Philosophy holds that everything is connected, and nothing in the world exists in isolation. For example, a rising tide lifts a boat, which means the connection between water and the boat; Cumulus clouds turn into rain, which means the connection between clouds and rain. Winter goes to spring, which means the connection between winter and spring.

It is precisely because of this universal connection between things that they interact and influence each other, so the solution of a problem will often affect many things connected around us and bring us good inspiration to solve the problem. When we are thinking creatively and looking for the best conclusion, we can associate things similar and related to the conclusion we are looking for according to the known characteristics of other things, so as to combine the two and achieve the purpose of "explaining the proportion by this". That is, using the relevant laws in psychology.

In this regard, the origin of the standard distance between two tracks of American railway is the best example.

The standard distance between two tracks of American railway is 4.85 feet. People are very curious about this strange standard. The American railway was originally built by the British, so the British railway standard of 4.85 feet was adopted.

People ask again, "Why do British people use this standard?" It turns out that the British railway was designed by the people who built trams, and 4.85 feet is the standard for tram tracks.

But why do cars have to use this track standard? Because if the carriage had used any other track, the wheels of the carriage would have been damaged on the old roads in England soon. Why? Because the track width on these roads is 4.85 feet.

So where did these ruts come from? The answer was formulated by the ancient Romans, and 4.85 feet was the width of Roman chariots.

Then someone will ask, "Why did you choose the width of Roman chariots?" Because the long-distance old roads in Europe, including Britain, are paved by the Roman army, if anyone drives on these roads with different wheel widths, the life of the wheels will not be long.

Finally, people will ask, "Why did the Romans use 4.85 feet as the track width of their chariots?"

The reason is very simple. This is the width of the buttocks of two horses pulling chariots.

Through this classic example, we can see that people want to know what the standard distance between the two tracks of the American railway is based on, not to find the answer on the horse's ass at once, but to find the desired answer through a series of things related to this question, such as British railways, British trams, carriages, ancient roads, Roman chariots and ancient roads.

In fact, since everything is connected, we should learn to divergent thinking when encountering problems, and don't always stick to one point. When we can't figure it out, we might as well find something related to the problem. Starting from these related places, using the wisdom of "comparing reasoning with metaphor" will often make you suddenly realize.

In fact, because everything is linked together, we should learn to divergent thinking when encountering problems, and don't always cling to one point.