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Most of the mistakes in thinking are inadequacies of perception rather than mistakes of logic.

Edward de Bono

Complexity means distracted effort. Simplicity means focused effort.
EDWARD DE BONO

Complex Distraction Effort Simplicity
Traditional thinking is all about “what is” Future thinking will also need to be about what can be.
EDWARD DE BONO

Future Thinking Traditional Willing
Effectiveness without values is a tool without a purpose.
EDWARD DE BONO

Effect Purpose Tools Value
The analysis of data will not by itself produce new ideas.
EDWARD DE BONO

Analysis Data Ideas Production
You can analyse the past, but you have to design the future.
EDWARD DE BONO

Analysis Design Future Past Yourself
To be successful you have to be lucky, or a little mad, or very talented, or find yourself in a rapid growth field.
EDWARD DE BONO

Feild Growth Mad Success Talent
We do not make very full value of the opportunities provided by technology because we prefer critical to constructive thinking, argument to design.
EDWARD DE BONO

Argument Criticism Design Opportunity Technology Value
America is not just a country, it’s an idea.
EDWARD DE BONO

Country Idea One Liner
The music that really turns me on is either running toward God or away from God. Both recognize the pivot, that God is at the center of the jaunt.
EDWARD DE BONO

God Music Recognition Run
Most executives, many scientists, and almost all business school graduates believe that if you analyze data, this will give you new ideas. Unfortunately, this belief is totally wrong. The mind can only see what it is prepared to see.
EDWARD DE BONO

Analysis Believe Business Data Executive Ideas Mindset Perspective Science Wrong
Complexity creates confusion, simplicity focus.
EDWARD DE BONO

Complex Creation Creativity Focus Simplicity
It has always surprised me how little attention philosophers have paid to humor, since it is a more significant process of mind than reason. Reason can only sort out perceptions, but the humor process is involved in changing them.
EDWARD DE BONO

Attention Change Humor Mindset Paid Philosophy Reason Surprise
The vertical thinker says: ‘I know what I am looking for.’ The lateral thinker says: ‘I am looking but I won’t know what I am looking for until I have found it.’
EDWARD DE BONO

Finding Philosophy Thinking
Unhappiness is best defined as the difference between our talents and our expectations.
EDWARD DE BONO

Best Definition Expectation Happiness Ourselves Talent
The purpose of art is to reflect new emerging values and to define the new heroes and heroines so that people can absorb them into their perceptions.
EDWARD DE BONO

Absorb Art Perception Purpose Reflection Value
We may have a perfectly adequate way of doing something, but that does not mean there cannot be a better way. So we set out to find an alternative way. This is the basis of any improvement that is not fault correction or problem solving.
EDWARD DE BONO

Better Improvement Perfection Problem Solve Way

Most of the mistakes in thinking are inadequacies of perception rather than mistakes of logic.

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Most of the mistakes in thinking are inadequacies of perception rather than mistakes of logic.

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