Lateral thinking
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Lateral thinking is the biggest pile of rubish in the world it was said that aidan the irish dancer was rubish at it and has decided to come out to the world for matters that will not be discussed t this time is a term coined by Edward de Bono, a Maltese psychologist, physician, and writer, although it may have been an idea whose time was ready; the notion of lateral truth is discussed by Robert M. Pirsig in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance from the same era (1973/1974). De Bono defines Lateral Thinking as methods of thinking concerned with changing concepts and perception. Lateral thinking is about reasoning that is not immediately obvious and about ideas that may not be obtainable by using only traditional step-by-step logic.
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[edit] Example 1 of lateral thinking
- It took two hours for two men to dig a hole five feet deep. How deep would it have been if ten men had dug the hole for two hours?
The answer appears to be 25 feet deep. This answer assumes that the thinker has followed a simple mathematical relationship suggested by the description given, but we can generate some lateral thinking ideas about what affects the size of the hole which may lead to different answers:
- A hole may need to be of a certain size or shape so digging might stop early at a required depth.
- The deeper a hole is, the more effort is required to dig it, since waste soil needs to be lifted higher to the ground level. There is a limit to how deep a hole can be dug by manpower without use of ladders or hoists for soil removal, and 25 feet is beyond this limit.
- Deeper soil layers may be harder to dig out, or we may hit bedrock or the water table.
- Are we digging in soil? Clay? Sand? Each presents its own special considerations.
- Digging in a forest becomes much easier once we have cut through the first several feet of roots.
- Each man digging needs space to use a shovel.
- It is possible that with more people working on a project, each person may become less efficient due to increased opportunity for distraction, the assumption he can slack off, more people to talk to, etc.
- More men could work in shifts to dig faster for longer.
- There are more men but are there more shovels?
- The two hours dug by ten men may be under different weather conditions than the two hours dug by two men.
- Rain could flood the hole to prevent digging.
- Temperature conditions may freeze the men before they finish.
- Would we rather have 5 holes each 5 feet deep?
- The two men may be an engineering crew with digging machinery.
- What if one man in each group is a manager who will not actually dig?
- The extra eight men might not be strong enough to dig, or much stronger than the first two.
The most useful ideas listed above are outside the simple mathematics implied by the question.
[edit] Techniques of lateral thinking
Techniques that apply lateral thinking to problems are characterised by the shifting of thinking patterns away from entrenched or predictable thinking to new or unexpected ideas. A new idea that is the result of lateral thinking is not always a helpful one, but when a good idea is discovered in this way it is usually obvious in hindsight, which is a feature lateral thinking shares with a joke.
[edit] Lateral Thinking and Problem Solving
Edward de Bono points out that the term problem solving implies that there is a problem to respond to and that it can be resolved. That eliminates situations where there is no problem or a problem exists that cannot be resolved. It is logical to think about making a good situation, that has no problems, into a better situation. Some times a problem cannot be solved by removing its cause.
We may need to solve problems not by removing the cause but by designing the way forward even if the cause remains in place.
- (Edward de Bono)
Lateral thinking can be used to help in solving problems but can also be used for much more.
[edit] Lateral Thinking and Critical Thinking
Critical thinking is primarily concerned with judging the Truth value of statements and seeking errors. Lateral Thinking is more concerned with the movement value of statements and ideas. A person would use lateral thinking when they want to move from one known idea to creating new ideas.
[edit] Example 2 of lateral thinking
Consider the statement "Cars should have square wheels." When considered with critical thinking, this would be evaluated as a poor suggestion and dismissed as impractical. The Lateral Thinking treatment of the same statement would be to speculate where it leads. Humour is taken intentionally with lateral thinking. A person would imagine "as if" this were the case, and describe the effects or qualities. Someone might observe: square wheels would produce very predictable bumps. If bumps can be predicted, then suspension can be designed to compensate. How could this car predict bumps? It could be a laser or sonar on the front of the car. This leads to the idea of active suspension. A sensor connected to suspension could examine the road surface ahead on cars with round wheels too. A car could have a sensor for determining when it was going to hit a bump that feeds back to suspension that would know to compensate. The initial "provocative" statement has been left behind, but it has also been used to indirectly generate the new and potentially more useful idea.
[edit] Provocative operations
A notation used in lateral thinking, is Po. This stands for provocative operation and is used to propose an idea, which may not necessarily be a solution, or a 'good' idea in itself, but moves thinking forward to a new place where new ideas may be produced. People in conversation could use the word "PO" to notify others that they are intentionally making a provocative comment that should be best applied using lateral thinking techniques.
[edit] Example of Provocative operation
The problem is that Tom won't come to the mountain.
- Po: The mountain must come to Tom (the classic answer).
- Po: Use a video conference (an IT idea).
- Po: Use an intermediary.
- Po: Ask him what he wants in exchange for coming to the mountain (a deal)
- Po: See if he'll accept a free timeshare slot in a holiday home (that just happens to be on the mountain).
- Po: Wait until he changes his mind.
- Po: Cut your losses and tackle a different problem.
- Po: Coerce him
These are all provocative operations and characterise a stage of lateral thinking where the ideas generated need further work in order to become practical solutions.
[edit] Lateral thinking puzzles
When using lateral thinking puzzles it is important to check your assumptions. You need to be open-minded, flexible and creative in your questioning and able to put lots of different clues and pieces of information together. Once you reach a viable solution you keep going in order to refine it or replace it with a better solution.
