EDWARD DE BONO'S MESSAGE
31st December 1997

"Concepts...."

This message is slightly late for 'operational reasons'. When a flight delay is announced and it cannot be blamed on the weather or on air traffic control then it is 'operational reasons'. These may vary from a faulty fuel pump to a pilot hgaving overslept or the cabin crew having difficulty finding a taxi. In general we do not use concepts enough. People, especially Americans, prefer concrete hands-on detail to vague academic concepts. Nor do we have the language for concepts (yet). Blurry and vague concepts are the 'junctions' in our minds. Without such junctions we could only go from detail to detail. At the same time it is also true that some people use concepts in order to avoid having to be specific. You can decide to provide 'incentives' but are reluctant to spell out what these might be.

Concepts can be blurry words which cover a whole range of things: democracy, ecology, education etc. Concepts may also arise to cover a combination of elements in order to save us the trouble of having to spell out all the elements each time: road rage, nerd, grunge etc.

There are no new tasks this week because there are many tasks which are still open on this site. Bontos continue to come in and some of them are very good indeed.

The end of year comes much too soon
To think of ways we need to prune
We carry on much as before
Continuing is such a bore!

As regards New Year resolutions I suggest two:

1. Use some deliberate creative thinking at least once a week - possibly on this site.
2. Let others, who might benefit, know about this site.

A Happy and Thoughtful New Year!

Edward de Bono
30th December 1997
Malta