Thinking Tools

Key Takeaways

what's up guys welcome back to the channel my name is lucas and today i want to talk about this book by edward de bono called teach your child how to think now thinking is one of those things that we don't really think about funny enough and what's really interesting about this book is that that's exactly what the author does he's gonna think about thinking now what the author does in this book is he discusses what he calls attention directing tools as well as structures to allow us to think about how we think now he bases this into three core ideas attitudes principles and habits attitudes are about how we approach thinking principles are about what makes up good thinking now habits are about the routines of things the author brings these ideas together into what he calls the six hats of thinking the y hat is about gathering information the red hat which is about how we feel about situations and things the yellow head is about considering the benefits regarding a situation we're thinking about the green hat is about exploration of ideas suggestions and alternatives blue hat thinking is about thinking about thinking so it's about considering the approach we're taking regarding a given situation and finally there's blackhead thinking which is about judgment and comparison now in addition to these heads of thinking the author discusses these thinking tools there are kind of specific expressions of these thinking hats used for specific situations for example the caf tool which is the considering all the factors tool now imagine you're a baker and as a baker you have to consider things like you have to buy the dough ingredients you have to hire people so you have to consider us you have to consider a number of situations before you know becoming a baker there's also the apc tool or alternatives possibilities and choices now this is a thinking tool that refers to the idea of considering all the alternatives for a given situation now back to our baker problem let's say he uh has to consider all the possible ingredients for making the dough that he wants to make or has to consider all the alternatives for the locations of his bakery there's also the opv tool or other people's views tool which is which is a tool about changing perspective and trying to look at things from the perspective of other people think about a politician that is thinking about whether or not he should support a given law that's about to be passed so what he could do is to look at the issue from the perspective of other people besides him to see with to broaden his view on the subject another tool is the caes tool or consequences and sequel which is about considering the consequences of what you're going to do now think about your buyer think about a person considering to buy a car now buying a car involves a certain set of consequences now one of which may be how much money you're going to spend where you're going to park the car every day so the ces 2 is about considering the consequences of our actions and our thoughts finally there's the pmi tool which stands for plus or minus interesting now this is a focusing tool which is about considering the pros and cons of a given situation i imagine you're buying a car a plus might be dead now your commute is going to be way faster but a minus is going to be the cost you're going to have with maintaining your car there's also the ago tool which is about the aims goals and objectives to be considered when you're thinking about something a situation or a decision so every time you're considering anything you have to think about what's your aim what's your goal in that given context now imagine again you're buying a car so when you're buying a car you have to consider what's your objective here now there's the fip tool or first important priorities which is about considering what are the priorities that you have to keep in mind when considering a problem or thinking about a situation imagine you're gonna buy a car so what's your priority is your priority money is your priority social status is your priority efficiency those are some of the things you have to consider and the fip2 is the thinking tool that will allow you to do that now one of the most interesting things about this book is that what the author does is he doesn't consider these twos in isolation but he treats them as skills that we can practice so these are kind of literally tools that we can access and use and if we do that periodically and practice them over and over we can get better at each type of thinking too that we just talked about now the author looks at thinking as something that can be divided into three thinking operations cutting which is about focus removing the stuff that doesn't matter so you can focus on what's relevant sticking which is about making connections between things and finally shaping which is about comparing matching and putting things into the shape that you need so that you can figure things out more quickly now the final note that i want to make about this book is that the author doesn't look at these operations these tools as separate things existing on their own but he brings them together in a system that involves using the basic operations of thinking accessing the modes of thinking the six hats of thinking and using the specific tools for specific situations and by combining everything together what you get in the end is a system for better and more clearer thinking which uh for me has been a really interesting experience to have read to after having read this book because now i'm thinking about how can i practice these skills and get better at specific parts of my routine in my life that involve certain types of thinking that i don't necessarily am paying the right attention to so that's pretty much it uh thanks for watching guys and if you like this video don't forget to like comment and subscribe and i'll see you next time cheers