by Edward de Bono. 1970.
Introduction
But inseparable from the great usefulness of a patterning system are certain limitations. In such a system it is easy to combine patterns or to add to them but it is extremely difficult to restructure them, for the patterns control attention. Insight and humour both involve the restructuring of patterns. Creativity also involves restructuring, but with more emphasis on the escape from restricting patterns.
Chapter 1: The Way the Mind Works
Code Communication
Communication by code can only work if there are preset patterns. These patterns, which may be very complex, are worked out beforehand and are available under some code heading.
Language itself is the most obvious code system, with the words themselves as triggers.
The mind is a patternmaking system. The information system of the mind acts to create patterns and to recognize them.
Sequence of Arrival
There comes a time when one cannot proceed further without restructuring the pattern – without breaking up the old pattern which has been so useful and arranging the old information in a new way.
The trouble with a self-maximizing system that must make sense at each moment is that the sequence of arrival of information determines the way it is to be arranged. For this reason, the arrangement of information is always less than the best possible arrangement, for the best possible arrangement would be quite independent of the sequence of arrival of the pieces of information.
Some of the disadvantages of the information handling system of mind are listed here:
- The patterns tend to become established ever more rigidly, since they control attention.
- It is extremely difficult to change patterns once they have become established.
- Information that is arranged as part of one pattern cannot easily be used as part of a completely different pattern.
- There is a tendency towards ‘centering’, which means that anything that has any resemblance to a standard pattern will be perceived as the standard pattern.
- Patterns can be created by divisions that are more or less arbitrary. What is continuous may be divided into distinct units that then grow further apart. Once such units are formed they become self-perpetuating. The division may continue long after it has ceased to be useful, or the division may intrude into areas where it has no usefulness.
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Chapter 2: Difference Between Lateral and Vertical Thinking
Vertical thinking is selective, lateral thinking is generative.
Vertical thinking moves only if there is a direction in which to move, lateral thinking moves in order to generate a direction.
In lateral thinking however, one does not have to be right at each step, provided the conclusion is right. It is like building a bridge. The parts do not have to be self-supporting at every stage, but when the last part is fitted into place the bridge suddenly becomes self-supporting.
There are times when it may be necessary to be wrong in order to be right at the end. This can happen when one is judged wrong according to the current frame of reference and then is found to be right when the frame of reference itself gets changed. Even if the frame of reference is not changed, it may still be useful to go through a wrong area in order to reach a position from which the right pathway can be seen.
With vertical thinking, one concentrates and excludes what is irrelevant. With lateral thinking, one welcomes chance intrusions.
Vertical thinking is selection by exclusion. One works within a frame of reference and throws out what is not relevant. With lateral thinking, one realizes that a pattern cannot be restructured from within itself, but only as a result of some outside influence. So one welcomes outside influences for their provocative action. The more irrelevant such influences are, the more chance there is of altering the established pattern.