Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Help Me Think

It began as 'Leads' – special words that were meant to refine queries in QTSaver.
Then the name of the Leads changed to "Suggestions to refine your query" because most users didn't understand where do the Leads lead to.
And now I started thinking about the third phase of the Leads as thinking-helpers.

I'll give you a few examples:

The first time Leads amazed me was when I looked for information about an oil company called Delek. The Leads were strange:


tenzin , rinpoche , chinese , trulku , death ,
sentence , tibet , life , action , tibetan ,
sichuan


When I checked them up I discovered that there was a Buddhist monk and teacher by that name (Delek Tenzin Rinpoche) who was arrested by Chinese authorities and sentenced to death In April 2002.

I had to add the words 'drilling company' to 'Delek' in order to get the right results

gas , oil , exploration , group , yam , tethys
, israel , isramco , item , field , see,

Another example:

I was looking for the word 'associations' (intending to find out how psychology may help me understand the Leads). I got the following list at the bottom of the page:


association , organizations , industry , directory ,
professional , asae , trade , state , membership ,
service , business


This list made me understand immediately that there's another meaning to the word 'associations' about which I didn't think. It saved me reading the results. I changed my query to "thought associations" and then I got a list that showed me that I'm on the right track.


behavior , learning , ethical , signal , brain ,
strength , sequences , thoughts , emotions , associative
, connections,

Now the fun part began: I looked at these Leads WITHOUT reading the results and STARTED THINKING:

What is the connection between associations and behavior?
What is the
connection between associations and learning?
What is the connection between
associations and ethics?
What is the connection between associations and
brain signals? Etc.


You see, this is called 'heavy thinking', and if you ever tried it without a helper you'll understand the opportunities QTSaver opens for you.

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