How to Have Creative Ideas: 62 Games to Develop the Mind

by Edward de Bono

Everybody wants to be creative. Creativity makes life more fun, more interesting and more full of achievement, but too many people believe that creativity is something you are born with and cannot be learned.

In How to Have Creative Ideas Edward de Bono - the leading authority on creative thinking - outlines 62 different games and exercises, built around random words chosen from a list, to help encourage creativity and lateral thinking. For example, if the task were to provide an idea for a new restaurant and the random word chosen was 'cloak', ideas generated might be: a highwayman theme; a Venetian theme with gondolas; masked waiters and waitresses. Or, if asked to make a connection between the two random words 'desk' and 'shorts', readers may come up with: both are functional; desks have 'knee holes' and shorts expose the knees; traditionally they were both male-associated items.

All the exercises are simple, practical and fun, and can be done by anyone.

Genres: Nonfiction, Self Help, Psychology, Business, Design, Personal Development, Education

192 pages, Paperback

Published April 26, 2007

About the author

Edward de Bono was a Maltese physician, author, inventor, and consultant. He is best known as the originator of the term lateral thinking (structured creativity) and the leading proponent of the deliberate teaching of thinking in schools.

Reviews

[Sebah Al-Ali · Rating 3 out of 5]

فكرة الكتاب الأساسية تدور حول استخدام جدول من الكلمات مزود في آخر الكتاب بشكل خارج عن المألوف لإنتاج أفكار إبداعية . أعجبتني كثيرا فكرة اللعب على الكلمات .

و أيضا ، كما الكتاب السابق الذي قرأته عن الإبداع الفكري ، يؤمن الكاتب أن الإبداع الفكري ليس إلا مهارة يتم تنميتها بالتمرس ، من خلال تمارين يومية .

مما اقتبسته من الكتاب :
The use of creativity and the practice of creativity is the best way to develop the mental skill and the mental habits of creative thinking.


With creativity, there is no 'right answer.'

[Tony · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's not much that is new here. de Bono repeats a lot of what he has written previously and even within the book many of the "games" he describes are very similar. They all fall back to selecting random words and using these to generate new insights and ideas. Actually, it does work, but as de Bono writes in "Game 1", the "Random Input" method was first described by him in 1972 so if you have read some of his other work, there's probably not much point in adding this to your bookshelves. If you haven't read any of his work, then I think that some of the others are better; his "Six Thinking Hats" is probably a better place to start.

[Sarrah ANJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simple and effective ways and exercises to improve your thinking skills and creativity .. Edward De Bono , I'm so Thankful :)

[Dil Nawaz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Exercise-1 Review

In this exercise we will think 4 Random Words and Then we will make a Review about this book

4 Random Words are

Book
Edward de bono
Random words
Review

Review

This book consists of 62 Random Words Exercises. Edward de bono repetitively used this exercise to train your brain. I think few exercises are useful or you can learn random words concept then you can play around these words to make or create anything.


Thanks for Reading my Review
Dil Nawaz
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[Manik Ratan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Life changing Lessons !!

[RosaDG · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author offers us 62 games proposals, based on his first studies of the 70s on the creative thinking that he called "lateral thinking". "Perceptual creativity" and "Constructive creativity" are the two ways to approach tasks in order to promote creativity in general and raise new points of view to any problem or situation that requires it. The games consist of using the tables of "random words" and "random numbers" with the instructions that correspond to each game.It is a methodical way of provoking the imagination for the purpose we set ourselves.

El autor propone 62 propuestas de juegos, basados en sus primeros estudios de los años 70 sobre el pensamiento creativo que denominó "Pensamiento lateral". La "creatividad perceptiva" y la "creatividad constructiva", son las dos maneras de abordar las tareas de cara a fomentar la creatividad en general y plantear nuevos puntos de vista a cualquier problema o situación que la requiera.Los juegos consiste en utilizar las tablas de "palabras aleatorias" y "números aleatorias" con las instrucciones que correspondan a cada juego.Es una manera metódica de provocar la imaginación para el objetivo que nos propongamos.

