Mervis, C. B., & Rosch, E. (1981). Categorization of natural objects. Annual Review of Psychology, 32, 89–115. to guide (oneself) in a particular direction: [~ +object +to +object ]She bent her energies to the task. She bent herself to finishing her homework. [be bent on ] was bent on finishing the job. Thinking ‘right to left’ refers to the process chart – classically the Gantt chart – that is used in most project planning and management, where you have the end result or the outcome on the right, and then everything that needs to happen left of that,” he says. McManus, I. C. (1978). The horizontal-vertical illusion and the square. British Journal of Psychology, 69, 369–370.

The lattice structures are usually formed in layers, so if a force is applied in the right place, the layers can slide over each other and the material can change shape without breaking. However, the more layers that are present, the harder it is to stretch and manipulate the bonds between the layers and allow movement. This is why it's relatively easy to bend a thin metal spoon, even with our bare hands, but it's much harder to try to bend something larger, like a traffic sign. If a large enough force is used, it's possible to bend these materials, but it can be difficult to apply enough force without deforming the material's internal bonds so much that they break completely. Are there different types of flexibility? Important, timely, instructive and entertaining’ – Daniel Kahneman, bestselling author of Thinking, Fast and Slow to (cause to) lean away from an upright position: [~ +object ] bent her head in prayer. [no object ] She bent over my desk to take a look at the computer. This is why even flexible materials can break. If the force applied to the material is too strong, it can damage the bonds between the particles so much that they completely split and the material breaks. When we bend the paper clip, the bonds between the latticed metal particles are stretched, and if they're put through too much tension, they snap. Even very elastic materials have an upper limit to how much they can be stretched before they break.

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Macpherson, F., & Batty, C. (2016). Redefining illusion and hallucination in light of new cases. Philosophical Issues, 26, 263–296. Modern cars are a good example of how plasticity works. Cars are designed with crumple zones made of materials that are plastic enough to crumple and bend. This absorbs the impact so that the central structure of the car, which has to be more rigid, doesn't break and seriously injure the passengers. . Künnapas, T. M. (1957b). Vertical-horizontal illusion and surrounding field. Acta Psychologica, 13, 35–42.

Nothing is more inspiring than a big vision that becomes a triumphant new reality. Think of how Apple’s iPod went from a project with a single employee to an enormously successful product launch in eleven months. But such successes are the exception. Consider how London’s Crossrail project delivered five years late and billions over budget. More modest endeavours, whether launching a small business, organizing a conference, or just finishing a work project on time, also commonly fail. Why?Schellenberg, S. (2008). The situation-dependence of perception. The Journal of Philosophy, 105, 55–84. Here's a helpful list of a few common materials we encounter where elasticity and plasticity are a big part of their usefulness: Avery, G. C., & Day, R. H. (1969). Basis of the horizontal-vertical illusion. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 81, 376–380. Künnapas, T. M. (1957a). The vertical-horizontal illusion and the visual field. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 53, 405–407. It all boils down to how the particles within a given material are structured. In solid materials, the particles that make up a material are held within strong bonds, but these bonds can vary a lot in how tightly the particles are held together and how the particles can move within the structure. Generally speaking, the more that the particles in a given material can move, the more flexible the material is. The most flexible solid materials are made up of particles that are made up and held together in a way that allows a lot of movement - take for instance, rubber, which is known for being bendable. We'll be using this as our main case-study example to explain how this concept works.

Prinzmetal, W., & Gettleman, L. (1993). Vertical-horizontal illusion: One eyes is better than two. Perception and Psychophysics, 53, 81–88. Flyvbjerg explains that successful projects always have a team who clearly understand what their purpose is, and then throughout the delivery phase, always keep one eye on how what they are doing will help deliver this. Klein, B. J., Li, Z., & Durgin, F. H. (2016). Large perceptual distortions of locomotor action space occur in ground-based coordinates: Angular expansion and the large-scale horizontal-vertical illusion. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 42, 581–593. Bendable or flexible materials are materials that can be bent out of shape or compressed without breaking, and can easily be returned to their original shape. Most materials have some degree of flexibility, under certain circumstances. While we don't normally think of metal or plastic as particularly flexible, you can make a flexible shape, like a slinky, out of both of these materials. Flexibility isn't so much about the material itself as the shape it's been formed into and what you need it to do: the massive steel girders used to build skyscrapers have to be flexible, or they'd break during earthquakes or extremely high winds!

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For anybody who's doing a project, first sit down and ask yourself: why are you doing the project? You need to have a very good answer to that question before you start so that you actually know precisely what the reasons are. Then, after you know that, you can start,” he says. Shoemaker, S. (2006). On the ways things appear. In T. S. Gendler & J. Hawthorne (Eds.), Perceptual experience (pp. 461–480). Oxford: Oxford University Press. But such successes are the exception. Consider how London's Crossrail project delivered five years late and billions over budget. More modest endeavours, whether launching a small business, organizing a conference, or just finishing a work project on time, also commonly fail. Why?