Exercise your mind: 12 ways to think differently

For me, the phrase "think differently" immediately brings to mind that late '90s Apple marketing campaign featuring famously renegade thinkers. Next I think about how that slogan was actually "think different," rather than "think differently," and how it isn't as ungrammatical as it is grammatically unorthodox -- itself an instance of thinking different. And that's about as far as my slapdash noggin will go before flitting off to something equally inane but entirely unrelated.

Which just goes to show that I'm someone who could really benefit from "Twelve Ways to Think Differently," author/blogger Dave Pollard's essay on how to broaden your thinking.

Pollard refers to his 12 tips as "mental stretching techniques" that help you condition parts of your brain that probably aren't getting enough exercise. They're supposed to make you more creative as well as more understanding, and I'm all for that.

Some of his suggestions are very concrete: learn a new language, read/write fiction. Others less so: do "impulsive and serendipitous things," reconnect with your intuition. And one would make Timothy Leary proud but put Nancy Reagan's knickers in a twist. And if that's not enough to get you to take a look, you just might be beyond help.

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