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Barrier #3
Linear-Thinking Habits
World's greatest thinkers –
Buddha,
Lao Tzu,
Confucius,
Socrates,
Muhammad,
Tolstoy,... – thought and
spoke not in English, but in
more flexible languages
characterized by flexible word
order. More flexible languages
allow not only to express
thoughts, but also to think more
flexibly, diversely, and
holistically.
There are deep subconscious and
self-imposed conscious
linear-thinking habits.
The most impactful deep
subconscious linear-thinking
habit is
thinking in a linear language
(for instance,
English language)
characterized by a strict order
of parts of speech in a
sentence: the subject of the
sentence comes first, the verb
comes second, and the object
comes third. This subconscious
strict-order thinking habit
makes it difficult for a linear
thinker to understand chaotic
complex systems.
Just compare these two synonyms:
system
↔
系統
Which of these languages do you
think develops systems-thinking
abilities better?
This systems-thinking advantage
explains
why China's economy grows faster
in today's era of
systemic innovation.
Self-imposed conscious barriers
to systems thinking include
unnecessary
categorization,
commitment to a step-by-step
process and thinking in terms of
input-output only.
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