[Fatma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Playing with words to train your creativity,
yeah well, that’s the purpose of this book anyway.

I’ve been doing this unconsciously my whole life though,
so not so much newness has been added to me.
yet there may be some variations which act as a bonus brain activity,
so yeah, it’s some good content there to improve certain skills.

[Mircah Foxwood · Rating 2 out of 5]

The point of this book is to grow your lateral and associative thinking skills by using random words as prompts to solve problems. One example - given four random words, explain why three belong together and the fourth is the odd man out. The idea is to encourage you to look for unlikely connections.

I don’t think it’s bad or wrong - it just doesn’t seem like fun.

[Mohsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Do you learn anything? Not really!
Is it fun? Hell yeah!

Very good if you're going through a writers block and want some way of figuring out where to go or what to do!

[Shad Engkilterra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helpful and fun exercises for those who want to have more ideas.

[mavromou · Rating 4 out of 5]

Este libro es ideal para aquel que quiera entrenar la generación de ideas basadas en las restricciones que impone el uso de palabras aleatorias y las acciones que se proponen en los ejercicios.

[Mawadah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love how this book challenge our mind.. But I will love so much when make the problem like story and the random words are creative ideas 👍🏻

[Enrique · Rating 5 out of 5]

Entretenidísimo y superútil.

[sergio pizarro greibe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Práctica muy interesante

Un buen libro que debe acompañar a cualquier lector que quiere hacer las cosas distintas y aportar a su trabajo

[Afework Tilahun]

amazing book

[Hamad Ullah Khan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Re-read this valuable book once again. It contains some different exercises, after by which practicing, you can develop various thinking skills. It's a fun read. Worth having it.

[Krisz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the idea to develop thinking through these practices.
(Read in Hungarian.)
http://www.krisznadasiwrites.hu/blog/...

[Tami · Rating 4 out of 5]

What comes to mind when you think of creativity? Do you naturally associate creativity and artistic talent? Have you always assumed that creativity is something that just happens, that it can’t be forced?

In reality, creating ad hoc without direction or objective generally accomplishes very little. Lateral thinking, on the other hand, brings forth alternatives and possibilities that are “outside the box”. This type of thinking is in fact a skill that can not only be taught but needs to be exercised regularly.

Creativity Workout includes a series of exercises based upon random words. In each activity, the reader is asked to randomly choose one (or several words) from a chart in the book’s appendix. A task is then set to use this word (or set of words) in a particular way. The exercises are actually rather fun and can be used purposefully to address particular issues or simply to increase the potential for lateral thinking.

[Ahmad · Rating 3 out of 5]

All the exercises in this book involve random words. This can become monotonous and boring.

Some of the exercises are useful and engaging whilst with some you get the impression that the author was just trying to fill up space for the book.

The useful exercises can be a very handy aid for teachers and lecturers of a wide range of subjects towards encouraging creativity in the classroom .

[Kiva · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like this book and i do believe that this book can make you creative, especially when you stuck at some random words that don't have any relation or whatsoever with the task. Anyway,i think it was fun to do some of the games when you feel bored or need something fresh but remember; you have to follow the rules :)

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad, all concepts are similar in structure, but have a very high practical use. If you need to generate ideas, then the book with help you without all the conceptual guff.

[Vishy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing one from Ed Bono. Worth retaining the book lifelong. Loved the games

[Asma_hehe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Only used by those who desire creativity in BUSINESS..

[Jan Bertil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Edward de Bono shows you how to free yourself from your habitual thought patterns.

[Andrea James · Rating 3 out of 5]

The games seem reasonable enough. I should review this book again in a couple of years' time once I've actually practiced the exercises.

[Derrick Trimble · Rating 2 out of 5]

All activities are based on the verbal-orientation of using random words to stimulate 'lateral' (aka divergent) thinking.

[Nivedita · Rating 4 out of 5]

good fun for all and makes the non creative creative too..

[Astrid · Rating 3 out of 5]

to think outside the box, fast and valuable.

[Hardip Baria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice collection.

[Muhammad Sarmad · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want to learn creative ideas.