Lateral Thinking
Here is a little something I wrote a week ago, but I thought it wouldn’t really have much relevence at the time.
To be a lateral thinker, to see beyond the norm… “Think outside the box.” It’s all well and good, and pretty cool if you can master it, but how do you think in this manner? Here is a summary of various sources I found while browsing the net on google… If you are interested, I had scanned the first seven pages of google for random points, enjoy 
Lateral Thinking
Debono:
UNDERSTANDING LATERAL THINKING:
Programmed/Vertical Thinking involves an analytical, careful and precise method of viewing facts to logically solve problems. Know what Programmed/Vertical Thinking is, then purposely draw solutions from outside of this thoughtset in order to become a lateral thinker. Look at the big picture, challenge assumtions and seek alternatives!
Po (Provocative Operation):
Rather than build up on current ideas, look elsewhere! Using Po statements, one may suggest a crazy idea knowing how abstract it sounds, inviting others to build upon it.
EG: Po: A car should clean itself
Po: The car gets so dirty you can’t see it
Po: The dirt cleans the car
Po: Who needs a car?
Six Thinking Hats:
A method of thinking that takes you out of a certain perspective and narrows you down into a certain viewpoint. Cycling between them can provide a better understanding of the topic at hand. Put on the following caps and see how you see the world:
· White hat: neutral information.
· Red hat: emotions and hunches.
· Black hat: judging and evaluating.
· Yellow hat: optimism and positive views.
· Green hat: ideas and creativity.
· Blue hat: big picture and control.
PMI:
When you have ideas, categorise them as plus, minus, or interesting. It recognises how good or bad certain points are, and if they aren’t either, they are categorised as interesting, and worth a little more thought.
1. Recognise dominant ideas.
2. Search for other solutions.
3. Relax the mind to prevent narrow solutions.
4. Use chance to assume the out-of-the-ordinary solutions. Usually, these are pretty rare in relation to the ordinary situation.
Einstein:
· Rephrase your problem. Replace words with synonyms that would achieve your goal (hence, good vocabulary is required). Usually swapping complex, “hard-working” (or “sacrificial”) words with simpler, self-beneficial words would increase results.
· Rat out all assumptions regardless of how obvious they may be, then expose the “bad” assumptions. Think of why they are bad, what are the consequences? In other words, challenge your assumptions. Not only will this further clarify the problem, but you would also relieve your problem of bad ideas.
· Generalise your problem. Use hypernyms (words that have a broader meaning, eg the hypernym for plane being aircraft) to rewrite unclear parts of or all of the problem.
· Specify your problems. If the problem is way to broad, follow the previous idea using hyponyms (the opposite of hypernym).
· View your problems in relation to other perspectives. No matter how crazy it sounds, doing this can possibly reveal simpler forms of a question.
· Devise as many conclusions as possible. Doing so may reveal more than one way to solve a problem or reveal no real solution.
· Avoiding negative solutions will increase optimism and will help in devising more solutions by breaking one negative task into smaller, positive ones. In addition, negative solutions can inhibit the ability for the brain to think. EG: Swap “I wish to quit smoking!” for “I wish to improve my health and extend my life!”
· IF the problem isn’t in the form of a question, make it so! Our brains love to work on solving questions and even subconciously continue to work beyond our knowledge.
· For stumpers, use the following formula of phrasing a question: “In what ways might I (action)(object)(qualifier)(end result)?” EG: “In what ways might I improve my creative writing in order to make my stories more engaging so that I may earn better marks.”
· Make your problem engaging as much as possible without losing track of the goal. EG: Instead of “creating a personal development blog”, I would want to “make my readers live to the fullest”.
· Reversing the problem to find the answer to the opposite of what you wish to achieve can reveal the most obvious and/or abstract of solutions: all you have to do is reverse the solution to the reverse problem!
· Ask as many questions about the problem as possible, then gather as many facts about your questions as possible. By perfectly defining a problem, your can perfectly answer it.
· SOLVE YOUR PROBLEM!
After you come up with ideas, pause, then come up with three or four more that are better, never hang on to the first solution you come up with!
Put your ideas to practise, don’t just think- DO! By doing, you can see where you went wrong and/or right and develop more ideas!
Note:
- Debono and Einstein were important scientists. Do some research on them if you are interested
- I have initially written this article for personal use. Although I realise that I have written all of this myself, it was through the synthesis of much research that I was able to retrieve such results. I recognise the bquoted sections as parts I may have directly copied out of complete laziness as I was writing this. If you see any part of this and feel that you deserve credit for anything please let me know with sufficient proof. There is no copyright infringement intended, and I do not uphold ANY profitable gain from the materials in this article
selablad said,
January 16, 2009 at 1:48 am
Some would say that you have too much time on your hands
Anyway, something occurred to me when I was reading about the six thinking hats. I remember one of my teachers mentioning them in class one day, and I thought to myself, can changing perspective really be as easy as simply *deciding* to change perspective – similarly, can one become a (good) lateral thinker simply by deciding to do so, and following steps? Or are some people simply “born” more intuitive, with more ideas and a better ability to “think outside the box”?
