Lateral thinking? This is the home of literal thinking.
This is part of my column in yesterday’s The Malta Independent.
I can believe that Edward de Bono, in a letter published in The Times here in Malta, claimed credit for saving the Olympic Games. That’s utterly typical, and he might well have tried to get the very same letter published in The Times of London, only to have the junior assistant to the letters editor spike it or press delete.
But I can’t believe people actually read that letter and took him seriously.
The Times reported it as a separate story – Edward de Bono Claims Credit for Saving the Olympics – and without, as far as I could make out, a trace of irony. And beneath the story, there is a stream of comments about how the greatness of some Maltese does us all proud.
Lateral thinking?
Malta is blighted by literal thinking. And you can never think laterally if you can only think literally.
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This is really hitting one’s credit limit.
Good for you Daphne.
I always detested bluffers – people who want you to believe that they are God’s gift to humanity.
Edward de Bono is a bluffer par excellence.
Ahna njuranti. Edward Debono bravu. Amen
…And what about your thinking Daphne?? Mux Mohhok ta tegiega
Edward Debono may sometimes sound pompous: he wrote a book with the title “I’m right, you’re wrong”. This book was highly criticised by London quality newspapers.
I had to sit through ‘lateral thinking’ lessons at school. This man coined a phrase for thinking outside the box. Now every time I have a flash of genius I have to pass credit to Edward Debono – or do I?
This de Bono has always had a grossly inflated ego.
Now, nearing eighty, other age-related factors are showing up in his behaviour.
Poor thing.
I have met Edward de Bono on a number of occasions and he is, hands down, the worst listener I have ever met.
He doesn’t care about anybody’s life experiences or what someone else might want to bring to the table.
He’s totally self-absorbed and makes ANY topic about himself.
The years haven’t humbled him at all, and he remains the only octogenarian flexible enough to blow hot air up his own arse.
The Times, on the other hand, is spiralling downwards and I don’t think the standard has ever been this low. It’s not just the choice of articles, or the abysmal English, or the typos. It’s even the positioning and priority given to articles that’s rubbish.
A prime example of unilateral thinking.
Edward Debono is so clever that he cannot even speak his mother tongue.
[Daphne – He has perfect fluency in his mother tongue, which is English. His mother was, literally, that.]
After reading a few of his books in the 1970s I came to the conclusion that Edward de Bono is a self-promoting fraud.
But I always wondered who promoted him on the world stage and towards what goal.
Edward De Bono is the Dale Carnegie of “Cognition”.
I first stumbled across a plethora of his books in an Indiana college bookshop in 1967. After speedreading them in the bookshop for a few minutes, I concluded his self-help program was someone’s opportunity for big business.
Also in 1967, Ulric Neisser began the “cognitive psychology” revolution with his book by that title [no mention of De Bono there]. Shortly thereafter I began my formal studies in psychology, which in their eventual professional development beyond the Ph.D. would focus on “cognition” and “language”.
If you look backwards towards Gestalt Psychology (such as Max Wertheimer or Wolfgang Koehler), or if you look forwards towards what cognitive psychology is and would become in the fifty years since De Bono, it doesn’t reference Edward De Bono.
Edward De Bono references Edward De Bono, and he sells lots of books and conducts lots of seminars (for a fee) and has found a space at the University of Malta, where I expect this application from psychology will continue.
He’s found a space in three other universities. But he’s not involved in teaching, or even in designing the curriculum, at all. He just puts his name on the franchise, and fucks off.
And who can blame him? We celebrate him as our national hero when our single defining national characteristic is poor thinking skills.
I cannot understand all this hdura and attakki fahxija etc etc against Edward de Bono.
I met the man, plus trophy girlfriend, and crikey! she’s one stunner. I mean phwooarh. At his age too.
Therefore, using the tools of logic and inference, the man must really be special. Yes, he’s a multi-billionaire and owns several islands in the Caribbean and one whole island in Venice plus several chateaux and Mayfair apartments, and he’s about five foot nothing, which sort of puts me in the blackest of moods for how could I ever reach those rarefied heights.
No, seriously, when a billionaire midget walks into the room and you know he’s shagging some supermodel blonde, you can only look up in awe.
In my case, look down in awe …………… I’m six foot three.
He should have enlighted the Italians about the request they had about the Olympic Games of 2012.
Italy refused to host the games due to the economic and financial situation.
He should have introduced the lateral thinking to them, in case they have never heard of it.
H.P.BAXTER,
SYou don’t look up in awe at a billionaire midget shagging a supermodel blonde. You actually look on in pity at both parties involved.
This means the midget who believes he’s still got it (and I don’t mean the money), even if he ever had it in the first place, and the woman who should be shagging someone she finds attractive.
What is the measure of a man, sasha?
When you or I are dead, who will remember us? For those of us who are married, their wife perhaps, and their children. But beyond that handful of relatives, if any, our names will forever fade into oblivion.
Our passage on this Earth will have been a mere inconsequential blip. We might as well not have been born at all.
A man like Edward de Bono, on the other hand, has left his mark on the edifice of history. He will be remembered far and wide, and heads of state and movers and shakers will pour tributes when he is gone, as they do now that he is still alive.
Pity? No. Awe. Envy. Green envy. He has achieved things which we will never achieve. He moves with ease in that comfortable world of fame and fortune, when we are still struggling to find a modicum of financial security.
Women take off their knickers at the mere mention of his name. They swoon in his presence. Supermodels caress his pasty flab. Grown men grovel before him. Hallowed institutions rush to offer him lofty positions. And the masses listen.
Here is the mark of a great man.
[Daphne – “Women take off their knickers at the mere mention of his name. They swoon in his presence.” I don’t wish to disappoint you, but this is not so. At all.]
Yes they do.
They confuse him with Edward Debono who runs a dry cleaners and laundry service in San Gwann.
Here’s one example:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ruUugi8-l8U/S6sinuuqUII/AAAAAAAADk8/_YBHh3l6rtw/s1600/Edward+de+Bono+tells+Cecilia+a+brunette+joke.JPG
[Daphne – No expert in body language, are you. That’s the gesture women use with ‘sweet old men’. And sweet old women. Even nurses (not the kinky sort) use it. Hadn’t you noticed?]
And a second one:
http://www.sarahwilson.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/photo.jpg
[Daphne – Lesson No. 2 in body language: when a woman puts her arm around a man’s shoulders, she’s saying ‘this is my mate in whom I have absolutely no sexual or related interest, and who I do not consider a sexual object anyway, but see as somebody deeply non-threatening and asexual.’ This is especially so when she wears that facial expression. I trust you will find this information useful.]
I suppose the only bit of body language that I can read well is the supercilious look of disdain during interviews and conversations.
De Bono is the world’s best conman.
Put anyone in a position of some pressure e.g. shipwrecked on a desert island, and s/he will soon start thinking creatively, I assure you.
Yet, for some reason, a lot of people are stupid enough to let themselves think that DeBono has taught them how to think creatively.
But I know of others.