How to have a beautiful mind

(by Edward de Bono — includes links to many of his other books)

Amazon link: How to Have a Beautiful Mind

What Is A Beautiful Mind?

There is this beautiful woman at a cocktail party.

She has flawless skin, elegant clothes and a perfect figure.

Surprisingly, she seems to be much on her own.

People come up to her and quickly drift away.

Then there is this short, balding and mousy man.

He is always surrounded by people in animated conversation with him.

What is going on?

You can do a great deal to make your body more beautiful.

There are exercises at the gym.

There are nips and tucks and liposuction and inserts.

You can do much to make your face more beautiful with cosmetics and even plastic surgery.

A man can have hair implants.

But what about your mind?

Do you make any effort at all to have a beautiful mind?

Great physical beauty with a boring mind is boring.

You might get attention but you will never keep that attention.

At the cocktail party the beautiful woman had a boring mind and the mousy man had a beautiful mind.

That is why the man got more attention than the woman.

So what can you do to make your mind more beautiful?

You are born with a certain shape of face and body.

There is only a certain amount you can do to make them more beautiful.

But there is very much more that you can do to make your mind more beautiful.

That is exactly what this book is about.

This book tells you what to do to make your mind more beautiful.

If you have natural physical beauty it is a tragedy to waste this beauty by having a boring mind.

It is like buying an expensive car and then not putting fuel in the tank.

If you do not have great natural beauty, one of the things you can do to make yourself attractive is to develop a beautiful mind.

As you get older, physical beauty tends to fade.

But beauty of mind is independent of age and can actually increase with wisdom and experience.

Many people spend a great deal of time, effort and money to make themselves more physically beautiful.

It makes sense to spend some time and effort to make your mind more beautiful.

What is beauty?

Beauty is something that can be appreciated by others.

The beautiful mind described in this book is a mind that can be appreciated by others.

It is not the mind of a person who sits in a corner and solves very complex puzzles.

It is a mind that can be appreciated by others—usually through conversation.

The beauty of your mind shows in your conversation.

That is what this book is about.

The beauty of your mind should show in your conversation.

Just as people can look at your physical beauty they can listen to the beauty of your mind.

If you want to make your mind more beautiful you can.

It is not a matter of innate intelligence or great knowledge.

It is how you use your mind that matters.

That is exactly what this book is about

INTRODUCTION: WHAT IS A BEAUTIFUL MIND?
HOW TO AGREE
- The need to be right
- The logic bubble
- Special circumstances
- Special values
- Special experience
- Sweeping generalisations
- Summary
HOW TO DISAGREE
- Politeness
- Errors of logic
- Interpretation
- Selective perception
- Emotions
- Different experience
- Sweeping generalisations
- Extrapolations
- Possible and certain
- Differ or disagree
- Summary
HOW TO DIFFER
- Two sorts of difference
- Sources of difference
- Spell out the difference
- Spell out the reasons for the difference
- Accept the difference
- Summary
HOW TO BE INTERESTING
- Information
- What if?
- Possibilities and alternatives
- Speculation
- Connections
- Creativity and new ideas
- A most useful habit
- Exercises
- Summary
HOW TO RESPOND
- Clarification
- Support
- Examples and stories
- Build upon
- Extend
- Carry forward
- Modify
- Summary
HOW TO LISTEN
- Impatience
- Getting value
- Notice
- Repeat back
- Questions
- More details
- Two focuses
- Summary
QUESTIONS
- Fishing questions and shooting questions
- Source and validity
- More detail
- Explanation
- Alternatives and possibilities
- Modification
- Multiple choice questions
- Values
- The basis for your thinking?
- Summary
PARALLEL THINKING - THE SIX HATS
- Co-operative exploration
- The six thinking hats
- The white hat
- The red hat
- The black hat
- The yellow hat
- The green hat
- The blue hat
- Use of the hats
- Benefits
- Summary
CONCEPTS
- Why bother with concepts?
- Pick out the concept
- Vagueness
- Levels of concept
- Types of concept
- Exercise
- Completeness
- Compare and contrast
- Summary
ALTERNATIVES
- Better
- Perception
- Alternative values
- Generating alternatives
- Possible
- Summary
EMOTIONS AND FEELINGS
- Selective perception
- Choice
- Adjectives
- First reaction
- Positioning
- Summary
VALUES
- Circumstance
- Different parties
- Personal values
- Organisation values
- Quality values
- Innovation values
- Ecology (impact) values
- Perceptual values
- Negative values
- Summary
DIVERSIONS AND OFF-COURSE
- Purpose
- Boring
- Conventional
- Humour
- Enjoyment
- Summary
INFORMATION AND KNOWLEDGE
- How much?
- The Zulu principle
- The mirror strategy
- Knowledge input
- Making do
- Summary
OPINION
- Why have opinions?
- Provoking opinions
- Exercise
- Point of view
- Changing opinions
- New information
- Less complete
- Value change
- Comparison and difference
- Summary
INTERRUPTION
- My turn
- Ego interruptions
- Amplifying interruptions
- Challenge interruptions
- Immediate or later
- Doubts
- Summary
ATTITUDE
- The battle attitude
- The ego power game
- The learner attitude
- The explorer attitude
- The constructive attitude
- The fun attitude
- The 'who cares? attitude
- Summary
STARTING AND TOPICS
- Current topics
- On-going topics
- What do you do?
- False starts
- New leads
- Shaping
- Anger and emotion
- Bored
- Summary
CONCLUSION
- Enjoyment
- Skill
THE CONVERSATION CLUB
- Numbers
- Regularity
- The organiser
- Format
- Agenda and topics
- Achievement
- Cross visits
- Range of activites

“The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not turbulence;

it is to act with yesterday’s logic”. — Peter Drucker

The shift from manual workers
who do as they are being told —
either by the task or by the boss —

TO knowledge workers
who have to manage themselves ↓

profoundly challenges social structure …

“Managing Oneself (PDF) is a REVOLUTION in human affairs.” …

“It also requires an almost 180-degree change in the knowledge workers’ thoughts and actions from what most of us—even of the younger generation—still take for granted as the way to think and the way to act.” …

… “Managing Oneself is based on the very opposite realities:
Workers are likely to outlive organizations (and therefore, employers can’t be depended on for designing your life),

and the knowledge worker has mobility.” ← in a context

“More than anything else,

the individual
has to take more responsibility
for himself or herself,
rather than depend on the company.”
continue ↓

“Making a living is no longer enough
‘Work’ has to make a life .” continue

… finding and selecting the pieces of the puzzle

The Second Curve

These pages are attention directing tools for navigating changing worldS — worldS moving relentlessly toward unimagined futures.

evidence-wall-and-time-line-pict-600

What’s the next effective action on the road ahead

stages-simple-horizons-pict-t

It’s up to you to figure out what to harvest and calendarize
— working something out in time (1915, 1940, 1970 … 2040 … the outer limit of your concern) — nobody is going to do it for you.

It may be a step forward to actively reject something (rather than just passively ignoring) and then working out a plan for coping with what you’ve rejected.

Your future is between your ears and our future is between our collective ears — it can’t be otherwise.

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