The significance of innovation capability development
The word innovation first appeared in the book "Economic Development Theory" by American economist Joseph Schumpeter. Schumpeter believed that innovation is the process and behavior of establishing a new production function, that is, realizing a new combination of production factors and production conditions, introducing a production system, and obtaining economic and social benefits.
Innovation is different from discovery and invention, and is not the abbreviation of "creating something new". Discovery means discovering existence, invention means giving existence, but innovation has economic significance and social goal orientation. Innovation includes not only the natural field, but also the social field and the thinking field. It is a process of creatively raising and solving problems. Specifically, innovation includes: proposing new ideas, generating new knowledge, using new methods, establishing new systems, and implementing new management. It is a broader concept than creation.
Innovation ability refers to the psychological quality shown in completing innovative activities, and its core is creative thinking. Creative thinking has three dimensions: one is the fluency of thinking, the other is the flexibility of thinking, and the third is the originality of thinking. Creative thinking is related to intelligence. But high IQ is only a necessary condition, not a sufficient one. Research shows that innovation capabilities can be improved through training and development.
Brain physiologist Herman believes that innovation is not purely a product of the human right brain, but a process of whole-brain activity. The whole-brain innovation model he proposed includes six stages: interest, preparation, brewing, understanding, testing, and application. Brain physiologist Sperry believes that innovative consciousness and innovative spirit are responses to brain function. German psychologist Ernst Cassirer believed that innovation is human nature.
In this sense, everyone has the ability to innovate, and we must break the superstition of innovation.
The world-famous creationist is called Osborne. He was originally a newspaper reporter, but later lost his job and applied for a job at a newspaper. The examiner saw that his article was well written and praised him for its innovative content, so he was hired. So he was inspired to start the "Daily Creation" campaign. From then on, he developed into a big entrepreneur and became the founder of the discipline of creation studies.
Osborne’s success tells us: Creativity depends on self-training. As long as the method is scientific and reasonable, you can change your original state and become a useful talent with outstanding creativity. The level of innovation ability must be related to a person's genetic quality. However, genetic predisposition is not everything; future environmental influences also matter. On the basis of genetic quality and growth environment, the courage to practice is the key factor in a person's innovative ability.
Scholars believe that there are six negative mindsets that affect innovation, namely experience type, authoritative type, conformity type, bookish type, linear type and arrogant type. The life of an innovator is two repetitions and one breakthrough. The first repetition repeats the human evolutionary process in the mother's body, and the second repetition is the repetition of the cognitive process of predecessors and contemporaries in adolescence. On this basis, only by eliminating fixed thinking and achieving new breakthroughs can we achieve innovation success.
At present, special emphasis should be placed on the great significance of innovation capability development.
(1) The objective need to enhance the overall innovation power of the Chinese nation
The Chinese nation is a hard-working and intelligent nation. It has made four great inventions for the total treasure house of human civilization. Although it has made significant contributions, it has fallen behind in the wave of world industrialization in modern times (science and technology were ahead of Europe before the fifteenth century). Take 2000 as an example: scientific research and innovation achievements accounted for % of the world's total, patent applications accounted for % of the world's total, R&D expenditures were less than % of the world's, and R&D expenditures accounted for national GDP. In the same year, among the patents issued in the United States, 119 were filed by Chinese, 31,000 by Japanese, and 85,000 by Americans. The shocking contrast is sobering.
(2) An inevitable choice to participate in the world’s political and economic competition
Joining the World Trade Organization (WTO) means that our country has joined the world’s political and economic competition. What does competition rely on? It relies on strength and national strength. However, looking at our comprehensive national strength, developed countries far exceed us: in terms of productivity, the United States is 50 times that of us, Japan is 40 times that of us, and moderately developed countries are 10 times that of us. If we want to catch up, the only option is to vigorously strengthen the development of innovative capabilities of the entire people, implement the strategy of rejuvenating the country through science and education, and build an innovative country.
Science and technology are the primary productive forces. Through the development of innovation capabilities, the great development of my country's productive forces will surely be promoted to a new and higher level.
(3) The only countermeasure to overcome the crisis of human survival
When history enters the 21st century, mankind is facing a serious crisis of survival. This manifests itself in energy crisis, environmental crisis, population explosion crisis, natural disaster crisis, and a financial crisis unprecedented in a century. Historically, no crisis has been able to stop human survival and progress, but any crisis can be overcome and overcome only by humankind's own wisdom. There are some issues for which we have to rely on the wisdom of future generations. Rivers are drying up, temperatures are rising, oil is depleting, and diseases are rampant. These seemingly unconquerable demons will all be defeated by the sharp sword of human innovative thinking.
