Week Eight: Analogy Quiz

1. Odometer is to mileage as compass is to

A. speed
B. hiking
C. needle
D. direction

Answer: D. direction

2. Marathon is to race as hibernation is to

A. winter
B. bear
C. dream
D. sleep

Answer: D. sleep

3. Window is to pane as book is to

A. novel
B. glass
C. cover
D. page

Answer: D. page

4. Cup is to coffee as bowl is to

A. dish
B. soup
C. spoon
D. food

Answer: B. soup

5. Yard is to inch as quart is to

A. gallon
B. ounce
C. milk
D. liquid

Answer: B. ounce

6. Elated is to despondent as enlightened is to 

A. aware
B. ignorant
C. miserable
D. tolerant

Answer: B. ignorant

7. Optimist is to cheerful as pessimist is to 

A. gloomy
B. mean
C. petty
D. helpful

Answer: A. gloomy

8. Reptile is to lizard as flower is to 

A. petal
B. stem
C. daisy
D. alligator

Answer: C. daisy

9. Play is to actor as concert is to

A. symphony
B. musician
C. piano
D. percussion

Answer: B. musician

10. Sponge is to porous as rubber is to

A. massive
B. solid
C. elastic
D. inflexible

Answer: C. elastic

11. Careful is to cautious as boastful is to 

A. arrogant
B. humble
C. joyful
D. suspicious

Answer: A. arrogant

12. Pen is to poet as needle is to

A. thread
B. button
C. sewing
D. tailor

Answer: D. tailor

13. Secretly is to openly as silently is to

A. scarcely
B. impolitely
C. noisily
D. quietly

Answer: C. noisily

14. Embarrassed is to humiliated as frightened is to

A. terrified
B. agitated
C. courageous
D. reckless

Answer: A. terrified

15. Pride is to lion as shoal is to 

A. teacher
B. student
C. self-respect
D. fish

Answer: D. fish

16. Artist is to painting as senator is to 

A. attorney
B. law
C. politician
D. constituents

Answer: B. law

17. Exercise is to gym as eating is to 

A. food
B. dieting
C. fitness
D. restaurant

Answer: D. restaurant

18. Candid is to indirect as honest is to 

A. frank
B. wicked
C. truthful
D. untruthful

Answer: D. untruthful

19. Guide is to direct as reduce is to

A. decrease
B. maintain
C. increase
D. preserve

Answer: A. decrease

20. Oar is to rowboat as foot is to 

A. running
B. sneaker
C. skateboard
D. jumping

Answer: C. skateboard

Week Eight: Analogical Thinking II

For my tutorial week exercise, I went to SAM and 8Q for my analogical thinking exercise and found 10 inanimate objects with human emotions. The following are...

Surprised

Sadness

Happiness

Depressed

Bored

Confused

Nervous

Silly

Excited

Uneasy

Week Seven: Analogical Thinking

A cup of surprised looking coffee

Contact lens casing that looks like a face

A friendly looking door jam

A table with a face

A jalapeño in a jar

McCafe's coffee lid has a face

Looks like a ghost

"AHHH" candle holder

Boiling eggs

Smiling oven

Edward de Bono Discusses Lateral Thinking

In his video, de Bono explains that creativity is a skill anyone can learn with the proper training. I thought about it and I found it really amazing. It's almost like anyone can be God if they have the proper training. It gives everyone hope, even the most untalented or uncreative person.

Lateral thinking is a term coined by de Bono, and it is about problem-solving by thinking out of the box or in a creative way. The way I see it, it can be a solution to many other things due to its unconventional way of logic. By stepping out and trying a different approach, one can definitely see a different perspective and find a different solution.

Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesise new things. 

Steve Jobs

Week Six: Lateral Thinking

I vaguely remember this exercise on connecting the dots and moving the golf balls around when I had this module back in Year 1 but I realized I forgot the answers when I actually attempted it...

I had to connect these 9 dots using 4 lines without lifting the my pen off from the paper

I took the liberty of trying out a Scanning app on my phone to scan these drawings here as the pencil lines look a bit faint in photos.

