Albert Einstein: “Combinatory play seems to be the essential feature in productive thought.”

Earlier today I stumbled across the quote that serves as the title of this post. There was no context or commentary. As my curiosity had been piqued, I did some poking around. The most interesting thing I found is a blurb from the jacket cover of a book authored by Thomas G. West.

Thinking Like Einstein: Returning To Our Visual Roots With The Emerging Revolution In Computer Information Visualization:

…In trying to explain the origins of his ideas, Einstein said that all of his most important and productive thinking was done by “combinatory play” with “images” in his mind. Only at a secondary stage did he “laboriously” translate these images into “conventional words” or the signs of mathematics.

According to Thomas G. West, Albert Einstein was a classic example of a strong visual thinker, a person who tends to think in images and visual patterns and sometimes has difficulty with words and numbers. In West’s award-winning book, IN THE MIND’S EYE, he discussed connections between highly talented, visually oriented people like Einstein and learning disabilities such as dyslexia. Now, in THINKING LIKE EINSTEIN, West investigates the new worlds of visual thinking, insight, and creativity made possible by computer graphics and information visualization technologies. He argues that with the rapid spread of less costly but powerful computers, humanity is now at the beginning of a major transition, moving from an old world based mainly on words and numbers to a new world where high-level work in all fields will eventually involve insights based on the display and manipulation of complex information using moving computer images.

Intriguing thought — information visualization and conceptualization that just begs to be played with.