Navigating the slipperiness of Perception. The Seen cannot be Unseen.

The challenge with perception, is that when things have been experienced in certain ways... those thoughts cannot be un-thought. We generally use thinking to back-up judgements, not explore.

Edward de Bono, a physician & philosopher wrote over 80 books. He's generally credited with the concept of 'Lateral Thinking' as well as the 'Six Thinking Hats' method for encouraging thinking.

Many of his books and overall work focussed on "Thinking" and creativity.

One of his books "Letters to Thinkers: Further thoughts on Lateral Thinking" was based on letters that he sent to subscribers (in the 1980s- well before Substack, LinkedIn or otherwise).

Many of his books include hand sketched ideas and concepts. Something I really appreciate. Over the years, I've grabbed his books at used book stores and used ideas in facilitation and group sessions. They are excellent to have around.

"Man's relative stupidity is probably his greatest resource." [remember published in 1987]

"There are areas in which human thinking has achieved quite remarkable progress... Why then, when we seem to have such effective thinking in the technical area, do we seem to make so little progress in the more human area:

...we still have wars and crime and inhuman behaviour; we still have poverty and ignorance. Are these areas where thinking can make no difference?

...Or are these areas only susceptible to emotional solutions through religious ideology or value changes? Or is it simply that the type of thinking that is so very successful in the technical area is much less use in the human area?

...It could be that human matters are so complicated by interactive change and feedback loops that our ordinary linear thinking is unable to cope."

A tool de Bono devised, and I've engaged frequently is called: "PMI".

It's designed to bypass the "intelligence trap", whereby, for example, folks with high IQ can often be poor 'thinkers'.

"One of the most common components is the way a highly intelligent person will use their intelligence to defend a point of view. The more skilled the thinker is in defending that point of view the less does there seem to be any need to actually explore the subject."

"So, a well defended prejudice becomes a substitute for a proper exploration followed by a judgement (or a decision). Decisions that by-pass exploration are usually based on emotions..."

PMI is a scanning procedure for ideas or concepts & stands for "Plus" "Minus" and "Interesting".

Step 1. Scan an idea/proposal listing all 'plus' components (like: Pros).

Step 2. Scan listing all 'minuses' (Cons).

Step 3. Scan & list all 'interesting' components, such as "Wouldn't it be interesting if...." Or, "it would be interesting to see whether..."

It is not a judgement process, but a scanning process. It directs attention all around an issue, providing a type of 'map' to explore.

Each P, M, or I provides some directions to look, that may have previously been ignored. Un-seen may become seen.