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Reader question: Please explain “linear thinking”, as in this sentence: “We don't need to come out of Yale knowing everything. What we need is an urge to explore, to figure out what makes us come alive, and to abandon the linear thinking that school has given us.” My comments: In other words, schools are about teaching us how to think, rather than forcing us to remember by rote facts, figures and methodology. “The linear thinking that school has given us”, however, does exactly that, calling for us to stick to the books without questioning them, and without change when we try to apply the knowledge and methodology we learned in class to actual practice. Which deprives us innovation, which in turn prevent us from doing new things altogether. In fact, linear thinking prevents us from seeing things with fresh eyes. Linear is about lines, straight lines. Linear thinking therefore refers to thinking in straight lines, from Point A to Point B to Point C. Linear thinking is simplistic, systematic, rigid, dogmatic, inflexible. For example, if a linear thinking person gets stuck in traffic, he will not turn at the nearest green light and take another route. The linear thinking man never sees another route to get around a traffic jam. In fact, to the linear thinking man there is no such thing as another route, the route that he takes to the office every day is the only route there is. | 
