Cricket & Lateral Thinking

A couple of years ago I happened to meet my nephew who is born & brought up in New Zealand an has studied there only. He is a very good cricket player and at present is in England playing county cricket. While talking he mentioned that in his high school he had a course in lateral thinking, which was compulsory and he was exposed to most of the techniques of lateral thinking. He could describe a few and their methodology also. Later he added and explained as to how he has used a few techniques to enhance his playing skill as well used them to plan ahead of matches.

 

I was surprised to read also in a news item that the Australian cricket team during their golden years, when they were unbeaten for a couple of years, were exposed to and were trained to use one of the techniques of lateral thinking called 'Six Thinking Hats". It was a three month exposure to the techniques probably conducted by Edward De Bono himself. This was also admitted by the team coach and the captain after their retirement. Before each series and also before each match all the members of the team used to sit down for a session of 'Six Thinking Hats" keeping the other team in discussion. They would use this technique to analyze their weakness and strengths and also of the opponent and come out with strategies & tactics as how use them in order to win the match and the series. Not to mention that at that time the Australian team was unbeatable.

 

" Lateral Thinking is also concerned with breaking out of concept prison of old ideas.This leads to change in attitude and approach; to looking in a different way at things which have always been looked at in the same way. Liberation from old ideas and the stimulation of new ones are twin aspects of lateral thinking."

Edward De Bono

Creativity in Children

While in Panckula I had the pleasure of being invited to a school run by a senior officer's wife to talk to her about lateral or creative thinking. While talking, she expressed an opinion that children now a days are not very creative but spent more time on video games. I disagreed with her and asked her to give me some students for half an hour to show her something. About 20 students of age group 11 to 14 were given to me for half an hour. After talking to them I brought out the topic of my childhood memories of plucking mangoes from trees by using stone, stick, etc, Climbing did yield some result but also gave me bruises and cuts. The children agreed that some of them had done similar things and always wanted to pluck mangoes. I then asked them to suggest some instrument, technique by which the mangoes could be plucked without any injuries or damages and without using stones or sticks. Even the principal was surprised when the students produced ideas and rough sketches of about 11 such techniques/ ideas.This was as a result of just some freedom to think differently about solutions for a problem. I explained that the students had without knowing used a technique called ANOLOGIES in lateral thinking as proposed by Edward De Bono to devise or come out with these ideas. Imagine what will happen if they are formally introduced to these techniques. The suggestion could not be implemented due some reluctance by Management and the principal and myself leaving Panchkula. I have always advocated that children need to be give freedom to come out with new solutions to issues other than what is taught to allow them to develop the skill of creative thinking.

 

" The most effective way of changing ideas is not from outside by conflict, but from within by the insight arrangement of available information. Insight is the only effective way of changing ideas in a myth situation where information can not be evaluated objectively."

Edward De Bono

Perfection

You will begin to touch heaven, Jonathan, in the moment you have perfect speed. And that is not flying a thousand miles an hour, or a million,or flying at the speed of light. Because any number is a limit and perfection does not have any limits. Perfect speed, my son,is being there." 

 

Richard Bach,  "Jonathan Livingston Seagull".

 

Perfection is not about being best as best is a limit only. After reaching best, the best you can do is to maintain the best in best. So try being better and better rather than focusing on the result, ,then the possibilities are endless.. If you keep on eye on the result always then you are working at half your capacity with one eye only. Become committed to the process rather than just participating in the process.

Being Unreasonable

Reasonable people agree with what everybody else does or says but unreasonable men question the way of doing things and this brings in improvements"

George Bernard Shaw

 

But unfortunately so called unreasonable people are demonized and labelled as outcast or called spoilers. If you keep doing the things as others are doing then there is no improvement but stagnation. To bring in new ideas , new ways of doing things you need the question the way we are doing things. If you do it the way others are doing then you will get the same results but to get different results you need to do it in a totally different way. Sometimes you need to look at the things from a totally different perspective or what some people call out of box approach.

