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With Vertical Thinking One May Look For Different Approaches Until One Finds A Promising One. With Lateral Thinking One Goes On Generating As Many Approaches As One Can Even After One Has Found A Promising One. With Vertical Thinking One Is Trying To Select The Best Approach But With Lateral Thinking One Is Generating Different Approaches For The Sake Of Generating Them.

-Edward De Bono

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With Vertical Thinking One

Edward De Bono

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With Vertical Thinking One May Look For Different Approaches Until One Finds A Promising One. With Lateral Thinking One Goes On Generating As Many Approaches As One Can Even After One Has Found A Promising One. With Vertical Thinking One Is Trying To Select The Best Approach But With Lateral Thinking One Is Generating Different Approaches For The Sake Of Generating Them.

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Don't Criticise A Hypothesis, Come Up With A Better One.

The Winner Is The Chef Who Takes The Same Ingredients As Everyone Else And Produces The Best Results.

Studies Have Shown That 90% Of Error In Thinking Is Due To Error In Perception. If You Can Change Your Perception, You Can Change Your Emotion And This Can Lead To New Ideas.

The Mind Can Only See What It Is Prepared To See.

I Used To Think That One Day I'd Be Able To Resolve The Different Drives I Have In Different Directions, The Tensions Between The Different People I Am. Now I Realize That Is Who I Am. I Do Feel I'm Getting Closer To The Song In My Head. I Wasn't Looking For Grace. But Luckily Grace Was Looking For Me.

(...) Being Right All The Time Acquires A Huge Importance In Education, And There Is This Terror Of Being Wrong. The Ego Is So Tied To Being Right That Later On In Life You Are Reluctant To Accept That You Are Ever Wrong, Because You Are Defending Not The Idea But Your Self-esteem. (...) This Terror Of Being Wrong Means That People Have Enormous Difficulties In Changing Ideas.

I'm Tired Of Dreaming. I'm Into Doing At The Moment. It's, Like, Let's Only Have Goals That We Can Go After.

Unfortunately, Our Existing Traditional Thinking Habits Insist That You Must Attack Something And Show It To Be Bad Before You Can Suggest A Change. It Is More Difficult To Acknowledge That Something Is Excellent And Then To Ask For Change Because Although It Is Excellent, It Is Not Enough.

The Purpose Of Art Is To Reflect New Emerging Values And To Define The New Heroes And Heroines So That People Can Absorb Them Into Their Perceptions.

Perception Is Real Even When It Is Not Reality.

Unhappiness Is Best Defined As The Difference Between Our Talents And Our Expectations.

Positive Attitude

Creative Thinking Is Not A Talent, It Is A Skill That Can Be Learned. It Empowers People By Adding Strength To Their Natural Abilities Which Improves Teamwork, Productivity And, Where Appropriate, Profits.

I'm In Love With This Country Called "america." I'm A Huge Fan Of America. I'm One Of Those Annoying Fans - You Know, The Ones That Read The Cd Notes And Follow You Into Bathrooms And Ask You All Kinds Of Annoying Questions About Why You Didn't Live Up To That. I'm That Kind Of Fan. I've Read The Declaration Of Independence, And I've Read The Constitution Of The United States, And They Are Some Liner Notes, Dude.

Man Owes His Success To His Creativity. No One Doubts The Need For It. It Is Most Useful In Good Times And Essential In Bad.

Sometimes The Situation Is Only A Problem Because It Is Looked At In A Certain Way. Looked At In Another Way, The Right Course Of Action May Be So Obvious That The Problem No Longer Exists.

People Should Realize We're Jerks Just Like Them.

To Develop Thinking As A Skill, It Should Be Deliberate, Focused, Confident, And Enjoyable.

You Hold Onto Religion, You Know, Rules, Regulations, Traditions. I Think What God Is Interested In Is People's Hearts, And That's Hard Enough.

The Music That Really Turns Me On Is Either Running Toward God Or Away From God. Both Recognize The Pivot, That God Is At The Center Of The Jaunt.

You Can Analyse The Past, But You Have To Design The Future

Lateral Thinking... Is The Process Of Using Information To Bring About Creativity And Insight Restructuring. Lateral Thinking Can Be Learned, Practised And Used. It Is Possible To Acquire Skill In It Just As It Is Possible To Acquire Skill In Mathematics.

Everywhere I Go, I See Very Much The Same Thing. I See The Same Compassion For People Who Live Half A World Away. I See The Same Concern About Events Beyond These Borders. And, Increasingly, I See The Same Conviction That We Can And We Must Join Together To Stop The Scourge Of Aids And Poverty.

