Edward de Bono recently made an appearance on ABC down under, sharing some typically flamboyant thinking, mostly around the subject of thinking itself. I’ve been a de Bono fan for years and this was fresh as ever. Among his key insights were:
• At an everyday level, thinking can help to unravel the problems that make us miserable – become better thinkers and we’ll be happier people.
• Teaching creative thinking puts wayward young people on the right track (de Bono cites the outcomes 20 years after a UK school started teaching his approach to thinking) and reduces recidivism rates when taught in prisons. Happy thinkers are less likely to turn to crime.
Like or lump the train of thought, there’s no denying we need out of the box ideas to solve problems where the usual approaches have failed. For the unfiltered version check out the full interview here (fast forward the first 20 minutes to get straight to de Bono).
