Practical Thinking

by Edward de Bono

Practical Thinking

Genres: Nonfiction, Personal Development, Self Help, Psychology, Philosophy

Paperback

First published January 1, 1971

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

[Tony · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've lost count of how many times de Bono has written essentially the same book, but that's OK, because it's a good one, and there's always a slightly different angle to it.

This time around I was particularly taken by three ideas:

1) Units of measurement allow us to avoid errors of magnitude in our thinking (The truth of “Daddy has caught a fish — we can all eat it for dinner” depends greatly on the size of fish caught). In many cases, we use different names for the same thing depending on size. But for things like love, justice, power, etc., we tend to use the same term in many different ways and so constantly get magnitude errors.

2) The “press-button idiom”, where getting the result you want is a matter of pressing the correct button on a box, has taken over from the “cause-and-effect” idiom of watching how things happen. This may be the most important cultural change in thinking in the last few centuries.

3) We are generally encouraged to value precision in our thinking, and in how we express that thinking. But often a vaguer understanding or expression can be more useful, particularly when you don’t have enough information yet to even ask the correct questions. Early commitment to a specific idea is often dangerous (it's is generally easier to move forward from an incorrect vague idea than to first have to move back from an incorrect detailed one), and blurry concepts keep your options open longer. “The sharp-brained outlook can never establish new ideas because it does not mess around, never makes mistakes, and is completely trapped by existing ideas. … Sharp brains are indeed essential, but only for refining, developing and using the ideas thrown up by the blurry-brained thinking.”

[Ahad said · Rating 5 out of 5]

أتوق حقًا لموعد قهوة مع شخص يجيد التشكي و التبكي حتى أطبق عليه ما تعلمته من هذا الكتاب، ممتاز جدًا

[Mai · Rating 2 out of 5]

الكتاب به معلومات جيدة ولكن ينقصة الكثير من اسلوب جذب القارئ
شعرت بالملل كثيرا وانا اقرؤه

[Nouran Essam · Rating 5 out of 5]

كتاب عسل.. هعيد قراءته تاني... في كل مرة تحس فيها انك صح، اقرأ الكتاب دا، هتكتشف غلطك

[JP · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before reading this book
one should know there is no such thing as good decision. In the beginning of every decision we take utmost careful with available resources.. Finally, the outcome of the decision we label good or bad.
Now the book
Edward de Bono teaches how to work on pre decision
Four way of understanding
Five way to be wrong
Four way to be right
If you go through chapter wise you do understand the prerequisite of decision making
Lovely book and my favourite author..

[Ruth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some fun ideas and an engaging attempt to provide the reader with useful vocabulary for everyday thinking. This book, however, is ultimately an unpleasant read due to the constant and random instances of casual sexism, racism, and ableism in the text. Hopefully this is something which could be fixed in later editions, along with some parts of the text which drag.

[Jaime Portillo De la O · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bono explica que no sólo la lógica, la lógica científica y sus componentes relacionados son útiles para tomar decisiones en el día a día.

Podemos tomar un poco de lo siguiente:
- Pensar es práctico
- Tomar en cuenta el contexto
- Juicio no inmediato y exploración
- Etc.

Realmente son herramientas de mucha utilidad para la vida cotidiana. Vale la pena tomar notas y releer.

[Samiya · Rating 3 out of 5]

كتاب معقد في طرحه لموضوع التفكير بطريقه فلسفية مملة.

[Mazdak Kiyani]

good

[Adam Sunny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ada banyak cara untuk memandang segala sesuatunya yang dapat bermanfaat. Siapa saja yg tidak merasakan bahwa cara-cara itu bermanfaat tidak perlu menggunakannya

