I was thinking a lot about stereotype when I was reading this chapter. Using the terms mentioned, stereotype can be explained as a pattern of impression towards a group of people that come from established codes. Code can be universal or culturally significant, meaning that people growing up in different environment may have different systems of code. Our reliances on these systems and limited attention span cater us towards accepting information that can quickly fall into a pattern. By introducing randomness, breaking the patterns, abandoning the short cuts, there is a chance that we glimpse into the truth. Humor was used in critical moments, such as war time, to fight against the social strutucture where lateral thinking is highly discouraged. However, humor is just a product of lateral thinking, not an all-purpose solution. It may also fall into the trap of pattern thinking system.
I think what’s the most impotant are to pratice lateral thinking individually and also try to foster an environment that encourage lateral thinking. As mentioned earlier, it is not enough to simply ackolwgede the existence of lateral thinking. Active practices are necessary to fight back the lure of easy, effetive, and default vertical thinking.