In the process of making the front cover of the KJ method, abstraction occurs as a result. However, Jiro Kawakita does not say, “Do abstraction. Rather, he says, “Never abstract too much.
The reason why the nameplate comes to mind is that the one-line headings on some “familiar” pieces of paper not only have a meaning on the letter-symbolic side, but also have a suggestion atmosphere surrounding and surrounding the center of that meaning. This is the point where I have cautioned against “never abstraction too much,” “don’t get hung up on rigid idioms and terms of art,” and “preserve the aroma of soil of the original material as much as possible” when creating one-line headings. The minimum necessary conceptualization process is important, and should not be unnecessarily reduced to a “concept. (way of thinking p.141)
This is because the word “abstraction” itself is abstract.
- When people are told to “abstract,” they don’t know what specific actions to take.
- So to call the process of nameplate making an “abstraction” is itself excessive abstraction.
relevance
- Associative mood → word created by retaining the first syllable (or two) of a word.
Jiro Kawakita made the distinction between “abstract” and “conceptual” in an attempt to explain this.
- The term “conceptual” refers to the fact that the attempt to “abstract” results in something that is not firmly built on top of the concrete.
- (Nishio often describes them as “abstract concepts like floating grass” that are “not firmly rooted in concrete facts. see The Parable of the Floating Grass and the Trees.“)
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Is it possible that the higher the group formation, the more abstract the nameplate becomes? Quite a few people think so. But I would first like to distinguish here, in my own way, between the terms “abstract” and “conceptual. If you make an imprecise grouping, as you accumulate the groupings in several stages, they will become more and more out of touch with the actual situation. Finally, it becomes ridiculous, and the grasp of the actual situation collapses. I would like to call this situation “conceptual.
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On the other hand, the more precise the grouping, the more it gets to the heart of the matter. This is what I call abstraction. Therefore, “abstract” is very different from “conceptual. If we call something abstract in this sense, we might describe it as becoming more abstract the more groupings are piled up. And in this sense, the more abstract we become, the more we have the ability to get to the core of concrete things. I would especially add this because there is quite a bit of false popular belief that “the more abstract you become, the less useful you become for concrete things.” If we were to illustrate this figuratively, it would look like Figure 26. (KJ method Let the chaos speak for itself p.153-154)
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