Synectics: a “metaphor/analogy-based technique for bringing different elements together in a search for new ideas or solutions.”
I used this in class the other day with starter questions. Here are a few of my own synectic entries:
Which is more like a legend, a mirror or glass?We look through a glass to see what is "out there," to see what is ahead of us— it is our reality and our future. A mirror, on the other hand, reflects us back into ourselves and tunnels back, layer by layer. Generation after generation of anscestors superimpose themselves onto our images. A mirror shows us the stories, the legends of our pasts, who we were, and who we might become.
Which is wiser, a pen or a pencil?A pen makes a bold statement, confident in its correctness, as a person confident in his or her own choice in life marches boldly forward. The pencil, however, acknowledges the temporal state. As new knowledge and experiences come up over the horixon, the pencil draws upon them,erasing and recreating itself. We are wise to open ourselves to new possibilities— to be willing to change.
Which is braver, a year or an hour?A year has the luxury of time: months, weeks, days, hours—8,760 of them— stretched before its feet in intertwining paths. There is room for mistakes, for a few wrong turns, for the retracing of paths, or pause for reflection. An hour, on the other hand, is expected to perform on the spot— no time for rehearsal, no time for thought or cowardice. The hour must plunge in and get its beusiness done. Its minutes tick down and when the deadline comes, the hour is gone, never to be retrieved.