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I shall forever be haunted by the mystery of the black cylinder.
A classically ‘de Bono’ exploration of the limitations (and strengths) of ‘everyday thinking’ through the findings of a deceptively simple experiment.
The resulting definitions of the elements within the thinking process help deepen our own understanding of the process of understanding.
We’re living in a world that we increasingly don’t ‘understand’ - where more things operate as push button black-boxes rather than more detailed cause and effect.
Everyday thinking clearly has its strengths in this environment. We understand as much as we ‘need’ to decide how to act quickly and efficiently without being bogged down in detail. Similarly, general explanations are less likely to be ‘wrong’ so allow for flexibility.
The ‘levels of understanding’ and ‘ways of being right/wrong’ provide useful language to analyse whether we’re in ‘everyday thinking’ or getting to something deeper.
Understanding: superficiality, porridge, name, process, full detail
Mistakes: monorail, magnitude, misfit, missing-piece, must-be
Rightness: emotional, logical, unique, recognition
The use of Po as an alternative to Yes/No paradigm is interesting, and I enjoyed the reflections that humour operates by different rules, creating ‘intermediate impossibles’ which bridge the gap between clearly wrong and clearly right.
The most valuable piece, to me, is Think-2, which emphasises the importance of mapping the mental starting place of the thinker before the thinking even happens as a crucial step to better understanding.
The real test will be how well I can incorporate this manual of thinking in practice.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this book, De Bono uses the 'vehicle' of a black cylinder experiment to show the nature of human thought.
Firstly, he looks at how we understand the world:by describing it; by using 'porridge' words (eg some 'mechanism', or 'device' toppled the cylinder), by giving things a name, the way it works and finally, full details. He puts forward the need to work between the different levels for it to be of practical use. For example, we don't need to know the chemical reactions of petrol to use the car. We just know that the engine provides the power, therefore we need to switch it on.Edward assigns the term 'Black Box' to anything of this nature, eg electricity, a TV, a motor.
The Four Ways to be Right are:
Currant Cake, (emotionally feeling right)
Jigsaw Puzzle (Logical follow-on)
Village Venus ( unique rightness, eg the most beautiful girl in the village must be the most beautiful in the world )
Recognition ( eg a doctor recognises the symptoms of measles and treats accordingly)
The Five ways to be Wrong are:
Monorail mistake, (ie carrying on along the same lines)
Magnitude
Misfit
Must-be
Miss-out.
Edward has proposed two laws( that, incidentally don't seem conclusions drawn from the book):
1 An idea cannot make the best use of information (presented in linear form)
2 Proof is often lack of imagination ( we simply haven't come up with any better explanations.)
I was quite disappointed that there was no explanation as to how the black cylinder spontaneously toppled, though!

[Venky · Rating 2 out of 5]

The pioneer of "Lateral Thinking", Dr.Edward De Bono in his book titled "Practical Thinking" identifies 4 ways to be right, 5 ways to be wrong and 5 ways in which to develop a perspective of understanding. All his outcomes are a direct result of, and consequential to a simple experiment called "The Black Cylinder Experiment". In the Black Cylinder Experiment, a cylinder that has been placed on a table falls down. The participants to the experiment are asked to provide their reasons triggering the fall of the cylinder.

Based on the responses collated and a cognitive analysis of such responses, De Bono arrives at four practical ways of being correct:

Currant Cake (Emotional Rightness);
Jigsaw Puzzles(Logical Rightness);
Village Venus (Unique Rightness); and
Measles (Recognition Rightness)

He also lays out a practical guide for employing the four "rightness" paths towards developing a more holistic and practical perspective of "thinking"

"Practical Thinking" - Thought Provoking

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Useful terminology for recognizing how people are arguing/thinking. According to the De Bono, there are 5 ways to be wrong, 4 ways to be right, and 5 ways to understand. He frames the book with a "black box" experiment: there is a tall rectangular box, like a sky scraper sitting on a table. Abruptly, after ten minutes, the box falls onto the table. Why?

This experiment was performed for hundreds of people, and their responses were analyzed to discover the ways in which people think. Because there is a lack of information, the experiment was ideal for seeing what (incorrect) assumptions people make, to what depth people solve a problem, and the overall strategy people use to think.

[Aydan · Rating 2 out of 5]

If someone gives this book five stars I want judge because it’s not for everyone .
Personally to me I wasn’t interested in it at the end, as much as I was at the start . Which is because This book really taught me a lot , but in the middle it wasn’t really interesting enough to intrigue me to read it more . Overall I’ll still be recommending this book ,but only for people who like to read this kind of books and who are older ( 15-18+) .

[Tamer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful book for which we learn how to evade mistakes in our daily life such as selection ,and misfit mistakes by demonstrating in an interesting,simpl way how reasonable people recognize things;in addition to his conclusions that must have been leading to improve human thoughts for increasing productivity.

[Ed van der Winden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of books of de Bono are very much alike. This one however brought some new insights. And let's not forget that de Bono was a very, very clear thinker.

[Esteban Contreras · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excelente libro para entender como es el proceso de pensamiento humano, totalmente recomendado.

[Imanahal Raisyadil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Melihat permasalahan secara objektif, tidak hanya dari satu sisi saja.