Put on your thinking cap

Meaning

Take time for consideration of some question.

Origin

A ‘thinking cap’ was previously known by the appealing name a ‘considering cap’. That term has gone entirely out of use now but was known since at least the early 17th century, as in this example from Robert Armin in Foole upon foole, 1605:

“The Cobler puts off his considering cap, why sir, sayes he, I sent them home but now.”

The earliest record I can find for the term ‘thinking cap’ is from the USA, in the Wisconsin newspaper The Kenosha Times, July 1857:

“This tendency is a very good thing as the safeguard of our independence from the control of foreign power, and it obliges every man to keep his thinking cap on.”

That citation uses the term figuratively – there’s no suggestion that it refers to a real cap. The figure who comes to mind when wondering who might wear such a cap is Sherlock Holmes. In the stories he was portrayed as settling down in a smoking jacket to consider difficult ‘three-pipe’ problems. There’s no record of his wearing a cap to accompany the jacket though.

What Are the Six Thinking Hats?

	White Hat Thinking: Information availible and needed.
	Black Hat Thinking: Cautions and difficulties; Where things might go wrong.
	Red Hat Thinking: Intuitions, feelings, and hunches
	Green Hat Thinking: Alternatives and creative ideas.
	Yellow Hat Thinking: Values and benefits; Why something might work.
	Blue Hat Thinking: Manage the thinking process.