"Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way"
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“Breaking out of established patterns” is a politely radical idea, especially coming from a psychologist whose career was built on making thinking itself feel like a tool you can redesign. De Bono isn’t romanticizing creativity as lightning-in-a-bottle inspiration; he’s demystifying it as a disciplined refusal to let the mind run on its default settings. The phrasing carries a quiet accusation: most of what we call “thinking” is pattern maintenance. Efficient, yes. Original, rarely.
The intent is instructional, almost managerial. De Bono wrote for boardrooms as much as classrooms, and his legacy of “lateral thinking” sits in that postwar, systems-obsessed era when organizations were growing bigger, problems more complex, and conventional logic felt insufficient. “Established patterns” aren’t just personal habits; they’re institutional grooves: best practices, inherited assumptions, professional incentives. He’s hinting that creativity isn’t blocked by a lack of talent so much as by the comfort of consensus.
The subtext: your brain is not a neutral observer. It’s an economy, built to conserve effort by reusing templates. Pattern recognition is how we survive; pattern obedience is how we stagnate. By framing creativity as an escape from patterns rather than a hunt for novelty, de Bono also dodges the cliché that creative work must be wild or chaotic. The real work is perceptual: shifting the angle, re-categorizing the problem, allowing “wrong” ideas long enough to become useful.
In an age of algorithmic feeds and corporate risk-aversion, the line reads less like a motivational poster and more like a warning label.
The intent is instructional, almost managerial. De Bono wrote for boardrooms as much as classrooms, and his legacy of “lateral thinking” sits in that postwar, systems-obsessed era when organizations were growing bigger, problems more complex, and conventional logic felt insufficient. “Established patterns” aren’t just personal habits; they’re institutional grooves: best practices, inherited assumptions, professional incentives. He’s hinting that creativity isn’t blocked by a lack of talent so much as by the comfort of consensus.
The subtext: your brain is not a neutral observer. It’s an economy, built to conserve effort by reusing templates. Pattern recognition is how we survive; pattern obedience is how we stagnate. By framing creativity as an escape from patterns rather than a hunt for novelty, de Bono also dodges the cliché that creative work must be wild or chaotic. The real work is perceptual: shifting the angle, re-categorizing the problem, allowing “wrong” ideas long enough to become useful.
In an age of algorithmic feeds and corporate risk-aversion, the line reads less like a motivational poster and more like a warning label.
Quote Details
| Topic | Art |
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