By definition, lateral thinking is a problem-solving approach that involves looking at challenges from unexpected angles rather than pursuing a step-by-step logical approach.
It was invented/popularized by Edward de Bono in the late 1960s and involves creative reasoning that isn't immediately obvious.
Edward de Bono was a Maltese physician, psychologist, and philosopher who revolutionized our understanding of thinking processes.
In the late 1960s, he coined the term "lateral thinking" and unlike traditional academic approaches to cognition, de Bono argued that the human mind could be trained to think more creatively and effectively.
This was coming from the backdrop that most people are trapped in habitual thinking patterns partly thanks to the formal education system.
Natural Lateral Thinkers
There's sufficient evidence that points out that as children, we didn't start off thinking straightforward. Ask a four-year-old how to catch a lion and they could suggest using a time machine to catch the lion before it was born.
Most children start as natural lateral thinkers, unencumbered by the rigid constraints of conventional reasoning. Their imagination knows no bounds, and they approach problems with a sense of wonder and possibility that adults often lose.
To me, it makes sense that our thinking begins to change drastically when we start formal education.
Teachers would indirectly say something like "There's only one right answer, and it's on page 49 of your textbook."
This is straightforward and leaves no room for alternative perspectives.
Erosion of Creative Thinking
Now, to add another layer to it, people graduate and get into the traditional workforce where phrases like "that's not how we do things!" start becoming the norm.
The brain more or less adjusts further towards rigid, conventional thinking patterns.
To create some form of contrast between other modes of thinking:
- Critical thinking needs to examine all evidence before reaching a conclusion.
- Lateral thinking more or less jumps to nine conclusions, discards eight of them, and keeps the one that's unexpectedly useful.
- Vertical thinking follows a top-down or bottom-up mode of systematic reasoning.
At a glance, lateral thinking seems to be the most insensible form of problem-solving.
That was my impression too, and it took me some time to understand its true usefulness.
In practice, lateral thinking works more or less as a creative problem-solving muscle.
A designer stuck on a product problem could approach it by imagining how a child or an alien would solve it.
As a writer experiencing a writer's block, I could well decide to randomly select three unrelated words from a dictionary and weave them into the narrative, then trick my brain into making unexpected connections.
The usefulness is basically about breaking free from traditional thought patterns.
In an age of information explosion, why not put on this thinking hat and jump from point A to point H without having to walk through all the way from A to H?
This keeps the mind lightweight, so to speak. Able to move swiftly across dozens of information points without the burden of linear, constrictive reasoning.
Of course, lateral thinking is not a replacement for critical thinking, but a complementary approach.
In my own case, I wouldn't mind making it a second preferred mode of thinking after critical thinking.
There's a lot of smokescreen around the interwebs and in real life, despite spotting them out being easier than before.
Employing a bit of lateral thinking, one could say that the smokescreen reveals more about the fears and limitations of those creating it than the truth they're trying to obscure.
Thanks for reading!! Share your thoughts below on the comments.
Oh for sure kiddos are really fantastic problem solvers from a young age! It's really wild how the educational system quite literally beats that out of them in so many ways. John Taylor Gatto explains it very well - the education system we have now is used to produce more obedient soldiers and workers. It is the Prussian model from many decades past and is working quite well for the machine. Hopefully with the considerable increase in homeschooling of kids, we can fight back that nonsense!
Definitely! I think the prussian model is already crumbling as it has outlived its usage. For those of us who were fully immersed in it, I think it'll take some time and effort before we can rewire our brain differently and the current state of the world helps quite a lot in that regard.
Thanks for stopping by :)
I think the difference between adults and kids is understanding & experience, in my opinion. Kids are not cumbered or limited because of their lack of inexperience and this is that they're free of prejudice, hate, greed and all that.
Right. Lack of experience tends to equate with lack of understanding. As an adult, this can be a dangerous thing in many domains in life and for a child, it could be perceived as a vulnerability from an adult's perspective.
As an adult, lateral thinking works best as a layer on top of our already developed experience and understanding from logical thinking. It helps us perceive the non-obvious way to do things or come up with creative solutions for persistent logical problems.
Thanks for stopping by :)