by Asim Jalis
Continuing with the thoughts from the previous essay, there is a
third type of reasoning. Let's summarize the first two types
first.
The first kind of reasoning is sequential reasoning, where each
assertion follows the next through a chain of implication. The
archetype of this kind of reasoning is Commander Data from Star
Trek.
The second kind of reasoning is generalizing and specializing.
Here specific examples are seen as concrete manifestations of
general ideas, and general ideas are extracted from specific
examples. Things are connected to each other in unexpected,
unobvious and surprising ways. The focus is on the connections
rather than the nodes. An archetype of this kind of reasoning
might be Einstein. Another example of someone who uses this is
Clayton Christensen.
The third kind of reasoning is centered around "why". Why did
this happen? Why did this person behave in this way? For example,
when we talk about the value proposition we are talking about
this kind of causal reasoning. The archetype of this kind of
reasoning is Sherlock Holmes. Holmes moves from effects backwards
to the causes, always asking why about everything. Toyota and
Taichi Ohno's process of getting to the bottom of defects by
asking why five times (the five whys) is another example of this.
The boundaries between these types are fuzzy. Many problems
require a combination of multiple types of reasoning.
In general the second and third kind of reasoning are mechanisms
for discovering or recognizing new ideas. The first kind of
reasoning is mostly used for verifying that a chain of reasoning
suggested by a discovered pattern or by a 5 whys investigation,
is valid.