Cultivation and training of innovative thinking
Since innovative thinking can be trained, how to actually train it? Below we list the following nine practical methods for your reference.
(1) Open thinking - establishing connections and exchanges with the outside world
Human thinking is easy to think below the level that predecessors have reached, and it is difficult to make any breakthroughs. Or under the given conditions of the question, it is difficult to go beyond the limit and limit yourself. Take a look at the following example. There are nine small dots in the picture on the right. Please try to draw four straight lines to connect them all. Many people cannot draw. But if you think about the problem beyond the nine points, you can find the answer. As shown in the picture. Therefore, we define open thinking as “thinking that breaks through the limitations of given conditions and finds solutions to problems in a broader context.”
Next, let’s play a Coke drinking game: how to drink the 6th can of Coke.
This is a game: Assume that a can of Coke costs two yuan, and two empty cans can be exchanged for one Coke. If you are given 6 yuan, how many cans of Coke can you drink at most? Most people say you can drink it. 5 cans of Coke. How to find a way to drink the 6th can is the core of the game. Many people will say, I only have one can of Coke, I can't continue, so I might as well drink it. An empty can has no value, so just throw it away. In fact, you can do this: you drink the fifth can of Coke and borrow an empty can from someone else, and you can exchange it for the sixth can of Coke. After drinking the Coke, you can return the empty can to the person. Zhai Jiangbo said that this game allowed us to discover that empty cans are idle resources, and empty cans are value; everyone has empty cans and a lot of idle resources. The key is whether you can learn something from it. Games are also a kind of life attitude and life wisdom. The courage to discover and seize opportunities is needed at all times.
(2) Reverse thinking - looking for a way out from the opposite side of things
People like to follow one path when thinking about problems, and few people think the other way around. In fact, we might as well think about it backwards, and we may make new discoveries. Let's look at an example from the history of science. In 1826, the Danish physicist Oersted used a metal wire to touch both ends of a voltaic battery, and accidentally discovered one next to the metal wire, proving that there is a certain relationship between electricity and magnetism. David was inspired to wrap an electrified metal wire around a piece of soft iron. As a result, the soft iron showed magnetism, and electricity produced magnetism!
Davy's student Faraday did not stop there. He thought: Since electricity can generate magnetism, can magnetism generate electricity? He inserted the magnet into the cylinder wrapped with copper wire, and the pointer of the galvanometer began to swing, and the magnet generated electricity! The basic principle of the generators and motors we use today is the electromagnetic induction discovered by Faraday.
There are many cases of reverse thinking. The following is a true story that happened in Japan.
The birth of reverse TV
Everyone watches TV from the front. But if you go to a barber shop to get a haircut, you can often see a TV watching in the mirror opposite. However, that is a way for barbershops to cater to customers to kill boredom by watching TV. In fact, it is the opposite image. When Japan's Sony Corporation Chief Engineer Ibuka was watching a reverse-view TV in a barber shop, he suddenly had a whim: Can a reverse-view TV be produced? As soon as this machine came out, it was immediately welcomed by hospitals, bedridden patients, barber shops, and sports training centers. The market was soon opened up. Watching TV in this way can also avoid harmful radiation from TV!
(3) Lateral thinking
The case of inventor Edison is more typical.
When people think about problems, they tend to stick to one angle and don’t know how to turn around. People with innovative spirit are not limited by this and find unique ways to solve problems.
One day, the busy Edison handed his assistant a strange-shaped glass bottle and said, "Calculate its volume as soon as possible. I'm waiting to use it!" As soon as the assistant listened to the measurement of the volume, he began to get a ruler and compare it for two hours. , has not been able to reply. Edison was anxious and asked his assistant to quickly get the bottle, fill it with water, pour it into the measuring cup, and said to the scale: "Here! This is the volume!" Before Galileo died, he left a sentence: "Science is constantly changing thinking. "Advancing through the exploration of angles" is actually about this technique.
Obviously, lateral thinking is an eccentric innovation. We can provide two more cases:
The invention of the helicopter tail rotor
In the history of helicopter improvement, there is a story about the invention of the tail rotor. As we all know, the rotor on the top of the helicopter rotates, and when it rotates, it generates reaction torque. How to overcome this? Conventional thinking is to add a rotating paddle in the opposite direction. Through experimentation, it was not successful. An American named Sikos came up with a way. He cleverly designed a tail rotor to eliminate this derivative phenomenon with one component. Experiments have proven that this method is not only simple and lightweight, but also has low power loss. The great thing about the invention of the tail rotor is that it started from side thinking and solved a big problem.
