Try the Opposite

by John F. Fanselow

A heuristic is a rule of thumb. (If I do this, what will happen?). One of the most well-known and successful heuristics is John Fanselow' Do the opposite. He suggests that, if we carefully examine what we habitually do in our classes and then try to do the opposite, we may stumble upon some interesting new ways of proceeding. There are many other heuristics worth trying. For Withhold Information, Reverse the order. , Combine randomly, etc. Fanselow's point, which is worth thinking about, is that if we never try an alternative way of doing things, we never know what might have happened! Heuristics are a handy way of trying new ways of doing things. Alan Maley

Paperback

First published January 1, 1992