it’s fine to simply bring seemingly related items closer together or do rough grouping. I wrote that divergence must be left in a visible form, because otherwise you cannot converge. In other words, convergence is also done in a visible form. The state of what you organized and how you organized it should always be expressed visibly. I’ll say it again: it cannot remain only in your head.
Also, convergence should be done in language. To show what you perceived and how you framed it, you must express it in words. This is soft-skill development, not art or entertainment. Even if it’s just a hypothesis, add comments and labels in language, no matter what.
In this way, you go back and forth between divergence and convergence again and again. This gradually produces a structure that feels highly convincing.
Then, at some point, something may “come into view.” Something essential becomes visible—”So that’s what it is,” “This is it.” Actively aiming for that is distillation mode. It resembles convergent mode, but I think distillation involves a stronger sense of stepping back and looking from above.
In distillation mode, you always create an Essence Document. This is a piece of writing that expresses the essence, and it includes a summary of the situation, the overall structure, the decisions made this time, near-term strategy and tasks, and so on. In a word, it’s an overview and next actions. Think of it as a summary for you to take the next step. The intended reader is you. It’s enough if you understand it; there is no need to create materials for others or to present.
The means you can use for creative thinking are limited. For example:
First, you must be able to handle a lot of text, and you also need enough structuring to withstand convergence. When you hear “structuring,” you might picture hierarchy, but hierarchy is a weak structure and often isn’t enough. It’s probably safest to rely on a visually oriented two-dimensional space, or link-based tools like notes and wikis (you can build a network structure via links; this is n-dimensional).
On the other hand, there’s also a style where you scribble in a simple text file or an outliner, and then recreate the key points as needed. I prefer this style. I diverge into a single Markdown file with well over 100,000 characters, and while reading it, I separately build convergence. Put differently, I make the divergence location the SSoT (Single Source of Truth). Then I create convergence from the SSoT.
There is no single correct answer for tools or approach, so choose what you like and what fits you. In my experience, motivation matters more, and motivation comes from preference and familiarity. If it’s a tool you like and are used to, you’re probably fine. Rather than awkwardly trying other tools, you’ll do better by exploring how to make your favorite tool work well for you.
Creative thinking should be advanced in solitude. I call this the Solo Work Principle.
For example, during solo work you do not do the following:
Why insist on solitude? Simply because solitude is the only way to concentrate deeply. If you work as a creator, whether as a hobby or professionally, you probably understand. Creation is the act of producing your own answer with no correct solution and no guideposts. Spending time doesn’t guarantee you’ll make it, and there’s no end. All you can do is concentrate deeply, repeat it over and over, and “empty yourself out.” You use everything you have—every thought, feeling, belief, even your preferences and quirks. You concentrate deeply, and this must be protected. There is no choice but to be alone.
Unfortunately, not many people—including developers and other engineers—know this solitary practice. I’m the same: for creators who have built things in solitude, this is obvious and goes without saying, but it doesn’t function as “obvious” in general. That’s why, in SSE, especially in creative thinking, we define it explicitly as the Solo Work Principle.
Solitude is also a virtue. There’s a saying about the three great virtues of a programmer, but the virtue of a soft-skill developer is Solitariness. First, solitude is the mother of creation, and liking solitude means it’s that much easier to create. Next, as described in Chapter 1, soft skills are skills for dealing with people, so they are “ambiguous”—with no correct answers and no end. In such a world, what is required is not performance or quality, but the creativity to define 0 to 1. Of course, you may need to take the created 1 to 10 or 100, but let those who can do that do it. The hardest part—0 to 1—can only be carried by creation, and therefore solitude, which makes it easier to exercise that, is important.
Unfortunately, solitude is also a talent. People who can’t do it really can’t. For example, I can work for a week without saying a single word to anyone, but many people seem unable to. However, whether or not you can do it constantly, solitude is necessary during creative thinking. You can’t run away from it.
Therefore, if you cannot keep the Solo Work Principle, you must first acquire the ability to keep it. Or you give up on doing it yourself and leave it to someone who can. I don’t think everyone can do it; rather, I consider soft-skill engineers who take on SSE to be specialists.
Shield and Purge refers to protecting solo work (Shield) and eliminating what obstructs solo work (Purge).
As you can easily imagine, it’s difficult to maintain solo work while continuing to focus on “converge -> diverge -> distill.” You must protect it thoroughly—at the level of the nuance you associate with strict security or governance.
There is a term: CPPF. It’s an acronym for children, partner, pets, friends, and it means creators should thoroughly exclude these. Whether that’s right depends on the person and the situation, but it’s not strange for creators to go that far. In creative thinking as well, you must not run away from this essence. Rather, to sustain it, we hold up both Shield and Purge.
Shield refers to any mechanisms and efforts to defend solo work to the death.
For example, suppose you work remotely at home and have one partner and one child. If you create a Shield in this state, it becomes the level of: “Do not speak to me at all between 10:00 and 12:00 today,” “Don’t even enter the room,” “I may occasionally go to the bathroom or living room, but even if you see me, do not speak to me under any circumstances.” It’s probably difficult with verbal agreements alone, so you might secure a private room, post a sign on the door, or in some cases need earplugs. But you obviously can’t ignore truly urgent situations, so it’s better to prearrange a way to make emergency contact.
