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Dealing with complexity is an inefficient and unnecessary waste of time, attention and mental energy. There is never any justification for things being complex when they could be simple.

Edward de Bono

An expert is someone who has succeeded in making decisions and judgements simpler through knowing what to pay attention to and what to ignore.
EDWARD DE BONO

Attention Expert Ignorance Judgement Pay Success
If you never change your mind, why have one?
EDWARD DE BONO

Change Mindset Oneself Yourself
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
I know it aches, how your heart it breaks. You can only take so much. Walk on.
EDWARD DE BONO

Heart Hurt Known Myself Pain Walk
Removing the faults in a stage-coach may produce a perfect stage-coach, but it is unlikely to produce the first motor car.
EDWARD DE BONO

Car Mistake Production Remove
You hold onto religion, you know, rules, regulations, traditions. I think what God is interested in is people’s hearts, and that’s hard enough.
EDWARD DE BONO

Enough Hard Heart Hold People Religion Rule Tradition
Creativity is a great motivator because it mades people interested in what they are doing.
EDWARD DE BONO

Creativity Greatness Interest Motivational People
To deal with future we have to deal with possibilities. Analysis will only tell us what is.
EDWARD DE BONO

Analysis Deal Future Possible
A good design is not a democratic consensus.
EDWARD DE BONO

Democracy Goodness One Liner
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
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
We may need to solve problems not by removing the cause but by designing the way forward even if the cause remains in place.
EDWARD DE BONO

Place Problem Remove Solve
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
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
Although feelings are not supposed to intrude on business discussions, they do anyway – we just disguise them as logic.
EDWARD DE BONO

Business Discussion Feeling Logic
Complexity creates confusion, simplicity focus.
EDWARD DE BONO

Complex Creation Creativity Focus Simplicity

Dealing with complexity is an inefficient and unnecessary waste of time, attention and mental energy. There is never any justification for things being complex when they could be simple.

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Dealing with complexity is an inefficient and unnecessary waste of time, attention and mental energy. There is never any justification for things being complex when they could be simple.

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Popular Authors

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