The question is doubly interesting for me at the moment because I’ve been doing a lot of research and thinking about Myers-Briggs types (incidentally the only personality profile I’ve ever found valid). I’m not sure how much you know about the whole thing (but with your research skills I’m sure it wouldn’t be a problem anyway), but it seems to me that an ‘N’ person would be a far better lateral thinker than an ‘S’ – in general, of course, I don’t want to go around making sweeping generalisations! But some of the words that are sort of related to the topic seem to be linked. Eg if you’re intuitive (‘N’), then you’re a good lateral thinker (making weird leaps in your mind and all that), and can create insightful arguments.
My personal belief is that your Myers-Briggs type (or, if you prefer, your personality*) is something that is ’set’ in the early years of childhood – so it would follow that a preference for, and therefore skill in intuition isn’t something that you can control (assuming you start wanting to improve your lateral thinking skills relatively later in life). On the other hand, it could be a dominant/recessive sort of thing, and the ‘recessive’ people just need a bit of training to get good at lateral thinking
*Just the general outline, I mean – like whether you’re introverted/extraverted, etc. I know most people change as they grow older but I think that each person has an inbuilt preference for a few things – they might, say, act extraverted to make more friends, but prefer to be introverted, if that makes sense. But that’s a little out of the scope of the topic, and I’ve already written a paragraph on it, so I’ll shut up now!
Anyway, thanks for the useful tips, I’ll try to use them (regardless of whether lateral thinking is something I can control or not – which it probably is, my brain is just going off on weird tangents because it’s one AM). Even the tip about the hypernyms/hyponyms – seriously, why can’t grammar people be more inventive with their names?!
chaaruzu said,
January 24, 2009 at 2:40 am
A very interesting response there, selablad, very insightful
First of all, when it comes to holidays, I have PLENTY of time, lol.
Now, I totally agree with you: In order to change your perspective, you must (excuse the cliche) become the perspective – become the lateral thinker. Deciding is merely a transcient trail of thought and as they say (oh my, forgive me) “Actions speak louder than words” That being said, you could say that these little guidelines are just a jump start (if anything, they familiarise to some extent lateral thinking) to becoming a lateral thinker. So basically, as with most activities in life, the more you practise and develop on these ideas, the more your brain will be naturally in tune with lateral thinking.
Exactly HOW you develop them is a whole other issue. You could try constant practise, or synthesising the basics, or even doing the complete opposite of what it says! I suppose that it all depends on who the person aiming to develop their ability to laterally think is and how they operate. I guess there is no real answer to the how part, but just writing and thinking about it wont help much, unless perhaps you are trying to laterally thinking by perfecting the basic techniques.
What a loop!
Are some people born with it? Probably. It’s like the extremely smart person who puts no effort into work because they are born with photographic memories. Are they born with more ideas…. I don’t think so. I think that in order for them to actually use their innate ability (assuming natural lateral thinkers exist) to come up with new ideas, they have to examine the existing ideas and suggest extreme changes… With evidence. An example could be the discovery of the constant speed of light. If someone could somehow prove the existence of the Ether and prove it’s theoretical effect on lightspeed and travel, it could rewrite laws of (special) relativity.
About the Myer-Briggs Personality indicator, I did a little research on Wikipedia and I also think it’s completely relevant to the topic! (Thanks for introducing me to this new concept, btw)
I agree that this sort of thing is set in childhood, but whether it’s set in your genes or not is what I’m not sure of. There can be many cases in which someone with different ways of thinking can be born from a family of conformists, we can see it alot in TV and movies and whatnot (Ratatouille and The Simpsons, for example). But these people may have luckily unlocked the recessive gene you were talking about and utilised it through their childhood. Indeed, one can excel in anything in their life to the best of their physical limits, and lateral thinking is definitely one of those things.
About intoversion/extroversion, it’s probable that a combination of both delivers the best of the lateral thinkers. Like Yin and Yang
And hey, don’t worry about the time you typr at, it’s 2.38 AM right now for me
kaorujin said,
February 17, 2009 at 8:08 pm
hey charles…like…yeah,
im not a very net conversational person, though i do appretiate the comments XD
kaorujin said,
February 17, 2009 at 8:09 pm
and i am NOT reading your blog.