Customer Reviews

Lateral thinking: creativity step by step

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I have read several of Edward de Bono's books in recent years and I enjoy his theories. Which is why I recently dished out a lot of monet for the Why So Stupid book that is supposedly his magnum opus and is available only by direct mail. And after reading it, I will report that most of what is there for a very high price is also in this book and in de Bono's Thinking Course, which can be had for around 4% of that cost -- if that isn't worth a 5-star rating, what is?

The more expensive book does illustrate a more evolved form of de Bono's theories, and they are applied in more situations (including many that are relevant to the world today). But my advice is to by this book or the Thinking Course -- both are excellent primers on de Bono's excellent ideas.

Well, I have to admit I was a bit disappointed, but maybe that's just from erroneous expectations. I'm an artist & designer, and a graphic designer I admire had this on his list of the most important books he'd read, and that was my motivation to pick it up.

My conclusion is that this is a great book for non-'Creative' types (not to mean that they're not creative, just that they're not in a 'Creative' field such as the arts) such as scientists and engineers, who are looking to round out their thought process, or young adults in jr. high or high school who are exploring the nature of creativity.

It is intriguing to hear someone dissect the creative process in a cold, calculating, scientific sort of way, and de Bono does this job quite well without coming off as too fatuous (a common fate in that endeavor it seems).

Ultimately though, the creative thinking de Bono discusses is a very specific and fairly limited type, namely problem-solving. It's telling that almost all of the examples & figures he gives are geometric puzzle-solving. This would be a great book to read right before you take a IQ or SAT test.

"With lateral thinking one goes on generating as many approaches
as one can even after one has found a promising one."
[Lateral Thinking]
Human mind is during the school education instructed how to think vertically. Meaning, how to evaluate alternatives, how to pick the right one and how to proceed from premises to conclusions. However, it is only seldomly instructed how to create alternatives, how to generate ideas - and that's were this book is helpful. Kind regards, Mario.

This book helped me to know how we can use our thinking in more efficient ways. I have used technics that were introduced in this book and they worked very well, my B.S. thesis in Software engineering was based on this book. I Design a Web based Instructor software that teach the students Lateral thinking technics and Practical Thinkings. I used those technics during Analysis & Design of my Software and I developed those technics in my career. Lateral thinking is wonderful book that when everybody uses its technics, s/he will find great improvements in his/her life and career.

"Do not limit your mind, don't assume" could be a brief summary of the book. The author has made quite a good start, explanining how new ideas could be formed and how the best looking idea may not be the best to pick up. The book would be useful for people who have been in a stable environment, a place where improvements are seen as threats so you couldn't improve most of the things. The negative side was, that there were to many repeats of the same idea through out the chapter and the book. That was a bit boring. The "PO" word is a good idea, but doesn't need that much explanation. I would recommend it for starters in continuous improvement concept.

This book was recommended to me because I was impressed with Ackoff's "The Art of Problem Solving." Enduring all 300 pages of this poorly written, repetitious work is proof that just because the subject matter is interesting, any given coverage of it will not necessarily be so. The book does have some merit and a few original ideas. That's part of the reason it has endured. The other reason is that the author, being so prolific, has kept himself current. Last but not least, the field of "creativity in thought" has so few good, logical authors with descriptive talent.

In my view, this is the best of the de Bono series of more than 30 books. It is as advertised: A step-by-step introduction to the art and science of creative thinking.

It shows the reader with a staple of de Bono's -- his graphs and diagrams - how to get over the threshold from just ordinary (right brain thinking) or "linear thinking" to (left brain thinking) or "lateral thinking," that is to pure creativity; and most important, how to consistently find the "launch pad" to ones own creativity.

Critical to the organization of this book and to making his points here (the same as in his other books), is giving the reader a basic understanding of how the mind works. This provides the framework for setting up and recognizing the special situations in which ones creativity is most likely to come into play.

Like, others in the de Bono series, these techniques work so well that it is scary.

I found the book quite useful and rich in cognitive know-how. Reflection on De Bono's arguments makes me always feel like a person who is being forewarned and consequently forearmed against the deadlocks hidden in too much systemic thought. After reading such books as De Bono's you resurface into reality with a brand-new intellectual equipment and you find that the heavy logical axe you had before has changed into a much more useful and effective mental swiss-army knife, which in addition has the formidable advantage of easy and secretive portability.

The book is almost 40 years old, so chances are you have seen a lot of de Bono's ideas somewhere else. Nonetheless, it remains a very interesting book, simple and useful.

The downside, for me at least, is that his style is very very dry and academic, descriptive and repetitive to the point of exhaustion. A little bit of humor here and there, funny anecdotes to make the theory come alive? Forget it, you will find none of it here. On the same line, I couldn't really understand who the author was targeting. Sometimes you would think he wrote the book to people interested in learning lateral thinking. In other moments, he seems to be talking to other teachers who will, in turn, be teaching lateral thinking themselves.

In short, it's a great book, but it could be much more interesting if it had more dynamic style.

Edward de Bono's text is a must read for teachers who wish to foster independent thinking in their students and show them that seeing problems in new ways can lead to creative, worthwhile solutions.