Imagination Isn’t an Escape—It’s a Way of Seeing

Most people think imagination is for making things up. But what if it's also how we learn to see what’s already there?

Photo by Martin Neuhold on Unsplash

In professional life, imagination is treated like a luxury. It’s what creatives use, not analysts. It’s what children play with, not adults making decisions.

But then, how do we explain that some of the most precise thinkers—scientists, sages, philosophers—regularly speak of mental models, analogies, parables, visualiza…