It is often hard to see things in a different way. One way to facilitate that is to role play. Janice defined the following colored hats:

• Red hat: what are your feelings about the move?
• White hat: what will the opponent do? At least two moves ahead
• Yellow hat: optimist: what is good about this move? what is the best that can happen?
• Black hat: pessimist: what is bad about this move? what is the worst that can happen?
• Blue hat: Hyun sae pan (positional judgement). What is the score (count)?
• Green hat: creative, nay, strange solutions; think outside the box

By considering each of these perspectives for a given move, we can strive to gain the ur-perspective (ur is a Greek word meaning, original or primitive). The goal is to gain a true understanding of the position (and the correct approach to it) by considering the various aspects revealed by the roles.

In the diagram, how might white 1 be perceived if we wear each hat in turn? (Everyone will have their own answers -- it's not whether the perspectives are right of wrong that matters. The hats are simply a tool to help you break from your traditional thinking. We often have a hat preference.)

• Red hat: there is a large gap in strength, so play calmly.
• White: black will make a one-point jump and then white will extend
• Black: the move is slow. The worse case scenario is if black simply ignores white and make large territories elsewhere which white lives small
• Blue: each corner is worth about 6 points (komi), but they also multiply their value in combination. One corner is in dispute, so about 20 points for black, zero for white. Black is way behind.
• Green: tengen? no, too common. How about the helicopter: 6-6 point? Several of them combine nicely...