i-TFTD #241: On Intelligent Thinking

#241-1. Many highly intelligent people are poor thinkers. Many people of average intelligence are skilled thinkers. The power of a car is separate from the way a car is driven.
-Edward de Bono

#241-2. The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.
-Bill Gates

#241-3. Desperation is sometimes as powerful an inspirer as genius.
-Benjamin Disraeli

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Edward de Bono has written more books on teaching practical thinking than anybody else. Most of his 70+ books are boring repetitions of a few points but I recommend his “Serious Creativity” and “Lateral Thinking”. His use of the word intelligence may be unusual to some. We rarely distinguish between thinking ability and intelligence, a broader term that incorporates knowledge of facts and language skills. Concentration and practice help improve thinking. What I like to call "mental laziness" is a barrier. I find that people with above-average intelligence within their circle of acquaintances are more prone to mental laziness.

Automation (or improved efficiency) is a double-edged sword that needs to be carefully applied to an effective, correct process.

Desperation can be artificially created as Andy Grove did at Intel (he wrote, "Only the Paranoid Survive") and Bill Gates did in 1995 when Microsoft was perceived as lagging behind the Internet trend. They both believed in creating a crisis in their company when the external market or competition did not.