Logic Will Never Change Emotion Or Perception.

Happiness Is For Those Who Don't Really Need It. So I Can Live Without Happiness.

You Cannot Look In A New Direction By Looking Harder In The Same Direction.

Creativity Makes Life More Fun And More Interesting.

The Quality Of Our Thinking Will Determine The Quality Of Our Future

The Analysis Of Data Will Not By Itself Produce New Ideas.

On Trade, Our Hypocrisy Is At Its Most Appalling. Trade Reform Isn't About Charity, It's About Justice, And This Campaign, Trade Justice Is An Unstoppable Idea.

A Question Is A Polite Way Of Demanding Something.

Many Highly Intelligent People Are Poor Thinkers. Many People Of Average Intelligence Are Skilled Thinkers. The Power Of A Car Is Separate From The Way The Car Is Driven.

Creative Thinking - In Terms Of Idea Creativity - Is Not A Mystical Talent. It Is A Skill That Can Be Practised And Nurtured.

Humor Is By Far The Most Significant Activity Of The Human Brain.

It Has Always Surprised Me How Little Attention Philosophers Have Paid To Humor, Since It Is A More Significant Process Of Mind Than Reason. Reason Can Only Sort Out Perceptions, But The Humor Process Is Involved In Changing Them.

We Still Seek To Solve Conflicts With 'judgement' Instead Of Designing The Way Forwards.

A Memory Is What Is Left When Something Happens And Does Not Completely Unhappen.

As Competition Intensifies, The Need For Creative Thinking Increases. It Is No Longer Enough To Do The Same Thing Better . . . No Longer Enough To Be Efficient And Solve Problems.

If You Wait For Opportunities To Occur, You Will Be One Of The Crowd.

This Is Not About Charity, It's About Justice... The War Against Terror Is Bound Up In The War Against Poverty - I Didn't Say That, Colin Powell Said That . . .

What The Joke Displays Is A Switch In Perception. This Is Important In Changing The Way We Think.

Some People Drift Along Like A Cork On A River, Feeling That They Cannot Do Anything Except Drift, Moment To Moment. This Is An Attitude Of Mind. Everyone Can Be Constructive Even In Tiny Ways.

Companies That Solely Focus On Competition Will Ultimately Die. Those That Focus On Value Creation Will Thrive.

The Awful Thing Is That You Can Never Be Aware Of What You Are Not Aware Of.

The Purpose Of Science Is Not To Analyze Or Describe But To Make Useful Models Of The World. A Model Is Useful If It Allows Us To Get Use Out Of It.

We May Have A Perfectly Adequate Way Of Doing Something, But That Does Not Mean There Cannot Be A Better Way. So We Set Out To Find An Alternative Way. This Is The Basis Of Any Improvement That Is Not Fault Correction Or Problem Solving.

Traditional Thinking Is All About "what Is" Future Thinking Will Also Need To Be About What Can Be.

Analysis Is Simplifying, Breaking Down Things Into Parts, Picking Out Strands And Elements. Analysis Is Comparing Unknown Things With Things That Are Known. Analysis Also Involves Picking Out Relationships And Putting Them Back Together As A Whole.

Opportunity Ideas Do Not Lie Around Waiting To Be Discovered. Such Ideas Need To Be Produced.

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Cute Relationship

Funny Relationship

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The Effective Thinker Treats Arrogance As The Major Sin Of Thinking.

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A Good Design Is Not A Democratic Consensus.

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You Cannot Dig A Hole In A Different Place By Digging The Same Hole Deeper

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Mock The Devil, And He Will Flee From Thee.

Submission To God

Creativity Can Be Learned Like Basketball, Which Does Not Mean We Will All Be Nba Stars.

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Effectiveness Without Values Is A Tool Without A Purpose.

Complexity Means Distracted Effort. Simplicity Means Focused Effort.

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Being Right Is Not Too Difficult. Your Choose Your Perception. You Select Your Information. You Leave Out What Does Not Suit You. You Drag In Some General-purpose Value Words. You Throw In A Sneer Or Two About The Opposition, And You Are A Fine Fellow Who Made A Fine Speech.

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To Deal With Future We Have To Deal With Possibilities. Analysis Will Only Tell Us What Is.

There Is No Doubt That Creativity Is The Most Important Human Resource Of All.

Asking A Question Is The Simplest Way Of Focusing Thinking...asking The Right Question May Be The Most Important Part Of Thinking.

