Trialectical sythesis is the simultaneous melding of multiple pieces of information, each in a spatial relationship with the others, to gain a new understanding.
In our traditional education, we have been taught to think with a logic that is linear in nature. As a result, we are, for the most part, linear thinkers.
This thinking approach utilizes two fundamental models: the serial logic that A leads to B which leads to C or that A is in conflict with B, which leads to C, a synthesis that is known as the Hegelian Dialect.
It is from this model that we understand our experience in the world, make meaning. But, with discoveries illuminated in areas such as quantum mechanics and chaos theory, we now appreciate that linear thinking is inadequate to understand the complexity around us, complexity that is non-linear in nature.
Alan Kay sensed this truth, calling for a new level of thinking, one that was non-linear in nature. Where spatial thinking might happen. He developed Smalltalk as a new software language that might open the door for software developers to this new level of thinking.
A thinking that lies at the heart of the Agile Mindset. One that continually opens new doors to surprise – those Eureka Moments that inspire learning.
A type of thinking that is now broadly engendered by the spatially hyperlinked world of the web.