 

In a book "Be Unreasonable" Paul lemberg talks about the unconventional way to extraordinary business results and talk about Be Uncompromising, Be demanding, Be Critical , Be outrageous and Be prepared. The biggest hurdle in being unreasonable is the fear (False Evidence Appearing Real) of risk of rejection ,small words like it has never been done before, it is not right, or the customers will think you are crazy, etc, etc. The only way out is not to pay heed to these voices in your head and outside and take a risk..

Syndromes-Origin

The word syndrome as per dictionary means " A set of concurrent things (such as emotions or actions) that usually form an identifiable patterns." It also means "A group of signs or symptoms that occur and characterize a particular abnormality or condition.".

Syndrome is usually associated with medial profession and terminology where a number of syndromes have been identified and labelled, like, Dow's syndrome, Acquired Immunity Deficiency syndrome,Asperger Syndrome, etc. In medical terminology it is usually applied when diagnosing a condition or disease and the doctors tend to look for a group of symptoms. As long as the group of symptoms remain mysterious , it is normally referred to as a specific syndrome usually named after the physician or a group of physicians.But after sometime while it is being continuously referred as such the name stick  even after the disease is identified and no longer remains mysterious. .It is also possible that it may not be specific to one disease.The typical example is the toxic shock syndrome which can be caused by a number of toxins.The term syndrome besides medical terminology is often used in psychology also.

Recently the word syndrome has also been associated with the place where they occur. We now have Stockholm syndrome, Helsinki Syndrome, Lima Syndrome, China Syndrome, or even Coyote Syndrome. A majority of these are associated with hostage situations that have occurred in the past at those places except Helsinki syndrome which did not happen but it was referred to as such by Bruce Wills in the Movie "Die Hard" while dealing with a hostage situation. Probably the reference was to Stockholm syndrome.

The China syndrome reefers to a scenario where a meltdown of all components in a nuclear reactor takes place and is actually used in a fictional form. Coyote syndrome on the other hand refers to a situation where the coyote will chew his own leg which was caught in a snare and is usually used in relation to a situation where an individual will actually harm himself in order to save his life.
Stockholm syndrome is a psychological syndrome in which a person being held captive by their hostage  begins to identify and grow sympathetic  to his or her captor, simultaneously being unsympathetic towards the police or other authorities and arose from a situation in Stockholm in 1993 where a hostage was romantically attached to one of her captors. This was used in one of the James Bond movies.

Lima syndrome on the other hand is opposite to Stockholm syndrome. The name arose from a hostage situation in Lima where a revolutionary group took control of the Japanese Embassy. It is a situation where the captors/abductors/ aggressors tend to develop positive feelings towards their hostage, very often letting them free.

London syndrome could be said to be polar opposite of Stockholm syndrome and gets its name from a 1980 hostage situation in which Iranian Embassy in London was taken over by Iranian militants demanding the release of some Iranian prisoners.

 

Recently a new syndrome has been added o the list called "Havana Syndrome" This syndrome was first reported in the second half of 2017 when reports surfaced stating that American diplomats were subjected to covert sonic weapon last year. All these individuals reported symptoms like nausea,, severe headache, fatigue, dizziness and sleep problems.They also reported sudden pressure changes and vibrations in their rooms or houses.

The Origin

Are we what we are due to addition or because of subtraction? A very interesting and fundamental question. We are presently of the view that we are what we are because cells join together in certain form to make molecules and our DNA strands. These join together in certain fashion to form our various organs. A typical case of addition of things to produce a particular thing.But what if we are due to subtraction from the whole and by removing certain things our various organs and things are formed. A case of subtraction from the whole rather than addition.

Light is white but when it passes through a prism it produces those seven colors VIBGYOR which together makes the light white. A leaf appears to be green because it absorbs all light radiation in the white light but reflects only green to our eyes and hence it appears to us as green. Sea appears to be blue due to the same reason because it reflects only blue radiation from the whole white light .Nature is full of examples where things appear to be what they are due to subtraction rather than addition.

If we remove all energy, electromagnetic radiation from a point then what is left over is called zero point energy.

Dr. Bernard Haisch in his book "The God Theory" has beautifully explained these concepts of subtraction and the zero point energy. An interesting book to read provided one reads with an open mind and is open to alternate thinking.