This is an evergreen note that I will be revisit regularly to develop a comprehensive list of note-taking approaches including their practical implementations in various software tools. This post will serve as an elaborate table of contents, including a brief introductory discussion on the importance of note-taking, followed by a high-level walkthrough of each method. Links to posts and videos with detailed examples and descriptions will follow over the coming weeks and months.

We live in a complex world. Our life is complex. This post will help you reflect on the cost of complexity.

The objective of this post is to introduce the concept of lateral thinking and to share four simple and fun exercises for creative thinking. The post is based on Edward De Bono's work.  The lateral thinking model is based on his book The Mechanism of Mind: Understand how your mind works to maximise memory and creative potential , and  The four exercises are based on How to Have Creative Ideas: 62 Exercises to Develop the Mind . How thinking patterns are formed Imagine a bed of nails, except that instead of nails we use pins with blunt heads and we lay a thin plastic film on the heads covering the entire bed. Now imagine that we spray water on this surface. As you can imagine, because the film is laid on the pins loosely, water will start to collect in puddles. The puddles will form in arbitrary locations largely depending on luck. It is not hard to see, that the next time we spray water on the surface it will gravitate towards the existing puddles, making those larger....

Photo by  Frank Cone  from  Pexels “As I considered the importance of language and how human beings interact with the world, it struck me that in many ways the development of language was like the discovery of fire — it was such an incredible primordial force. I had always thought that we used language to  describe  the world — now I was seeing that this is not the case. To the contrary, it is through language that we  create  the world, because it's nothing until we describe it. And when we describe it, we create distinctions that govern our actions. To put it another way, we do not describe the world we see, but we see the world we describe .” Joseph Jaworski I read about this concept in one of Edward de Bono’s books, but when I was looking for it now, I couldn’t find in which one. I first came across this thought 20 years ago. This has profoundly shaped the way I see the world. I hope it will inspire...

Photo by  Markus Spiske  from  Pexels Three Sentences - a disciplined way to deal with email Source: http://three.sentenc.es/ The Problem:  E-mail takes too long to respond to, resulting in continuous inbox overflow for those who receive a lot. The Solution:  Treat all email responses like SMS text messages or Tweets, using a set number of letters per response. Since it’s too hard to count letters, count sentences instead. Three Sentences is a personal policy that all email responses regardless of recipient or subject will be three sentences or fewer. It’s that simple. Photo by  Anna Tarazevich  from  Pexels Advice hack - ask the Master In a high stakes situation, when the other party is a master at his / her game. e.g. when selling your used car to a dealer.  Ask for advice from the master as to answer his/her own question. Salesman: "What is your asking price?" You: "You are ...

In today's short post I will explore thinking tools developed by Edward De Bono targeted at better understanding the other person involved in a disagreement or negotiation situation. De Bono argues that Western civilization is built on the concept of conflict where two sides if they have a difference in opinion fight it out. In the end one side typically wins, the other side loses. De Bono calls the Western approach the "Clash System".  As an alternative De Bono recommends an approach that seeks to "lead out" or "pull out" of the situation what is of value - no matter on which slide it is to be found. He argues that this is more then compromise or consensus. Compromise is still within the clash system and suggests that both sides give up something in order to gain something. Consensus means staying in the part of a proposal on which everyone is agreed on. He offers the idea of "osmosis" where there are no opposing or var...

It is a process which brings order out of nothing but ourselves; it cannot be attained, but it will happen of its own accord, if we will only let it. Although the process is precise, and can be defined in exact scientific terms, finally it becomes valuable, not so much because it shows us things which we don't know, but instead, because it shows us what we know already, only daren't admit because it seems so childish, and so primitive. Christopher Alexander Thinking is like dancing. You must learn the moves, but once you've internalized them you dance from your heart, not your mind. Algorithms of Thought (AoT) are the moves, but you are the dancer. Professional performers regularly practice their moves. Highly effective thinkers must practice their AoTs. The world is complex. My purpose is not to oversimplify the process of thinking by defining a pattern language for thinking. I want to develop a path, that if we follow we can ...

Edward De Bono is the Master of Lateral Thinking and Creativity. This is part 1 of a series of posts planned to introduce different algorithms of thought (AoT) or thinking tools as Mr. De Bono refers to them. Today I will summarize six of the most basic algorithms covered in his book Teach Your Child How to Think . Don't be misled by the term  "most basic" . These AoTs may look deceptively simple, however it is very hard to consistently impalement them. They are fundamental building blocks of robust thinking. This article will introduce each of the six algorithms. It will include simple examples to demonstrate their use and will also include interactive templates you can copy to your database in case you are using Roam for note-taking. The templates are based on SmartBlocks available in Roam42 . Download the Roam.JSON with the SmartBlocks. The traditional emphasis in thinking has always been on logic . This is what we've been drill...