To get started in Cognician watch these quick videos...
What is a cog? 0:54
Interface tour 2:54
How to clear the workspace 0:23
How to use lists and the zap button 1:20
How to use the disengage button 1:18
How to tweet from Cognician 1:11
Forthcoming features 1:18
Cognician cogs prompt you with provocative questions based on books, articles or blog posts, giving you an agenda for thinking systematically and creatively, and helping you think better, further and faster.
Learning to use Cognician is a bit like learning to be a good conversationalist. Sometimes it's your turn to add something to the conversation; sometimes it's the other person's turn. In this case the "other person" is a cog. What's a cog? It's a guide to help you think through something systematically and creatively. So that's where you start: first choose a cog from the cogs panel. Click on the icon and read about the cog in the sidebar on the right of the screen.
Once you've chosen some content from the Contents panel just double-click on the workspace. Cognician will create a white cell. Some cogs will fill in a pre-selected subject for you to think about, such as "your life" or "your business" or the name of a person, or an event or an idea. Sometimes you'll want to edit the subject. Say you want to brainstorm ideas for an ad. Then you'd type in the name of your product. Say you want to think about the challenge of financing your business. Then you might type in "raising finance". Or say you want to think up creative solutions to tough problems. Just name the problem: corruption, crime, pollution, traffic congestion, etc. Try to name your idea in two or three words. Once you've entered a subject read the first question. If the grammar is wrong just edit your subject so that the resulting question is grammatically appropriate.
To get more questions click on the cog button on the white, subject cell. If the question is irrelevant or non-sensical, just delete it and click again on the cog button for a new question. The number in the blue circle tells you how many questions are available. As you work through a section in the Contents panel, the number of questions will count down. When you're finished with one section, and move to the next, the counter will reset to show you how many questions are now available.
To answer a cog question, click on the light bulb button below the question. Try to capture your answer in two or three words. Just put the core of your idea in the answer cell. Think of your idea as a tweet, but instead of 140 characters try to express it in just two or three words. Of course, you're free to write a whole sentence if you like. But there are great benefits to keeping your answers brief and focused.
To elaborate on your idea use the notes panel. Every cell on the workspace is linked to the notes panel. To add notes to a cell first click on the cell to select it. (You can tell that a cell is selected by its glow.) Then write your notes in the notes panel. Cognician will remember which notes belong to which cells.
Use the File>Save menu to save your project. Use the File>Export to HTML option to export the cog questions, your answers and your notes. You can then open up the HTML file in any word processor, where you can use the outline as the basis for an article, blog post, research paper, assignment, report or whatever document you need. In this way, instead of starting to think from a blank page, a cog can help you structure your thinking, making it more systematic and more innovative too.