When the positive revolution takes hold it will no longer be enough for politicians to gain points through attack or being negative. Politicians will be expected to be constructive.
We need creativity in order to break free from the temporary structures that have been set up by a particular sequence of experience.
There is no doubt that creativity is the most important human resource of all. Without creativity, there would be no progress, and we would be forever repeating the same patterns.
Creativity involves provocation, exploration and risk taking. Creativity involves “thought experiments.” You cannot tell in advance how the experiment is going to turn out. But you want to be able to carry out the experiment.
The image that concerns most people is the reflection they see in other people’s minds.
It is not the logical part of thinking that changes emotions but the perceptual part. If we see something differently, our emotions may alter with the altered perception. (p64)
Most of the mistakes in thinking are inadequacies of perception rather than mistakes of logic.
There may be more danger in prejudices which are apparently founded in logic than in those which are acknowledged as emotions. (p69)
The need to be right all the time is the biggest bar to new ideas. It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong than to be always right by having no ideas at all.
We may have a perfectly adequate way of doing something, but that does not mean there cannot be a better way. So we set out to find an alternative way. This is the basis of any improvement that is not fault correction or problem solving.
The solid wealth of insurance companies and the success of those who organize gambling are some indication of the profits to be derived from the efficient use of chance.
A myth is a fixed way of looking at the world which cannot be destroyed because looked at through the myth all evidence supports that myth.
Removing the faults in a stage-coach may produce a perfect stage-coach but it is unlikely to produce the first motor car.
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 the car is driven.
It has always surprised me how little attention philosophers have paid to humor, since it is a more significant process of mind than reason. Reason can only sort out perceptions, but the humor process is involved in changing them.
Humor is by far the most significant activity of the human brain.
Humor is probably the most significant characteristics of the human mind. Far more significant than reason. In fact, reason is actually a very cheap commodity.
It’s always amazed me how little attention philosophers, psychologists, or anyone else actually has paid to humor.
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 the car is driven.
Argument is meant to reveal the truth, not to create it.
Removing the faults in a stage-coach may produce a perfect stage-coach, but it is unlikely to produce the first motor car.
To be successful you have to be lucky, or a little mad, or very talented, or find yourself in a rapid growth field.
Studies have shown that 90% of error in thinking is due to error in perception. If you can change your perception, you can change your emotion and this can lead to new ideas.