The invention of stainless steel tableware
The inventor of stainless steel is called Mullah (German). He threw the used stainless steel materials into the garbage. British mechanical expert Bouliari is a person who deals with weapons. He is fascinated by how to improve the structure of guns and find ways to increase the hardness of the materials used in the gun bores. One day, he found a piece of stainless steel in a pile of metal garbage. It was too shiny to be used in a gun, but it would be a pity to throw it away, so he began to wonder what it could be used for. Suddenly I thought: "Wouldn't it be very beautiful to use it as tableware?" My mind turned and I looked to the side of the gun and saw the tableware for eating. Since then, a stainless steel tableware salesman has appeared in the world. Maura regretted it after knowing the news.
(4) Two-faced thinking
Also called Janus thinking, Janus thinking. Janus is a god in ancient Roman mythology: there are two faces on the front and back of his head, one looking at the past and the other looking at the future. Its meaning lies in: simultaneous recognition of directly opposing and mutually exclusive images, ideas, and viewpoints.
In 1880, French scientist Pasteur used a method of injecting chickens with plague bacterium to prevent the chickens from being infected. This is what we know today as "vaccination." People usually think that animals will be infected by injecting bacterial fluid, but they did not expect that animals can not be infected by injecting bacterial fluid. This understanding of "being infected" and "not being infected" is double-sided thinking and oppositional thinking.
Please see the following example of double-sided thinking:
Darwin proposed the theory of evolution
Darwin once read an article by Malthus, which proposed that a certain species was Unlimited growth in a limited space will lead to the extinction of this species due to intraspecific competition. After Darwin read it, another thought came to mind: "Intraspecific competition can not only destroy organisms, but also improve organisms. The result is that those with poor adaptability are eliminated, and those with strong adaptability survive. ”
This is the idea of ??biological evolution.
"Understanding the two directly opposing and mutually exclusive parties at the same time" has produced innovative thinking.
(5) Logical thinking
This is the basic way of thinking of human beings. It is a thinking method that thinks about problems and finds solutions according to the cause and effect chain of the development of things. Western society had this knowledge in the time of Aristotle, but ancient China lacked the research and training of this kind of thinking.
For example, the British discovered that wherever clover flourished, there were many old maids. Why is this? It turns out that old maids are often lonely, and they like to keep cats in order to eliminate loneliness. If there are more cats, there will be fewer voles. If there are fewer voles, there will be more wasps (voles eat honey and harm wasps). If there are more wasps, clover will have more pollination opportunities, so it will grow everywhere and become dense. Sociologists started from observation of phenomena and used logical thinking to discover this rule.
Please see a typical case of logical thinking:
The arrest of the bomber
A few years ago, there was an explosion in the student cafeteria of a university in Beijing, because the maker quickly Leaving the scene makes it difficult to solve the crime immediately. After the task force was established, a plan to solve the case was formulated after analysis from multiple parties. Due to the correct idea, the criminal was captured soon.
In such a big China, how do public security officers "find a needle in a haystack"?
It turns out that they rely on "logical thinking" plus "computer network". After the perpetrator fled the scene, he was haunted and wanted to know more about the arrests made by the police, so he checked online about the bombing from time to time. The public security department identified a number of people with the highest click-through rate through the website, and after elimination, deleted those without doubt, and finally targeted the criminal who was hiding far away and captured him in one fell swoop.
(6) Intuitive thinking
Contrary to logical thinking, intuitive thinking is a non-logical and ultra-logical thinking method. It is a thinking subject who grasps the subject as a whole and in a moment A speculative judgment made by suddenly understanding the nature of a certain aspect. The former Soviet Marshal Frunze said, "To be an excellent strategist, whether in politics or military, requires many specialized and special talents, the most important of which is intuition." Intuitive thinking involves subconscious thinking. It's not always reliable, but as long as it's 10% reliable it's enough. When British Prime Minister Churchill heard the news about the Japanese planes' attack on Pearl Harbor in the United States, he immediately thought: "We have definitely won." What he relied on was an intuitive epiphany. Obviously, this is inseparable from his many years of rich social and historical knowledge and political and military thinking.
The following is a case of intuitive thinking:
The discovery of the radioactive element radium
Madame Curie discovered in the experiment that the radioactivity and chemical combination of substances and Temperature and light are irrelevant. She concluded that radioactivity was not a property of chemical molecules but of atoms. Radioactivity was not limited to uranium but could also be present in other elements. Later, she discovered stronger radioactive phenomena in pitchblende, so she concluded that this was produced by a new unknown chemical element. This element must exist, and she just needed to find it. She also named this element "radium" in advance. Four years later, in 1898, radium was discovered by Marie Curie.