智慧的应用: 典範轉移 / Thinking Outside of the Box: Paradigm Shift

"When the rate of change inside ... is exceeded by (that) outside ... , the end is near !!" Jack Welch

As a follow-up to my Mar 28 and Mar 30, 2009 posts 【傳統与傳統智慧 / Convention & Conventional Wisdom】, I would like to further explore how we can broaden our horizon beyond conventional thinking. For those who have heard the "Paradigm Shift"典範轉移 story, please bear with me. This is how the story (or urban myth) goes:

A Swiss had invented the digital watch but he was ridiculed by Switzerland's watch/clock industry. According to "conventional wisdom", a watch MUST have a dial with numbers and handles. Anything different is NOT a watch. The inventor was so discouraged that he did not patent his invention. The Japanese saw the new device at a trade show, took the idea (not stole, since it had not been patented), and commercialized the digital watch. The rest is history. Switzerland's once-famous watch/clock industry was wiped out. The lesson learnt: Think outside of the box !!! When there is a paradigm shift, those who fail to make changes will be left behind.

I would like to end this article by showing you what I mean by conventional and non-conventional thinking.

1. Conventional perspective: A three-dimensional object (apparently)

But, behold !!! (Please click 2.1 and 2.2 below)

2. Non-conventional Thinking: The 4th dimension 四維空間 !!!

2.1 Simple Rotation of a 4-dimensional hypercube: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/55/8-cell-simple.gif - Animated 3-dimensional projection of a 4-cube performing a simple rotation about one orthogonal plane / 超正方體三維投影動畫（單旋轉）

2.2 Double Rotations of a 4-cube:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/55/Tesseract.gif - Animated 3-dimensional projection of a 4-cube performing a double rotation about two orthogonal planes. / 超正方體三維投影動畫（雙旋轉）

So, the next time you hear someone says "Yes, we can!!", ask that person whether we are doing more of the same (i.e. making ONLY conventional and transactional changes) or something more different (i.e. implementing ALSO non-conventional and transformational changes).

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References:
* 【傳統与傳統智慧 / Convention & Conventional Wisdom】Parts 1 & 2
http://lotusandcedar.blogspot.com/2009/03/bi-weekly-series-convention.html
http://lotusandcedar.blogspot.com/2009/03/bi-weekly-series-convention_30.html
* "Thinking Outside the Box" Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinking_outside_the_box
* "Paradigm" Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradigm / 【典範轉移】
http://zh.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=%E5%85%B8%E7%AF%84%E8%BD%89%E7%A7%BB&variant=zh-hant
* "Tesseract" (4-cube ) Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesseract / 【超正方体】 http://zh.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=%E8%B6%85%E6%AD%A3%E6%96%B9%E4%BD%93&variant=zh-hant

Further Readings:
For those who are interested in S&T (science and technology), you might wish to review the following articles.
* "Fourth Dimension" Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_dimension / 【四维】 http://zh.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=%E5%9B%9B%E7%BB%B4&variant=zh-hant
* "Space Time Travel": Black Hole, Einstein's Relativity Theory, etc. (with video clips) http://spacetimetravel.org/

***** Updated 20091009 *****
* "Cybernetics"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybernetics#In_Sociology
* "Sociocybernetics"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociocybernetics