The Five-day course in thinking by Edward de Bono
Insight Thinking
The steps leading up to the solution are not all apparent. The solution seems to come about by virtue of a sudden jump in thinking. Is is more a matter of finding the right approach than of care in pursuing an approach.
Sequential Thinking
The solution follows a progressive sequence of steps (modification, improvement, mistakes, new ideas, etc.). The sequence need not be a logical sequence; nevertheless, the steps occur one after another.
Strategic Thinking
This is concerned with the choice of the most appropriate steps out of a multitude of possible steps. The search is not for a definite solution but for a policy of behavior that is more effective than others.
In practice, thinking is a rather messy business, it is not just a matter of following the rules of logic. The approach to a problem is usually more important than the efficiency with which that approach is followed up. The choice of apporach may be determined by habit, by an attitude of mind or even by emotion.
Some people may have had difficulty with the problems because they were unwilling to let go of the obvious and so became trapped by it. With others the self-imposed necessity to proceed carefully from stage to stage may have made impossible a solution that required a more imaginative step at some point.
The very words used to describe a problem to oneself may have affected the ease with which it could be solved, for even a description may impose a rigidity that limits the approaches to the solution.
The way new ideas come about or fail to come about may have made all the difference. It soon becomes obvious that you cannot dig a hole in a different place by diggint the same hole deeper. A gradual distinction emerges between two fundamentally different sorts of thinking. With vertical thinking one tries to dig the same hole deeper and proceeds rigidly along the path with the highest probability. With lateral thinking one proceeds imaginatively along a variety of low-probability paths in the hope of generating a new and better appraoch to the problem. The difference between vertical and lateral thinking is a fundamental one.
It is these attitudes of mind and these strategies of thinking that are important. From a realization of the personal and general deficiencies of the mind may grow a better skill in thinking.
It may sometimes prove useful to divide a problem up and tackle one part after another.
It may be just as easy to start from scratch as to modify a previously used arrangement.
A fortunate choice of solution at one point may make things much easier later on.
Apparently different solutions may not relaly be different at all.
The same solution may be reached in two completely different ways.
1. A problem may be difficult to solve because of a lack of ideas or because of an abundance of ideas. Choice of the wrong direction can lead away from the solution.
2. The newness of an approach is sufficient justification for trying it.
3. A general type of approach that has been successful in previous problems is always worth trying again.
4. The consequences of a move depend on the opponent's ability. To assess a move correctly it is necessary to suppose a perfect ability on the part of the opponent even if it does not exist.
5. Even though the opponent may have an almost perfect playing ability he may be prevented from using it by psychological manoeuvres.
6. It is probably better to use incorrect principles and improve them as required than to use none at all.
7. Inability to make a decision to do something is the same as a definite decision to do nothing -- even though it may feel different.
8. An attacking attitude or a defending one may determine the choice of move. With a defending attitude a possible winning move may be overlooked.
9. The player who can think the most moves ahead wins. But it is not necessary to make all available moves on each occasion. Such greediness may have a disadvantage.
Mental processes are highly personal to every individual. Habit, experience and even temperament all exert their influences. There may be wrong approaches, mental blocks or simply a lack of inspiration. There may be a misleading confidence or an inhibiting lack of confidence.
The final solution may come about by logical effort, by chance or not at all. Yet no one shoudl have any difficulty in understanding the simplicity of the solution.
All those who did not solve the problem with a speedy brilliance should derive personal lessons from a consciousness of the mental rpocesses that actually went on. This is more worthwhile than arriving at the solution.
In trying to solve the problem some may have attempted to use logic. Logic, however, requires a direction in which to proceed. If there is no obvious direction, logic may lead in the wrong direction and delay a solution or even make it impossible.
Others may have preferred chance thinking. This requires neither direction nor commitment. It is also impossible to control. Each idea is tried and discarded as it proves uselss. Even as it is discarded a new idea may evolve from the failure. This may be a wasteful and a lengthy process, but it can often lead to the right solution, especially if there is no obvious direction in which to proceed logically.
The first day:
1. It is important not to take things for granted at the otuset.
2. The apporach to the solution may be diffciult if there is no pattern provided by experience.
3. Patterns provided by experience or common sense may actually hinder problem-solving if they are not relevant.
4. The trial and error procedure may be just as effective as logic.
A vague consciousness of the interweaving principle could also lead to the correct solution, but the process would take considerably longer. Other principles or approaches may be derived from the solution to the first problem, thereby making the solution to the second one easier.
One particular advante of these structural problems is that it is not possible to erect them bit by bit. The structure works as a complete whole or not at all. There can be no question of only part of it being right and the rest wrong. There is no room for gradual imrpovement until the solution is arrived at. From the beggining the solution is complete, and it either works or it does not. In this way a definite and discernible end product is provided for the thought processes.
The second day:
1. Recognizing the essential similarity of a problem to one which has been solved before makes the problem much easier to solve.
2. It is important not to be misled by inappropriate considerations which appear to make the problem different from ones already encountered. It does not matter how firmly or on what authority such considerations are offered.
3. A specific experience is much more valuable if some general principle is derived from it.
4. The more general such a principle, the more valuable it may be.
5. The use of patterns provided by experience is the most rapid way of solving problems.
It is a matter of looking at things not only as they are, but also as what they might be. There are usually many ways of considering something, and at times the least obvious ways prove to be the most useful. Once things have been understood as they are, it is worth looking further to see what else they might be.
The third day:
1. The ability to look at things in different ways can be very useful. It is important not to undertand things only in terms of ther immediate usefulness.
2. The ability to fully appreciate relationships makes it possible to manipulate them.
3. The general principles derived from experience cannot contain all the useful information of the experience, and sometimes a re-examination can be fruitful.
4. There may be different ways of arriving at the same solution.
To be effective, thinking need not be consciously controlled. The purpose of encouraging insight into thinking processes by providing a series of practical problems is not to increase control. The value of awareness lies in the recognition of mistakes and wasteful procedures. Once these have been recognized, they are likely to be avoided in the future without any deliberate effort. There is no measuring of features and careful comparisons before a face can be recognized. One encounter with a mistake may be sufficient.
Lessons are learned not by being aware that there is a lesson to be learned, but by experiencing at first hand the significance of that lesson.
Those who found the problems too difficult to solve may have gained some insight into the nature of this difficulty. A lack of imagination may not easily be remedied, but a failure to derive principles from expereince or a laziness in extracting the maximum of information from expereince can be altered. A habit of looking at things in different ways can be practised if too great a rigidity has been the trouble.
Each problem can be consdered on its own. Each may be regarded as a practical problem for which there have been, so far, definite, correct answers. The correctness of the answer is not determined by its agreement with the solutions suggested here, but by whether the requirements of the problem have been met. In arriving at the solutions no technical knowledge or skill has been needed.
Instead of being considered separately, the problems may be taken together as a series in which expereince acquired from one problem may be useful (or inhibiting) to the solution to the next.
In this way the problems offer an opportunity not only for problem-solving, but, more importantly, for the handling of expereince. In practical terms, the handling of expereince probably occupies a larger place in our casual thinking than does pure problem-solving.
Experience may be easily accessible to some minds, but unavailable to others unless consciously and carefully recalled.
The fourth day:
1. The interaction of several separate experiences may be required for the solution to one problem.
2. A specific procedure used in solving another problem may be directly applied without using general principles.
3. An attempt to solve a problem should not be abandoned too early because it seems inappropriate, but the attempt should be seen as a whole.
4. The way a problem is presented may make a great difference to the ease with which it is solved.
The fifth day:
1. If looked at in the right way, expereince continues to yield far more information than is at first apparent.
2. The usefulness of specific pricniples may sometimes obscure the general principels that can be derived from them.
3. It is more useful to appreciate the full significance of expereinces as they are acquired than to try to explore them in retrospect.
4. Dealing with an experience can itself provide a further experience.
The steps leading up to the solution are not all apparent. The solution seems to come about by virtue of a sudden jump in thinking. Is is more a matter of finding the right approach than of care in pursuing an approach.
Sequential Thinking
The solution follows a progressive sequence of steps (modification, improvement, mistakes, new ideas, etc.). The sequence need not be a logical sequence; nevertheless, the steps occur one after another.
Strategic Thinking
This is concerned with the choice of the most appropriate steps out of a multitude of possible steps. The search is not for a definite solution but for a policy of behavior that is more effective than others.
In practice, thinking is a rather messy business, it is not just a matter of following the rules of logic. The approach to a problem is usually more important than the efficiency with which that approach is followed up. The choice of apporach may be determined by habit, by an attitude of mind or even by emotion.
Some people may have had difficulty with the problems because they were unwilling to let go of the obvious and so became trapped by it. With others the self-imposed necessity to proceed carefully from stage to stage may have made impossible a solution that required a more imaginative step at some point.
The very words used to describe a problem to oneself may have affected the ease with which it could be solved, for even a description may impose a rigidity that limits the approaches to the solution.
The way new ideas come about or fail to come about may have made all the difference. It soon becomes obvious that you cannot dig a hole in a different place by diggint the same hole deeper. A gradual distinction emerges between two fundamentally different sorts of thinking. With vertical thinking one tries to dig the same hole deeper and proceeds rigidly along the path with the highest probability. With lateral thinking one proceeds imaginatively along a variety of low-probability paths in the hope of generating a new and better appraoch to the problem. The difference between vertical and lateral thinking is a fundamental one.
It is these attitudes of mind and these strategies of thinking that are important. From a realization of the personal and general deficiencies of the mind may grow a better skill in thinking.
It may sometimes prove useful to divide a problem up and tackle one part after another.
It may be just as easy to start from scratch as to modify a previously used arrangement.
A fortunate choice of solution at one point may make things much easier later on.
Apparently different solutions may not relaly be different at all.
The same solution may be reached in two completely different ways.
1. A problem may be difficult to solve because of a lack of ideas or because of an abundance of ideas. Choice of the wrong direction can lead away from the solution.
2. The newness of an approach is sufficient justification for trying it.
3. A general type of approach that has been successful in previous problems is always worth trying again.
4. The consequences of a move depend on the opponent's ability. To assess a move correctly it is necessary to suppose a perfect ability on the part of the opponent even if it does not exist.
5. Even though the opponent may have an almost perfect playing ability he may be prevented from using it by psychological manoeuvres.
6. It is probably better to use incorrect principles and improve them as required than to use none at all.
7. Inability to make a decision to do something is the same as a definite decision to do nothing -- even though it may feel different.
8. An attacking attitude or a defending one may determine the choice of move. With a defending attitude a possible winning move may be overlooked.
9. The player who can think the most moves ahead wins. But it is not necessary to make all available moves on each occasion. Such greediness may have a disadvantage.
Mental processes are highly personal to every individual. Habit, experience and even temperament all exert their influences. There may be wrong approaches, mental blocks or simply a lack of inspiration. There may be a misleading confidence or an inhibiting lack of confidence.
The final solution may come about by logical effort, by chance or not at all. Yet no one shoudl have any difficulty in understanding the simplicity of the solution.
All those who did not solve the problem with a speedy brilliance should derive personal lessons from a consciousness of the mental rpocesses that actually went on. This is more worthwhile than arriving at the solution.
In trying to solve the problem some may have attempted to use logic. Logic, however, requires a direction in which to proceed. If there is no obvious direction, logic may lead in the wrong direction and delay a solution or even make it impossible.
Others may have preferred chance thinking. This requires neither direction nor commitment. It is also impossible to control. Each idea is tried and discarded as it proves uselss. Even as it is discarded a new idea may evolve from the failure. This may be a wasteful and a lengthy process, but it can often lead to the right solution, especially if there is no obvious direction in which to proceed logically.
