# Has anyone read the works and ideas of Edward De Bono

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-read-the-works-and-ideas-of-edward-de-bono/672167>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [October 24, 2013, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-read-the-works-and-ideas-of-edward-de-bono/672167 "2013-10-24T22:16:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\
**Post date:** [October 24, 2013, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-read-the-works-and-ideas-of-edward-de-bono/672167/1 "2013-10-24T22:16:27Z")

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I came across him today, and got an ebook on my phone. I also requested some books from the library but haven’t gotten them today.

He claims there are far more effective ways of thinking for creativity and problem solving, then tries to teach them. So far from what I’m reading of his book it really doesn’t seem ‘that’ impressive. I’d like to find a book that has very little filler and just techniques and tools.

So has anyone else read him or know about his stuff, and has it been helpful to you?

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**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\
**Post date:** [October 24, 2013, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-read-the-works-and-ideas-of-edward-de-bono/672167/2 "2013-10-24T22:28:50Z")

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He was a pretty successful pop psych / enhance your creativity type writer a while back (probably better known in his native Britain than in America, which may be why he is unfamiliar to you). You won’t find anything in his books that you won’t find in others of this voluminous genre. If he had any worthwhile and original ideas (which I doubt) they have long since been assimilated by the more recent contributors to this literature. His main catchphrase, as I recall, was “lateral thinking”, which is more or less the same as what others call “thinking outside the box”.

I admit I never read his books, but I heard him on the radio quite a few times.

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**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\
**Post date:** [October 24, 2013, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-read-the-works-and-ideas-of-edward-de-bono/672167/3 "2013-10-24T22:30:50Z")

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On the subject, who are some other prolific writers on the subject of creativity and problem solving?