MESSAGE FOR WEEK BEGINNING 18th December 2000

..5 astonishing facts.....

As we come to the end of the year 2000 I would like to highlight some things that I continue to find astonishing. As readers of this message you may or may not agree with me - but do think about it. There are ten points. Five are given in this message and five in my next message. You may re-print or re-publish these points as you wish provided they are not changed in any way and my name stays attached.

1. How little attention we have paid to thinking for 2,400 years (ever since the Greek Gang of Three).

    

2. How satisfied we have been with 'recognition' thinking: identifying standard situations and providing standard answers. That is what education is all about.

    

3. How we have never realised that argument is a crude, primitive and inefficient way of exploring a subject. Yet it remains the basis of our law courts and democracy.

    

4. How little attention we pay to thinking even today - and yet the quality of our future depends directly on the quality of our thinking.

    

5. How very simple methods that are easy to teach can have remarkable powerful effects. Why it has taken so long to design such methods.

Edward de Bono nmt
16th December 2000
London

The de Bono Code website