I Ching as a Tool for Thought

Course Goals

Learn about what is a "tool for thought" and how to use it taking the I Ching—the ancient Chinese book with 64 models or types of change—as an enabling environment for more efficient and effective thinking.

The learning experience is the way we see, manage, and work with uncertainty and risk. The I Ching—as a system or method—is one of those that recognize, accept, and work with uncertainty and risk. Something we now all know we need to learn.

Structure

Two topics and one practice are the core of the course. One topic is tools for thought, and the other, the I Ching. The practice is the I Ching consultation.

Learning to consult the I Ching is relatively easy. More difficult is learning the interpretation of the results. But there are several resources to do both.

Beyond that, this course focuses on the experience of uncertainty and taking risks, on one side, and the practice of learning to define, analyze, and resolve problems using, in this case, a simple tool as the I Ching.

Syllabus / Schedule

Week 1. Tools for thought.

What is a tool for thought? What do you use it for? How do you use a tool of thought?

Week 2. The I Ching

What is the I Ching? How do you use it? How does it work?

Week 3. Putting all together: The I Ching as a tool for thought.

Wisdom and the brain: reference frames. Projective assessments. Randomness in self-reflection.

Week 4. Problem-solving and decision making.

What is a problem? What is a question? When we are stuck? How do you ask a question? How do you define a problem? How to get unstuck? Looking for new perspectives and views. Reframing.

One live session for each topic. In every session, there will be exercises around I Ching consultations and discussion in the different levels of the practice—from "how-to" to reflections on the content, passing for related techniques and knowledge.

Office hours will be offered for particular topics or walking through tutorials.

Artifacts

Learning to use the I Ching in different methods to choose the more suitable for the learner.

A journal with consultations, results, interpretations, for continuous learning.

Who Should Sign Up

On one hand, anyone interested in tools for thought, algorithms of thought, heuristics, or mental models, their differences, uses, and how can they help to our daily workflow of decision making—in a non-academic but more casual and ludic way.

On the other, anyone interested in the I Ching as a book of wisdom, self-reflection, and reference frame, in an agnostic and scientific approach and perspective.

Why…

I've always interested in problem-solving in a general sense but more particular studying philosophy at the University in logic, reasoning, and mental processes.

More recently, through the different jobs and positions in operative and executive areas, and especially in my work as a psychotherapist and coach, I've studied and put in practice several resources—now under a vast umbrella with the terms of tools for thought, mental models, heuristics, and algorithms of thought.

The I Ching—a book and system associated with the paranormal, esoteric, or magic—has always being a challenge to classify because of its affinity with the deepest and oldest eastern philosophy, and at the same time, with an oracle with divinatory properties.

For me, the essential issue here is the way we see, manage, and work with uncertainty and risk. The I Ching—as a system or method—is one of those that recognize, accept, and work with uncertainty and risk. Something we now all know we need to learn.

Some articles I've published about this:

Recalculating Route Under Uncertainty

A Post-War Concept to Help the Post-Pandemic Crisis

Hard Decisions Are Coming. Let’s go “one step at a time”

A Remedy Against the Future. There are two ways to be prepared for…