I usually avoid reading due to my attention-related problems but I was willing to give this book my undivided attention since I found the material discussed in class very thought provoking.
I think Professor Aaron did a great job of piquing my interest by showing what this book has to offer and then letting us explore it ourselves. In particular, the exercise of creating an L shape with just two cuts on a square paper made me understand the idea of Lateral thinking much better.
The assigned section of reading also answered a big question of mine I had during class. Was this like a growth mindset vs fixed mindset scenario where a growth mindset was objectively better? It felt like it wouldn’t be right to dismiss vertical thinking altogether, would it?
Thankfully, the book answered the question in just the first few paragraph, explaining “Lateral thinking enhances the effectiveness of vertical thinking. Vertical thinking develops the ideas generated by lateral thinking.” This makes much more sense because I was thinking surely lateral thinking doesn’t replace the logical pattern recognition we are naturally good at.
I also really like this quote “The exclusive emphasis on vertical thinking in the past makes it all the more necessary to teach lateral thinking.” I don’t completely understand how to integrate lateral thinking into my thought process yet but I look forward to what this book has to offer.