The central claim of the book is that effective analytic designs entail turning thinking principles into seeing principles.

The key argument is that cognitive tasks should be turned into design principles.

Rather, the point is to recognize the tightness between seeing and thinking on an intellectual level not just a metaphorical level.

My idea here is that, inasmuch as certain cognitive tasks and principles are tied to nature's laws, these tasks and principles are indifferent to language, culture, gender, or the particular mode of information that is provided.

The speculative part of my work is that these particular cognitive tasks - ways of thinking analytically - are tied to nature's laws.

I was writing a chapter of Beautiful Evidence on the subject of the sculptural pedestal, which led to my thinking about what's up on the pedestal - the great leader.