Dex
07-23-04, 09:52 AM
He's the guy who invented the phrase "Lateral Thinking". He makes a lot of money these days teaching corporate types how to think creatively.
Anyway, I found his books fascinating and very relevant to myself & ADD.
He speaks a lot about the way the brain works and the nature or perception. Specifically he describes thinking as a 2 stage process:
1. Perception
2. Logic/Analysis/Judgement etc.
He says our whoole society/educational system is so wrapped up in the 2nd stage (think debate/critical thinking/our argumentative systems of law/politics) that we've neglected the first.
Basically when we think we grab a perception of the situation/problem and then move from there. The message of his books is we need to be more mindful of the first stage; is our perception accurate/useful?
Now I can relate this to ADD very usefully. One of my problems is I jump on situations and charge on through. When I'm angry at my kids, get anxiety attacks, think I'm failing at work and my boss is about to fire me... and so on. My problem is my perception of the situation is faulty. Spend a little more time thinking my current perception through and I sometimes see it aint so bad afterall.
He points out several faults with perception that we're all guilty of:
- over emphasise one part of the problem
- reducing everything to right or wrong/good or bad
- misjudging the scale
- validating a particular point of view through logical argument alone
- generalisation
- and so on...
It's great stuff. Sometimes he's difficult to read; he's a little dry. But it's great stuff if you're into retraining your brain as a way of dealing with ADD.
I recommend these books especially:
- I Am Right / You Are Wrong
- Lateral Thinking
- The Happiness Purpose
- Serious Creativity
Anyway, I found his books fascinating and very relevant to myself & ADD.
He speaks a lot about the way the brain works and the nature or perception. Specifically he describes thinking as a 2 stage process:
1. Perception
2. Logic/Analysis/Judgement etc.
He says our whoole society/educational system is so wrapped up in the 2nd stage (think debate/critical thinking/our argumentative systems of law/politics) that we've neglected the first.
Basically when we think we grab a perception of the situation/problem and then move from there. The message of his books is we need to be more mindful of the first stage; is our perception accurate/useful?
Now I can relate this to ADD very usefully. One of my problems is I jump on situations and charge on through. When I'm angry at my kids, get anxiety attacks, think I'm failing at work and my boss is about to fire me... and so on. My problem is my perception of the situation is faulty. Spend a little more time thinking my current perception through and I sometimes see it aint so bad afterall.
He points out several faults with perception that we're all guilty of:
- over emphasise one part of the problem
- reducing everything to right or wrong/good or bad
- misjudging the scale
- validating a particular point of view through logical argument alone
- generalisation
- and so on...
It's great stuff. Sometimes he's difficult to read; he's a little dry. But it's great stuff if you're into retraining your brain as a way of dealing with ADD.
I recommend these books especially:
- I Am Right / You Are Wrong
- Lateral Thinking
- The Happiness Purpose
- Serious Creativity