Another example: if you want to use creative thinking heavily in everyday life, you need to shift your life itself toward solitude. You would be thorough about not making friends, not having a lover or other partner, and not keeping pets. In the first example, you were creating a Shield at home, but if you’re single to begin with, you don’t need that.
It’s similar to the idea of a security “boundary.” It’s a question of where you place the Shield. If you place it outward, it’s easier to be flexible (you don’t have to give up CPPF), but the inside is loose, so you must use smaller Shields separately. Conversely, if you place it inward, it’s easier to protect your solitude, but you tend to end up with an extreme lifestyle like giving up CPPF. With computer security you can configure things freely, but we are human beings—so we can’t change settings that much. Depending on the situation, it would be impossible to give up CPPF sometimes and tolerate it other times. CPPF are living beings; they deserve respect, and you shouldn’t swing the way you deal with them around for your own convenience.
From another angle, Shield is not only about protecting yourself from living beings. Suppose you’re not addicted, but you do depend on alcohol and social media. You probably cannot do creative thinking properly. This person may be alone, but they do not satisfy the Solo Work Principle, because they rely on other people indirectly. For example, they will go out to a bar to drink, and on social media they are, of course, interacting with people through an app.
If you want to follow the Solo Work Principle, you must guard against such indirect interference as well. Specifically, you might build habits for a healthy body without relying on alcohol, or install an app that blocks social media. Of course, this isn’t simple enough to finish in one breath; usually you will take a fine-grained approach aligned with your own context over a period of months.
By the way, soft skills are useful. For example, if you know the concept of “detox,” you can try detoxing from alcohol or social media. Or even if you don’t or can’t, you can obtain the information “detox doesn’t fit me.” That’s progress. Continuing to make progress like this is important, and that’s why soft skills (especially the various concepts that compose them) help.
Purge refers to eliminating factors that obstruct solo work. Specifically, there are the following three patterns:
As a premise, Purge carries an extremely strong nuance—one that doesn’t even shy away from conflict. The definitions above use the word “enemy,” and that’s intentional. Of course, it’s better if there is no conflict, but as stated so far, the creative-thinking way of thinking—especially the solo-work way of thinking—is professional, and for many people it’s neither familiar nor obviously necessary. Persuasion is hard, and even getting them to understand is exhausting. That’s why you should win it, even if it means conflict, and even if it’s half by force.
Let’s look at the differences.
First, pre-purge is the most important purge. Strategically, you have two options: “kick them out without changing where you are,” or “change where you are to get away from them.” The latter is easier. For example, if you want to secure two hours of solo work every day at home, it will probably be easier to secure some place outside where you can concentrate than to drive family members or pets out of your room. The same applies at work: it depends on how much you can assemble an environment where you can be alone. Doing it suddenly when you need it is difficult and often too late, so you should investigate, consider, and trial options in your daily life.
At a more advanced level, you might consider shifting your very way of being toward one that makes solo work easier. What you should do on a day-to-day basis so you don’t have CPPF. Or what you need to start doing now in order to build a career in work that has no high-density teamwork or micromanagement—after defining such a “desired state,” you move toward it over the long term.
Next is mid-purge; think of this as persuasion and education before and after setting up the Shield. Needless to say, we are not simple, and you won’t instantly obtain solo work the moment you begin to establish a Shield. Until the Shield takes hold, you’ll have to deal with things one by one. You may repeatedly tell someone who won’t understand until they give in, or conversely, you might have to compromise—maybe you wanted three hours of solo work, but you’re asked to make it 1.5 hours.
In any case, to get the Shield established, you approach each enemy individually. The optimal way to eliminate differs from person to person, so it’s troublesome, but deal with them individually. Reusing the same persuasion script is unacceptable. You want to meet them where they are, and hint that this is a proposal for them or for the organization. This may sound contradictory to the word Purge, but Purge and respect can coexist. There should be a well-balanced way to communicate it. Even so, it’s “Purge,” so you move in the direction of eliminating the other party. If you allow easy compromises, the Shield will break immediately. I’ll emphasize again: this is Purge. The other party is an enemy, and you should eliminate the enemy. Assert strongly with that level of determination.
That said, it doesn’t mean you need to tell everyone. For example, if your child is the enemy at home, it may be enough to quietly persuade the child without going through your partner. In a workplace team as well, it may be better to have only the manager understand and leave the rest to them, rather than telling every member.
Finally, post-purge is what happens after you start operating the Shield: you simply eliminate enemies that crossed the Shield. Be stricter with post-purge than with mid-purge. If, despite declaring a Shield of “two hours of solo work from 10:00 to 12:00,” someone still interrupts you, eliminate them without mercy. For example, you say, “After 12:00,” and ignore them.
Put differently, compromises and other adjustments should be completed at the mid-purge stage. In post-purge, you purely operate the Shield and eliminate all enemies. By operating it precisely and mercilessly, you can verify the Shield’s effectiveness. There’s no point if your handling of the Shield is ambiguous.
If someone here thinks, “I can’t do post-purge,” then redesign your pre-purge so you won’t have to. If you truly cannot perform an optimal pre-purge, there must be some fundamental cause—eliminate it, or consider escaping from it. For example: becoming independent, transferring or changing jobs, divorce, hiring something/someone new, etc.