First attempt failed

Was trying to get it right the second time but still..

I accidentally rotated the pic but I failed nonetheless.

The final answer

I felt like I was really focused on the requirements which is why I kept failing. Like I wasn't putting my 100% into thinking, I was restricting myself.

Next up was the line exercise.

To trace the line in a continuous movement without lifting the pen off the paper

Trying to figure it out...

And trying...

And I got it!

For this, I realized that there are a number of ways to do it, so it's much more simpler than the 9 dots exercise.

I attempted the rearrangement of golf balls next!

Rearrange it by moving 3 balls to make it point downwards

This would be the easiest by far. I had the answer in one attempt.

Shaded balls are the ones moving

How my paper looked like at the end of the day...

TED Talk: Where does Creativity Hide?

Unlike the other TED talks that I have watched, where most of the speakers are designers, Amy Tan is a Chinese novelist which surprised me a lot because it was the first time I've watched a TED Talk featuring a female + Chinese + novelist.

Amy shares her creative process during writing, how she handles her "writer's block" by not giving up and looking for the silver lining in nothing. This gives me some encouragement when I am stuck in my design process, worrying too much about everything and ending up doing nothing.

Amy also makes the talk much more relevant to me by using some examples that Chinese people can associate with that hinders creativity.

I really enjoyed her talk and how she treats writing as a journey, instead of boring pieces of work. I feel that I should treat my works as a journey, a journey of self-exploration towards the end point of my best self.

TED Talk: How to Get Your Ideas to Spread

In this talk, Seth Godin talked about how sliced bread started out as a "useless" idea and it was ignored by everyone. However, these days, everyone eats slice bread now, it became a thing. Everyone just eats sliced bread. And why is it that when it was invented, nobody ate it that way? It was because the idea didn't spread. It lacked marketing and promotion.

There are many good ideas on this planet that got lost or forgotten simply because people did not spread it.

Godin talked about remarkable products. They are products that people will make remarks about. He said it was important to make remarkable products, as people usually notice new and interesting things. He gave us an example of a purple cow, like everyone knows how cows look like so nobody cares but if there is a purple cow, it will be the next big thing.

He talked about marketing as well. He split it into a few groups, the otakus that always try to get their hands on the latest products, and then the masses that are the largest of the group and lastly the laggers. He said that we should be speaking and marketing our products about those who care, and not the masses because they are just following the trend. All these inspires me to create a purple cow design in my work.

Week Five: Mindmap II

For this week's class, we were supposed to try out Mindmapping as a form of brainstorming. The given topic was: "What makes a happy life?" 

This would be the first "branch" of my mindmap as I feel that relationships with people are very important factors. These include relationships with my family, friends and people I work with.

Next, I think that freedom is another key factor to a happy life. 

Shane wrote about acceptance. It is true that we all need acceptance to be happy as we need to know there are people that will love us unconditionally no matter what we are.

Stability is extremely important in Singapore. Without some sort of an assurance, people will be living each there with worries, not knowing what tomorrow will bring. It is important that we save for rainy days and buy insurance for our loved ones.

An aerial view of the mindmap.

Shane writing with a highlighter.

Another angle

The other group working on their mindmap

The topic.

Rolling up and time to go home.

Shane and I were in a group and we had almost the same thoughts on happiness in life. Perhaps it was due to the fact that we were both the same age or that we are both Singaporeans.... I don't know? I guess that people from different countries have different thoughts on happiness... Some of them might think that education, peace and financial stability are more important factors, some might think that a well-fed stomach would be good enough.

For me, I think I'm happy enough so long as my country is safe, my parents are healthy and working, and that I have enough money to spend and pamper myself occasionally.

We started branching out the main branches to many other little subbranches as part of the exercise. Indeed, mindmapping is a clearer way to organize all my thoughts in a neat way that is easy to understand. While brainstorming might be useful, it seems messier as we can't see where the train of thought is branched out from. Therefore, whenever I need to clear my thoughts and arrange them, I'll always opt for mindmapping instead.