Reading this chapter, De Bono has made me reflect on how I remember and build upon things. I like how he shows us through a series of examples/mind games why lateral thinking is essential to unlocking our whole creative selves.
Since everything is coded, stored, and perfectly filled in our mind, it does give us difficulty to grow a thought horizontally; the more I thought of the outcome of today’s “making assignment,” the more I understood De Bono’s examples. Asking why frustrates me sometimes and comes off as annoying, but if I hadn’t done that, the outcome of my making project would be pretty predictable to most people, and I wouldn’t have reached the topic of “memories” from the word “sleep.”
I found it interesting the assembling the geometric pieces into a big one played out and how humans tend to go for the simplest, most straightforward way of solving a problem. (very technical and lacks that sense of creativity), but solving that arrangement of blocks into a geometric shape, using lateral thinking, makes us come up with innovative, new, and fresh solutions to our dilemma. (seeing the parallelogram instead of a square, even though the square is a correct answer and more straightforward initially) This, again, shows the importance of lateral thinking on human development and how crucial creativity is for the progression of humans in many fields, not just the arts.
So far, I enjoy this book, as it emphasizes the importance of lateral thinking and creativity within everyone, not just “artists,” but shows us examples and moments where creativity would be essential in our everyday lives in human society. Additionally, we see how, even with problem-solving, creativity is much appreciated 🙂