(6.2.4) Parable, metaphor, analogy

When you convert an abstract concept that does not have a physical shape to a physical sensation, often a metaphor born. Since the abstract concept does not have a shape, it is compared to another existing thing in reality. Metaphors are physical sensations and experiences which are barely verbalized with unusual usage of words.

https://gyazo.com/33dbd097fe37be2e13c1d0a993db5d60

Parable stories and metaphors coming up from the surface of the water

In the experiment to draws pictures of the creativity, the metaphors of plants and came out. Young also compared the process of idea creation to coral reefs. You may feel a beautiful coral reef suddenly appears in the blue ocean. The idea also looks to appear suddenly. However, the coral reefs are results of the life of small coral worms in the sea. Ideas are also the last fruit of activities that progress under consciousness.

Metaphors are sometimes called parable stories or analogies. In the Japanese version, I choose the word "TATOE-BANASHI" corresponds to parable stories. It is because the word "metaphor" is not familiar for most Japanese.

The analogy is to associate similar things. Young thought the process of idea creation in the analogy of coral reefs. In this chapter, I am considering the process of idea creation with an analogy of producing crops. A parable story is to explain the contents that you want to convey in correspondence with similar things in an analogy.

The analogy is a common way to create ideas. Katharina Kalogerakis and colleagues from the Hamburg University of Technology interviewed 16 project leaders of design and engineering consulting firms and confirmed that 12 of them frequently use analogies. Also, with analogies in distant fields such as analogies between industrial products and natural animals, the product novelty becomes high.

*21 Sometimes, the concept of metaphor is distinguished from the simile. In the case, metaphor is a parable that does not state that it is a parable. For example, "warm ideas" is a metaphor. As a simile, "the idea is like an egg. When it is created, it does not move at first. By warming, it becomes a chick and begins to move on its own." In this book, I don't use the difference as an important concept. You can think the metaphor is the parable.

*22 Katharina Kalogerakis, Christian Lüthje and Cornelius Herstatt. (2010). "Developing innovations based on analogies: experience from design and engineering consultants". Journal of Product Innovation Management, 27(3), 418-436.