Models Thinker

Fragments from imaginary dialogues

“You can think of the Process in many ways.”

“Like what?”

“The Process as…
– (Self-)Actualization
– Adapting
– Becoming
– Change
– (Self-)Creation
– Development
– Evolution
– Growth
– Optimizing
– Sculpting
…

All of these are mental/metaphoric models.

Each of them expresses different nuances of the Process.

Some are simple ideas, others are compound ideas, that is, aggregates of simpler ideas. I call the simplest ideas, those that cannot be broken down into simpler ones, fundamental ideas (or foundational ideas).

This is also a model.“

“Among the ones you listed, there seems to be only one fundamental idea: Change. All the other ones can be expressed in terms of it.”

“Even Change can be deconstructed into simpler ideas.”

“How?”

“We can think of types of change:
– Active/Passive Change
– Creative Change
– Dependent/Independent Change
– Directed Change
  – Teleologic Change
– Effortful/Effortless Change
– Gradual Change
  – Cumulative Change
  – Incremental Change
– Intentional Change
– Micro/Macro Change
– Qualitative/Quantitative Change
– Spontaneous Change
…

All of these are also mental models.

This has practical application. To illustrate, let’s think of the difference between Growth and Development expressed in terms of types of change.

Growth (natural)
– Directed Change
  – Teleologic Change (towards an innate potential, in the same way the acorn has the ‘innate potential’ to become the oak tree)
– Gradual Change
– Qualitative Change (increased complexity)
– Spontaneous Change (‘that which happens of itself’)
  – Effortless Change (the acorn exerts no effort to become the oak)

Development
– Creative Change
– Directed Change
– Effortful Change 
– Gradual Change
– Intentional Change
– Qualitative Change (making better, improvement; increased complexity)

When we say ‘personal growth’, we mean metaphoric growth, model which can include all the models I listed initially. This is a method of enriching mental models.”