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Creative problem solving

Creative insight can take the form of noticing similarities between things that you (or perhaps nobody) had ever noticed before. In other words it is a kind of creative analogical problem solving. “Aha! Now I see why this printer is sticking! It’s the same as the problem I had with the vacuum cleaner!” The analogy could be much more significant, though: “Aha! Now I see why the speed of light is constant irrespective of the relative motion of the observer!” One view of creativity is that it involves a novel and often insightful combination of pre-existing ideas. Using similarities between concepts or objects is most often seen in literature and the arts. In literature it is often manifest in the use of metaphor and simile. ...

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