Removing The Faults In A Stage-coach May Produce A Perfect Stage-coach, But It Is Unlikely To Produce The First Motor Car.

Most People...are Put Off Science Because Maths Is The Gateway And They Can't Handle It. What We Should Be Teaching Is Operational Maths Because, In General, The Maths We Need To Carry Out Science Is Pretty Straightforward.

It Is Well Known That "problem Avoidance" Is An Important Part Of Problem Solving. Instead Of Solving The Problem You Go Upstream And Alter The System So That The Problem Does Not Occur In The First Place.

Creativity Gives Hope That There Can Be A Worthwhile Idea.

Possibilities Play A Much Bigger Role In Thinking Than Most People Believe. Without Possibilities You Cannot Make Progress.

Western Traditions Of Education Have Emphasized Knowledge Analysis, Description And Debate. They All Have A Part To Play, But Today There Is A Whole Vast Aspect Of Doing That Has Just Been Left Out. Operacy Is What Keeps Society Going.

The Weapons Of The Positive Revolution Are Not Bullets And Bombs But Simple Human Perceptions. Bullets And Bombs May Offer Physical Power But Eventually Will Only Work If They Change Perceptions And Values. Why Not Go The Direct Route And Work With Perceptions And Values?

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The Solid Wealth Of Insurance Companies And The Success Of Those Who Organsie Gambling Are Some Indication Of The Profits To Be Derived From The Efficient Use Of Chance.

America Is Not Just A Country, It's An Idea.

A Myth Is A Fixed Way Of Looking At The World Which Cannot Be Destroyed Because, Looked At Through The Myth, All Evidence Supports The Myth.

I Think There Is A Danger With Young People Of Being Dependent In The Sense That They Don't Acquire Any Identity Or Self-image Of Themselves As Thinkers.

Explaining Belief Has Alwayas Been Difficult. How Do You Explain A Love And A Logic At The Heart Of The Universe When The World Is So Out Of Whack? Explaining Faith Is Impossible - Vision Over Visibility - Instinct Over Intellect - A Songwriter Plays A Chore With The Faith That He Will Hear The Next One In His Head.

Creativity Is A Great Motivator Because It Makes People Interested In What They Are Doing. Creativity Gives Hope That There Can Be A Worthwhile Idea. Creativity Gives The Possibility Of Some Sort Of Achievement To Everyone. Creativity Makes Life More Fun And More Interesting.

Intelligence Is Something We Are Born With. Thinking Is A Skill That Must Be Learned.

In The Art World, Creativity Involves Aesthetic Sensibility, Emotional Resonance And A Gift For Expression.

Language Is The Biggest Barrier To Human Progress Because Language Is An Encyclopedia Of Ignorance. Old Perceptions Are Frozen Into Language And Force Us To Look At The World In An Old Fashioned Way.

Argument Is Meant To Reveal The Truth, Not To Create It.

You Do Not Go Out Into The Street In Your Underwear, Although Usually You Are Wearing Underwear. The Underwear Is Not Visible But It Is There All The Time. It Is The Same With Concepts. They Are There. They Underlie Practical Things We Do- Even When We Are Not Conscious Of Them.

What Is Urgent Will Always Take Precedence Over What Is Important.

One Can Think Of A Secretary Actively Operating A Filing System, Of A Librarian Actively Cataloguing Books, Of A Computer Actively Sorting Out Information. The Mind However Does Not Actively Sort Out Information. The Information Sorts Itself Out And Organises Itself Into Patterns. The Mind Is Passive. The Mind Only Provides An Opportunity For The Information To Behave In This Way. The Mind Provides A Special Environment In Which Information Can Become Self-organising. This Special Environment Is A Memory Surface With Special Characteristics.

The Image That Concerns Most People Is The Reflection They See In Other People's Minds.

A Good Listener Is Very Nearly As Attractive As A Good Talker. You Cannot Have A Beautiful Mind If You Do Not Know How To Listen.

An Expert Is Someone Who Has Succeeded In Making Decisions And Judgements Simpler Through Knowing What To Pay Attention To And What To Ignore.

You Can't Dig A Different Hole By Digging The Same One Deeper.

It's Not Enough To Rage Against The Lie.. You've Got To Replace It With The Truth.

Our Existing Thinking Habits Are Excellent, Just As The Rear Wheels Of A Motor Car Are Excellent, But Not Enough.

In The Future, Instead Of Striving To Be Right At A High Cost, It Will Be More Appropriate To Be Flexible And Plural At A Lower Cost. If You Cannot Accurately Predict The Future Then You Must Flexibly Be Prepared To Deal With Various Possible Futures.

