Hello lovely people,
My name is Natalie and you are currently reading the first blog that I have ever created (so pardon any novice mistakes that may be made on my behalf).
I believe that one of the largest obstacles that man has ever had to overcome is functional fixedness. The worst part is, functional fixedness is something that is created within ones self. What is this diabolical beast that dwells inside of us all? Well, when someone has a problem that they cant solve, functional fixedness is there to tell you there is no answer. When you have writers block, or something is stopping you from innovation, functional fixedness is there smiling through its jagged teeth because its job is already done.
Psychology Dictionary, the worlds most comprehensive online psychology dictionary defines functional fixedness as "a term used in problem solving where there is a tendency to cling to set patterns and overlook possible new approaches. May overlook different uses for an object."
Functional fixedness is a mental bias that locks you into only thinking about objects, concepts, and people in one way.
Functional fixedness keeps the human race at a stand still. It says that there is nothing better than the wheel, and we shouldn't even go about thinking of the hovercraft. On a smaller scale, functional fixedness creates an obstinate individual who claims to be pragmatic. This pragmatism is at great cost though, as many of those same people that are faced with a task that requires just an ounce of creativity simply say "I am not creative enough to do this."
So many people do not understand that is not them themselves that are uncreative but their mind. The mind can be trained to be more creative. No one has to except being uncreative. This is one of the things that I hope to help people with in this blog. I will also celebrate what happens when this functional fixedness is finally subdued. As well as little tests to see how functionally fixed you are. I hope that you will enjoy it as much as I hope I will enjoy writing it.