Quote

It is well known that problem avoidance is an important part of problem solving. Instead of solving the problem you go upstream and alter the system so that the problem does not occur in the first place.

Edward de Bono

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Edward de Bono
Age: 88 †
Born: 1933
Born: May 19
Died: 2021
Died: June 9
Philosopher
Physician
Psychologist
University Teacher
Republic of Malta
Edward Charles Francis Publius de Bono
Part
Avoidance
Doe
Solving
Problem
Alter
Wells
Occur
Firsts
Instead
Well
System
First
Known
Important
Place
Upstream

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The quality of our thinking will determine the quality of our future
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I'm tired of dreaming. I'm into doing at the moment. It's, like, let's only have goals that we can go after.
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The vertical thinker says: 'I know what I am looking for.' The lateral thinker says: 'I am looking but I won't know what I am looking for until I have found it.'
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To me, a faith in Jesus Christ that is not aligned with the poor ... it's nothing.
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What the joke displays is a switch in perception. This is important in changing the way we think.
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It wouldn't cost too much to change the rules of trade so that poor countries can work their way out of poverty. But the world's leaders won't act unless they hear enough people telling them. And every day they fail to act, thousands of people die because they can't afford the basics of survival.
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An expert is someone who has succeeded in making decisions and judgements simpler through knowing what to pay attention to and what to ignore.
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Critical thinking does seem a superior sort of thinking because it seems as though the critic is actually going beyond the scope of what is being criticized in order to criticize it. That is only rarely a true assumption because, most often, the critic will seize on some little aspect that he or she understands and tackle only that.
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Creativity gives the possibility of some sort of achievement to everyone.
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It's always amazed me how little attention philosophers, psychologists, or anyone else actually has paid to humor.
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Complexity means distracted effort. Simplicity means focused effort.
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I do a great deal of work with young children, and if you give a child a problem, he may come up with a highly original solution, because he doesn't have the established route to it.
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It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.
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The effective thinker treats arrogance as the major sin of thinking.
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Unhappiness is best defined as the difference between our talents and our expectations.
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The mind can only see what it is prepared to see.
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We may have a perfectly adequate way of doing something, but that does not mean there cannot be a better way. So we set out to find an alternative way. This is the basis of any improvement that is not fault correction or problem solving.
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Our existing thinking habits are excellent, just as the rear wheels of a motor car are excellent, but not enough.
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Most executives, many scientists, and almost all business school graduates believe that if you analyze data, this will give you new ideas. Unfortunately, this belief is totally wrong. The mind can only see what it is prepared to see.
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The music that really turns me on is either running toward God or away from God. Both recognize the pivot, that God is at the center of the jaunt.
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