Conceptual Blockbusting Quotes

“Once a label (professor, housewife, chair, butterfly, automobile, laxative) has been applied, people are less likely to notice the actual qualities or attributes of what is being labeled.”
― James L. Adams, Conceptual Blockbusting: A Guide to Better Ideas

“This hit-and-run approach to problem-solving begets all sorts of oddities—including, often, a chain of solutions causing problems requiring solutions, ad infinitum.”
― James L. Adams, Conceptual Blockbusting: A Guide to Better Ideas

“Creativity implies deviance from past procedure. Habits are consistent with it. Habits often destroy creative ideas before they see the light of day. Habits include conceptual blocks, which not only occur because of the mechanisms of our limited brains but also are imparted by socialization, education, and professional specialization. Creativity requires System 2 thinking and more work for your mind.”
― James L. Adams, Conceptual Blockbusting: A Guide to Better Ideas

“The mind generally does not compulsively continue to unearth additional options. It sacrifices concepts in order to reach a speedy decision.”
― James L. Adams, Conceptual Blockbusting: A Guide to Better Ideas

“In brief, through clever tests, the application of their backgrounds in decision theory and psychology, and the use of statistics, the two of them proved that our reasoning is imperfect, that we make errors in judgment, and that small differences in how information is presented can have a substantial effect on our reactions.”
― James L. Adams, Conceptual Blockbusting: A Guide to Better Ideas

“Feel free to disagree”
― James L. Adams, Conceptual Blockbusting: A Guide to Better Ideas, Fourth Edition

“Thinking is not yet fully understood.”
― James L. Adams, Conceptual Blockbusting: A Guide to Better Ideas, Fourth Edition

“Lawrence S. Kubie's book Neurotic Distortion of the Creative Process.”
― James L. Adams, Conceptual Blockbusting: A Guide to Better Ideas, Fourth Edition