Abstract Principles and uncover Mysteries

Principles like cutting that can be found in teeth as well as in scissors have a special place within Laliaflia and our creative thinking. The scissor can be read as a subconscious innovation based on teeth.

Malcolm Gladwell says: "Everybody is obsessed with finding universal principles". If we are not talking about any unique phenomenon, we probably talk about principles.

Why are principles much more in favour than unique phenomenons? Most probably, because principles help us to predict the future and backup our thoughts, whereas unique phenomenons remain mysteries.
Check J.J. Abrams if you are keen on Mysteries. If not keep reading. :-)

Interestingly, we would love to think about a creative process as something mysteries, something that comes from nowhere. But since everything growth organic, we can hardly avoid to abstract what we see.

A great example are fractals (self replicating patterns), that can be found in leafs as well as in the design of a building. The same applies for symmetry, which is indeed the most common principle we know within living things.

Dr. Antwerpes, one of my best external reviews said to me when I interviewed him: "Everything can be positioned in the corner of principles." And sure it is right. Looking at artefacts from a principle point of view reveals, that most things already exist in life. For example we use clothespin as a replacement for two fingers, ect.

I think innovation is scarcely a creation of something out of this world. Even-though we would like to think about it this way.

This is not to say that we can not create something, which was not there in life before. If we do, we might have to check if fits within the rhythms of life.

Principles are shortcuts, formulas, and boosters to design thinking. It comes down to: If you understand one thing (principle), you will understand everything (same principle in every context).

Design and creativity is highly related to predicting the future. For Laliaflia it means, the more principles we find the easier we can create something with value.
On the left you see relations of principles I came across while looking at living artefacts and human made artefacts. Each of the principles deserve a separate chapter, but for now the illustration should be enough.

independent = are inventions we came up with independently. they are exactly like life's design (roof and gecko's skin, helicopter and seed, pollination and advertising, lenses and fish eyes)

insightful = are inventions we came up with because we understood it's superiority (radar from bats, airplane from birds, computing from our brain)



subconscious = inventions that we came up with subconsciously even though they are in front of our naked eyes (clothespin like fingers, cameras like eyes, scissors like ncisor, mill like back tooth)

process driven = inventions that undergo a development, which results in life like solutions (crash test like evolution, recycling like ecosystems, cooperations like symbiosis)

instant logical = inventions that allow one instant conclusion (bridges and spider threads, bags and kangaroos, doors and eyelid)

ignorant = inventions which ignore life totally (streets, light bulbs, borders)

unknown principles = are just mysteries

Think about for example why businesses talk about growing, branches, and life cycles. This principles are used as abstracts, they require a sort of translation from the visible into the invisible.