What does DNA look like?
I bet a mental image of the double helix just popped into your mind.
Yet there was a time when scientists struggled to understand what this fundamental building block of life looked like and repeatedly ran into dead ends trying to figure it out.
That is until Dr. James Watson went to bed one night and dreamt of a spiral staircase. He jolted awake, realizing he could apply this same spiral structure to DNA.
Turns out, Watson was right on the money and in 1962 went on to win the Nobel Prize for his discovery.
Matter of fact, Dr. Watson isn’t the only one who’s had life-changing epiphanies while asleep, and there’s a good reason for that.
During REM sleep, your dorsolateral prefrontal cortex goes offline, which means you’re no longer constrained by waking logic and reasoning. As a result, your mind sifts through pieces of information and connects them in new and surprising ways, often leading to groundbreaking insights.
Read on to find out how you can replicate this phenomenon in waking life to spark your creativity and generate new ideas every day.
Linear Thinking vs. Lateral Thinking
Most people think linearly.
By default, your mind approaches problems using a logical and progressive thought process:
A → B → C
Most of the time, this kind of “normal” thinking gets the job done and helps you move through the world efficiently. Whether you’re putting gas in your car, doing the dishes, or even solving complicated math problems, linear thinking works just fine.
But what about when you need to come up with a creative solution, or a new idea? What do you do then?
That’s where lateral thinking comes in.
Lateral thinking is a term coined by Dr. Edward de Bono to describe an approach that helps you break out of rigid thought patterns and find new and exciting concepts.
The goal is to throw out the logic, and approach a problem or question from completely new angles.
If linear thinking is the equivalent of following a GPS to your destination, then lateral thinking is like throwing your GPS out the window and figuring out where to go without it.
Sure, you might take a few wrong turns, but you’ll probably discover some interesting new places along the way.
Edward de Bono’s Lateral Thinking Method
“One of the most important keys in copywriting and conceptualizing is the ability to relate totally divergent concepts to create a new concept.”
Joseph Sugarman
Dr. Edward De Bono was the author of 57 books, a Rhodes scholar with a Ph.D. in medicine, a philosophy degree, and an honorary law degree.
Oh, and he’s from Malta.
In other words, he was a pretty fascinating human being.
De Bono would often talk about how although people claim to want predictability and routine, what they crave deep down is the unexpected and the unusual. People love it when a good joke, a book, or movie suddenly jolts you awake and surprises you.
The problem is that most people struggle to come up with truly unique and original ideas or content.
So, De Bono designed a way to encourage non-linear thinking. He came up with something called a “Think Tank”. It was a sphere that looked kind of like a Magic 8-ball.
De Bono used this “think tank” to generate random words for his students to link together and spark the creative process.
It was filled with 14,000 words written on pieces of paper.
You would shake the Think Tank, then write down the first three words you saw through the window.
Once you had your three words, you would have to come up with an idea that connected all three.
This is a method many copywriters and marketers swear by to help them come up with unique angles and avoid creating cookie-cutter copy. And best of all, you can also apply this method to everything from your writing to your business strategy.
How to Apply De Bono’s Lateral Thinking Technique
Maybe you’re in a creative rut or you feel like you’re going around in circles.
Or you want a fresh new idea for your business.
Either way, you can use the foundation of De Bono’s method to get your creative juices flowing and give your mind the chance to explore different approaches.
Here’s how to do it:
Using this random word generator tool hit generate and write down the first three words you see on the screen. Usually, I stick with nouns, but if you’re a fiction writer or you’re feeling adventurous, you can try out the other word types as well.
From there, you can let your brain wander and dig up all the associations and information it stores for each term. Next, see how you can connect them.
For example, when I was trying to come up with a new idea for an article, the three words I generated were:
- Art
- Hospital
- Food
It got me thinking about this one hospital in Mountain View, California that has a glass sculpture made up of hundreds of pieces of multicolored glass decorating the entrance hall. For a second, it makes you forget you’re in a hospital. It relaxes you, makes you want to sit down, have a cup of coffee and just enjoy the art.
The ‘Joyous’ sculpture at a hospital in Mountain View. A perfect example of how art can transform a space, even a hospital.
Then there are hospitals I’ve been to that are gray and drab. They don’t let you forget for a single moment that you’re in a hospital. It’s the kind of place you want to get out of as soon as possible.
From there, it made me think about how much your external space impacts your state of mind and influences your actions. It’s not perfect, but you get the idea.
Closing Thoughts
The next time you feel blocked or like you’ve used up all your creative reserves, give this lateral thinking method a try.
Even if you don’t come up with an idea you love on the first try, you’ll still notice how it helps your mind stretch in new directions and form connections that previously didn’t exist.
To recap:
- Go to the random word generator
- Generate 3 nouns
- Spend a few minutes thinking about each one, then let your brain work its magic and figure out how to connect them
- Think about how you can connect it back to your original topic
- Repeat as needed
Lyuba golovina 