Chapter 1 Reflections

"Mindtools are critical thinking devices" - okay, I get it.

I was doing fine until the in-depth explanation kicked in. I suppose in order to publish this sort of thing you must have "all your ducks" in a row with every shred of possible linkage from the outside world included. By the time I got through the Psych 101 explanation of contructive memory and declarative memory, I forgot what I was reading (though, as a Psych teacher it was kind of fun to see this stuff again). Every now and then the light would return and the continued explanation and rationale would be sensible. But, boy, I think I was able to "get it" without the dissertation.

Aside from the partial drudgery of reading the explanation, I really only had one place where I differed with the author. He really isn't convinced that a word processor can be a mindtool and obviously the World Wide Web has exploded since the book was written. His point about productivity is really what it boils down to. If you can use Inspiration to outline a concept, you can use a word processor to organize a rough draft and make annotations to keep track of your thoughts well beyond the outline. Toss in Google Docs, where you do this with multiple people.

Obviously there is a slight variation in our concepts, possibly due to the date. I think you can "represent knowledge" with word processors and graphics.

BC