Thinking about insight

I quote from an interesting article:

In my last entry I described three different forms of insight: (a) making connections, (b) seeing contradictions, and (c) overcoming impasses by discarding flawed beliefs. I identified these different forms in a 2011 study in which I collected 120 examples of insight and then sorted them out. I was trying to understand how people arrive at insights. 

But what can get in our way?..........

• First, a number of people missed the insights because they tenaciously held onto flawed beliefs........

• Second, experience made a difference. People with a richer background could notice implications in the data that others missed........

• Third, the people who missed the insight were more likely to have a passive stance than an active one........

• Fourth, a fixation with concrete reasoning tended to restrict insights, while more playful styles relishing speculation and hypothetical reasoning increased them.