Additional information
by Benjamin Cheung (Author)
This is a refresher version of The Four Elements of Thinking. This version is a condensed form of the original book intended as a refresher to help you master the mental tools presented in that book. The Four Elements of Thinking are: Earth Thinking (Reasoning), Air Thinking (Creativity), Water Thinking (Synthesis), and Fire Thinking (Evaluation). Each of the elements have four components. Each of the components have principles which are tools in your mental toolkit. Once you have read the Four Elements of Thinking, you will have learned about the elements, components and principles. The principles are skills which need to be practiced. This refresher version of the original book is much shorter in length and focused on just the essential information necessary to describe the concepts. This allows you to focus on refreshing your memory facilitating practice. Practice leads to mastery. The appendix that summarizes each of the elements, components and principles are preserved from the original book. It has a concise summary of the entire book in a few tables. This lets you quickly refresh your memory on each of the principles. Information that you are exposed to needs to be refreshed periodically. To master mental skills requires constant practice. This refresher version facilitates practicing these mental skills. EARTH THINKING represents logical reasoning. It is composed of the Evidence, Inductive reasoning, Deductive reasoning and Abductive reasoning components. EVIDENCE is gathering and processing facts. INDUCTIVE REASONING develops principles from the particular to the general. DEDUCTIVE REASONING goes from the general to the particular - starting from premises and ending with a conclusion. ABDUCTIVE REASONING draws reasonable conclusions from the available evidence through a hypothesis that accounts for the available facts. AIR THINKING is a proxy for creativity. It is composed of the Investigation, Incubation, Insight and Innovation components. INVESTIGATION uses curiosity, exploration, inquiry, examination, and experimentation. INCUBATION is the deliberate application of creative thought through contemplation, and immersive study. INSIGHT is the processing of making a creative leap to a solution spurred from an intuitive understanding a problem. INNOVATION is The deliberate act of creating unique, and original ideas and solutions. WATER THINKING symbolizes synthesis which is composed of the Linking, Perspective, Synthesis and Pivots components. LINKING finds connections and patterns between concepts to reduce a complex problem into manageable parts. PERSPECTIVE develops a framework for thinking by identifying trends and a greater context. SYNTHESIS compares, contrasts and combines to achieve comprehension of how interconnected parts form a whole. PIVOTS find the key aspects of a subject and the most vital elements in a problem. FIRE THINKING stands for evaluation. It is composed of the Decision, Judgment, Contingency and Validation components. DECISIONS require making trade-offs and identifying selection criteria to make intelligent choices. JUDGMENT arrives at wise and reasonable conclusions through assessment and evaluation. CONTINGENCY PLANS are developed by understanding risks and anticipating failures to adapt to changing circumstances. VALIDATION ascertains the truth by testing for the reliability and credibility of information.
