Parallel Thought: The Logic of the Future

Parallel thought consists of simply putting ideas beside other ideas, numerous and varied, operative and provocative. It's based on the idea of fluid thought from Osborn's basic method of creativity, brainstorming (Prado, 1982, El torbellino de ideas, Cincel).

There is no entrenchment in an idea and no criticism; there is no conflict or dispute; there is no initial preconceived opinion as to whether something is right or wrong. Instead, there is a broad, deep and effective exploration of a topic or situation, exploring what people think about it and what they want to achieve. Parallel focuses more on future possibilities, on paths of action that would improve the situation (especially on how to design such actions), and on creating opportunities for change.

It stimulates freedom of thought, action and innovation. It uses the full power of the creative mind to overcome the definitions, classification categories, and tyranny of judgment that imprison and limit people's thinking, making it rigid and unproductive. With only Western logic, we human beings will be unable to survive in an era of rapid change - an era of confusion and chaos due to the abundance and complexity of information.

De Bono advocates for the unknown possibilities of the future in the face of the inoperative certainties of the past; for open and intuitive exploration instead of rigid classification; for the design of "roads that lead us forward" (towards that which we can be) in the place of an analysis of what is; for those paths and opportunities of movement and action that transform objects and events, rather than inertly and objectively describe them; for the wisdom of the subjective internal world in the face of the objective world of outside knowledge.

Parallel thought is the kind of ingenious and practical book that we would expect from the imaginative and pragmatic mind of De Bono and from the more than 30 years that he has dedicated to stimulating lateral and divergent, innovative and inventive thinking in both himself and his students.

This latest book by De Bono expands upon the new paradigm of divergent logic and thinking for the future of humanity. It will be highly useful in all walks of life and in all professions. Easily understandable, it constitutes an ideal introduction to the new forms of fluid and creative logic, as compared to the Socratic method whose essence "was to eliminate errors, confusions and false presumptions rather than propose better ideas," and to generate adversaries through the controversy of opposing ideas rather than find solutions and possibilities that reach beyond the positions of those who are in conflict. In this book, De Bono confirms the failure of occidental thought.

As a book of essays, the fruit of the emerging reflection on the "living" discourse of professional practice, the book may suffer from a certain reiteration of concepts, and from a somewhat global and overly integrative vision of other methods and techniques of creativity - such as in its vision of the creative solution of problems (Buffalo model), the synectical (Gordon), etc. or in its references to the use of multiple languages particular to creativity.