Lateral thinking practice items

(Optional discussion.)

Thinking tools/frameworks improve thinking skill much more than discussion does. One reason is that in discussion it's very difficult to pay attention to the thinking process rather than the content (because the content is interesting). Also, 'Understanding of the tools will never lead to their use. Use can only come from habit and habit can only come from practice.' (This is all according to de Bono in a post on this site).

Here we can post practice items for lateral thinking that are of the four types mentioned in this other discussion for practice items for the CoRT Thinking tools or for parts of DATT. Practice items for Six Thinking Hats can be found in this yet other discussion.

Random input (technique)
Explanation 1
Explanation 2

Practice

CoRT Thinking tools practice items
Six Thinking Hats practice items

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Andy on April 17, 2009 at 2:22pm: Random input is one of the techniques of lateral thinking. The input can be a noun and you can get one by thinking of two letters (r, p) and using the first noun containing them that you can think of (rope). I don't know what dr. de Bono thinks of this method of finding a random word. Maybe I have even read it in one of his books and forgot about it.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Andy on April 18, 2009 at 8:02pm: Dennis Perrin said: "Make up a joke about a woman who went into a shop to buy a bed."

Here is my try at it:

In 'The Happiness Purpose' dr. de Bono uses the notion of pattern to explain humour. His definition of a 'pattern' is this: When one state follows another with a probability greater than chance, there is a pattern present.

Humour arises when there is a sudden switch of pattern. When you are presented with a situation, you perceive it in a certain way. This is the first pattern. If something then makes you suddenly switch to another pattern - perceive the situation in another way (and if it was possible for you to have this second perception to begin with, instead of the first perception) - then you find this switch humorous (i.e., funny).

Here is the joke and then comes the steps to arrive at it. I think the switch-over is too slow (not sudden):

A woman goes into a shop to buy a bed and sees some beds with concrete mattresses. Beside them is a sign saying: 'The perfect bed for lazy people. This bed will make sure that you get up on time in the mornings. You won't want to spend a second more time than necessary in it, to minimize the pain from lying on concrete'.

1. Situation: A woman goes into a shop to buy a bed.

2. What is to be perceived? We use the random word technique of lateral thinking: Po, tractor: sound from tractor - sound from bed/mattress springs - softness of mattress. Answer: softness of mattress.

3. Perception 1: It should be soft.

4. Perception 2: It should be hard, to discourage sleeping in it too much.

5. Cause a sudden switch of perception. Happens at: "...get up on time in the mornings."

I think the switch-over isn't sudden enough. How could it be made (more) sudden?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Tony Alexander on April 19, 2009 at 1:18am: What? Tractor? I'm so lost!

Why do we think the bed must be soft?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Andy on April 19, 2009 at 7:58am: The softness is just an aspect of the bed, that is chosen at random. We wanted to select some aspect of the situation that was to be perceived (in some way). I added explanations of the random word technique at the top of this page.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Andy on April 19, 2009 at 8:59am: We could have chosen another perception (i.e., way of looking) at beds than that they should be soft. As long as we can make the reader suddenly switch to another perception that they could've reached in the first place if only they had thought of it (e.g., beds should be hard to discourage sleeping in them too much).; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Andy on April 19, 2009 at 7:12pm: Dennis Perrin said (over here):
Some people in your neighbourhood all over 50 start wearing bright pink shoes. Give two reasons why.

Using random input: Po, school
• School - learning - ? - They want to attract people's attention to something.
• School - teachers - teach - ? - They're doing something related to http://www.edwarddebono.com/synchronow/.
• School - bullying -
• School - resist change -
• School - principal -

Some lines have a '?' in them because I don't remember these steps.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Andy on April 22, 2009 at 3:41pm: Thanks Dennis, the shoe reasons are good and the joke is funny but you can't tell if lateral thinking has been used and, if so, in what way.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Andy on April 23, 2009 at 3:18pm: Assuming that the bullies are punished in ways related to the colour pink.

Bullies should fear the power of the random entry technique! (Punishing school bullies PO pink.); ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Linda Laird on April 26, 2009 at 9:52pm: Dennis, I really like the idea of making school bullies wear pink and having to give a talk on the colour pink.

That has distinct possibilities.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by William Jack Jordan on July 16, 2009 at 3:47am: Make up a joke about a woman who went into a shop to buy a bed.
I already know a joke on exactly this topic. "The bed is too low." It was pretty funny.

Anders Smith said:
Dennis Perrin said: "Make up a joke about a woman who went into a shop to buy a bed."

Here is my try at it:

In 'The Happiness Purpose' dr. de Bono uses the notion of pattern to explain humour. His definition of a 'pattern' is this: When one state follows another with a probability greater than chance, there is a pattern present.

Humour arises when there is a sudden switch of pattern. When you are presented with a situation, you perceive it in a certain way. This is the first pattern. If something then makes you suddenly switch to another pattern - perceive the situation in another way (and if it was possible for you to have this second perception to begin with, instead of the first perception) - then you find this switch humorous (i.e., funny).

Here is the joke and then comes the steps to arrive at it. I think the switch-over is too slow (not sudden):

A woman goes into a shop to buy a bed and sees some beds with concrete mattresses. Beside them is a sign saying: 'The perfect bed for lazy people. This bed will make sure that you get up on time in the mornings. You won't want to spend a second more time than necessary in it, to minimize the pain from lying on concrete'.

1. Situation: A woman goes into a shop to buy a bed.

2. What is to be perceived? We use the random word technique of lateral thinking: Po, tractor: sound from tractor - sound from bed/mattress springs - softness of mattress. Answer: softness of mattress.

3. Perception 1: It should be soft.

4. Perception 2: It should be hard, to discourage sleeping in it too much.

5. Cause a sudden switch of perception. Happens at: "...get up on time in the mornings."

I think the switch-over isn't sudden enough. How could it be made (more) sudden?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by William Jack Jordan on July 17, 2009 at 10:32am: Re random words.

It might not be well known by non-programmers that computers cannot directly create anything random.

They use indirect methods by using external information (usually the time.)

A program will look at the number of seconds elapsed since midnight and use the last digit to seed random numbers.

I think the human mind is similar and a random word is a form of external information.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Andy on July 22, 2009 at 11:27pm: You want a random word but cannot use anything external. You can only use your mind. How do you obtain the word? Just trying to immediately think of a random word doesn't work but here is a method that's at least closer to being random than that:

Pick any two letters (e.g. "o" and "k") and make a word (noun) using them in any order and adding any other letters (e.g. "lock").

To make it even closer to being random, start off with more letters.; ▶ Reply to This