Critical Thinking Does Seem A Superior Sort Of Thinking Because It Seems As Though The Critic Is Actually Going Beyond The Scope Of What Is Being Criticized In Order To Criticize It. That Is Only Rarely A True Assumption Because, Most Often, The Critic Will Seize On Some Little Aspect That He Or She Understands And Tackle Only That.

We Need Creativity In Order To Break Free From The Temporary Structures That Have Been Set Up By A Particular Sequence Of Experience.

My Thinking Was Taught To Tribes In South Africa Like The Zulus And Xhosas. At The Time There Were About 210 Fights Breaking Out Among Them Every Month, But After They Listened To My Lessons, This Fell To Just Four.

I Think School Is A Place Where Thinking Should Be Taught.

With Vertical Thinking One May Look For Different Approaches Until One Finds A Promising One. With Lateral Thinking One Goes On Generating As Many Approaches As One Can Even After One Has Found A Promising One. With Vertical Thinking One Is Trying To Select The Best Approach But With Lateral Thinking One Is Generating Different Approaches For The Sake Of Generating Them.

Although Feelings Are Not Supposed To Intrude On Business Discussions, They Do Anyway - We Just Disguise Them As Logic.

Everyone Has The Right To Doubt Everything As Often As He Pleases And The Duty To Do It At Least Once. No Way Of Looking At Things Is Too Sacred To Be Reconsidered. No Way Of Doing Things Is Beyond Improvement.

Sometimes The Situation Is Only A Problem Because It Is Looked At In A Certain Subjective, Negative, Ungrateful Way.

Complexity Creates Confusion, Simplicity Focus.

The System Will Always Be Defended By Those Countless People Who Have Enough Intellect To Defend But Not Quite Enough To Innovate.

You Can Analyse The Past, But You Need To Design The Future. That Is The Difference Between Suffering The Future And Enjoying It.

The Vertical Thinker Says: 'i Know What I Am Looking For.' The Lateral Thinker Says: 'i Am Looking But I Won't Know What I Am Looking For Until I Have Found It.'

Child Mortality Since 2000 Is Down By 2.65 Million A Year. That's A Rate Of 7,256 Children's Lives Saved Each Day. ... It Drives Me Nuts That Most People Don't Seem To Know This News.

One Very Important Aspect Of Motivation Is The Willingness To Stop And To Look At Things That No One Else Has Bothered To Look At. This Simple Process Of Focusing On Things That Are Normally Taken For Granted Is A Powerful Source Of Creativity.

America Is An Idea, But It's An Idea That Brings With It Some Baggage, Like Power Brings Responsibility. It's An Idea That Brings With It Equality, But Equality Even Though It's The Highest Calling, Is The Hardest To Reach. The Idea That Anything Is Possible, That's One Of The Reasons Why I'm A Fan Of America. It's Like Hey, Look There's The Moon Up There, Let's Take A Walk On It, Bring Back A Piece Of It. That's The Kind Of America That I'm A Fan Of.

A Characteristic Of Intuitive Solutions And New Ideas Is That Of Being Obvious Once They Are Discovered.

Characteristics

This New Meta-system Is Very Much In Favor Of The Self, But A Self That Is Based On A Proper Sense Of Dignity, Not On An Inflated Ego. A Person Who Dare Not Admit He Is Wrong Inflates His Ego But Weakens His Self.

They Enjoy Thinking. They Enjoy Being Creative. They Enjoy Having Ideas. Most People Do Not Enjoy Thinking At All.

It Wouldn't Cost Too Much To Change The Rules Of Trade So That Poor Countries Can Work Their Way Out Of Poverty. But The World's Leaders Won't Act Unless They Hear Enough People Telling Them. And Every Day They Fail To Act, Thousands Of People Die Because They Can't Afford The Basics Of Survival.

I Know It Aches, How Your Heart It Breaks. You Can Only Take So Much. Walk On.

Do We Have The Will To Make Poverty History?

Once A New Idea Springs Into Existence, It Cannot Be Unthought. There Is A Sense Of Immortality In A New Idea.

Maybe The Social Value Of Truth Is As A Destination - So Long As We Do Not Assume We Have Arrived There.

A Discussion Should Be A Genuine Attempt To Explore A Subject Rather Than A Battle Between Competing Egos.

To Be Successful You Have To Be Lucky, Or A Little Mad, Or Very Talented, Or Find Yourself In A Rapid Growth Field.

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