The first day:
1. It is important not to take things for granted at the otuset.
2. The apporach to the solution may be diffciult if there is no pattern provided by experience.
3. Patterns provided by experience or common sense may actually hinder problem-solving if they are not relevant.
4. The trial and error procedure may be just as effective as logic.
A vague consciousness of the interweaving principle could also lead to the correct solution, but the process would take considerably longer. Other principles or approaches may be derived from the solution to the first problem, thereby making the solution to the second one easier.
One particular advante of these structural problems is that it is not possible to erect them bit by bit. The structure works as a complete whole or not at all. There can be no question of only part of it being right and the rest wrong. There is no room for gradual imrpovement until the solution is arrived at. From the beggining the solution is complete, and it either works or it does not. In this way a definite and discernible end product is provided for the thought processes.
The second day:
1. Recognizing the essential similarity of a problem to one which has been solved before makes the problem much easier to solve.
2. It is important not to be misled by inappropriate considerations which appear to make the problem different from ones already encountered. It does not matter how firmly or on what authority such considerations are offered.
3. A specific experience is much more valuable if some general principle is derived from it.
4. The more general such a principle, the more valuable it may be.
5. The use of patterns provided by experience is the most rapid way of solving problems.
It is a matter of looking at things not only as they are, but also as what they might be. There are usually many ways of considering something, and at times the least obvious ways prove to be the most useful. Once things have been understood as they are, it is worth looking further to see what else they might be.
The third day:
1. The ability to look at things in different ways can be very useful. It is important not to undertand things only in terms of ther immediate usefulness.
2. The ability to fully appreciate relationships makes it possible to manipulate them.
3. The general principles derived from experience cannot contain all the useful information of the experience, and sometimes a re-examination can be fruitful.
4. There may be different ways of arriving at the same solution.
To be effective, thinking need not be consciously controlled. The purpose of encouraging insight into thinking processes by providing a series of practical problems is not to increase control. The value of awareness lies in the recognition of mistakes and wasteful procedures. Once these have been recognized, they are likely to be avoided in the future without any deliberate effort. There is no measuring of features and careful comparisons before a face can be recognized. One encounter with a mistake may be sufficient.
Lessons are learned not by being aware that there is a lesson to be learned, but by experiencing at first hand the significance of that lesson.
Those who found the problems too difficult to solve may have gained some insight into the nature of this difficulty. A lack of imagination may not easily be remedied, but a failure to derive principles from expereince or a laziness in extracting the maximum of information from expereince can be altered. A habit of looking at things in different ways can be practised if too great a rigidity has been the trouble.
Each problem can be consdered on its own. Each may be regarded as a practical problem for which there have been, so far, definite, correct answers. The correctness of the answer is not determined by its agreement with the solutions suggested here, but by whether the requirements of the problem have been met. In arriving at the solutions no technical knowledge or skill has been needed.
Instead of being considered separately, the problems may be taken together as a series in which expereince acquired from one problem may be useful (or inhibiting) to the solution to the next.
In this way the problems offer an opportunity not only for problem-solving, but, more importantly, for the handling of expereince. In practical terms, the handling of expereince probably occupies a larger place in our casual thinking than does pure problem-solving.
Experience may be easily accessible to some minds, but unavailable to others unless consciously and carefully recalled.
The fourth day:
1. The interaction of several separate experiences may be required for the solution to one problem.
2. A specific procedure used in solving another problem may be directly applied without using general principles.
3. An attempt to solve a problem should not be abandoned too early because it seems inappropriate, but the attempt should be seen as a whole.
4. The way a problem is presented may make a great difference to the ease with which it is solved.
The fifth day:
1. If looked at in the right way, expereince continues to yield far more information than is at first apparent.
2. The usefulness of specific pricniples may sometimes obscure the general principels that can be derived from them.
3. It is more useful to appreciate the full significance of expereinces as they are acquired than to try to explore them in retrospect.
4. Dealing with an experience can itself provide a further experience.
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