Product Description

In an increasingly complex world 'simplicity' is going to be a key value. The pace of change is not going to stop so we have to make a conscious effort to make things simpler. Edward de Bono is in an ideal position to write such a book because of his vast experience in the area of creativity, design and perception. In a powerful and simple way he shows us how very often a lateral thinking approach can simplify a complex matter.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #45666 in Books
• Published on: 1999-08-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

About the Author
Edward de Bono's backlist titles include bestsellers such as: TEXTBOOK OF WISDOM, TEACH YOURSELF TO THINK, SIX THINKING HATS, I AM RIGHT YOU ARE WRONG, TEACH YOUR CHILD HOW TO THINK and WATER LOGIC. He lives in London, W1

Customer Reviews

A very good book
This is a great book and I wish that I had read it years ago.

Edward de Bono not only makes the case for simplicity but he exhorts us to pursue it and he gives us a framework for doing so.

I can look back on many occasions when I wish I could whipped out such a book from my briefcase and thumped it in front of the annoying or imbecilic person with whom I was dealing at the time and said "Go home, read that, then come back and resume this discussion".

I find that I have underlined many useful comments or ideas. My favourite is possibly this:

"An expert is someone who has succeeded in making decisions and judgements simpler through knowing what to pay attention to and what to ignore." On the other side of the coin, de Bono has some harsh words for people who try to establish themselves as experts by making things more complex and more difficult to understand. Keep this in mind when dealing with "experts".

The book loses points for being way too long. In the edition I read, the main text was printed only on the right hand pages and an extract or summary of that text was printed in large letters on the facing left hand page, thereby turning a 150 page book into a 300 page book. Very irritating. Indeed, in illustrating a point in the book, de Bono says that he could have made the book - by which I assume he is referring to the main text on the right hand pages - shorter (simpler) but his publishers told him that it had to be a certain length! So, by his own admission (or, perhaps, apology) this should have been a 50 page book.

It's a pity, because it would have been a better book if it had been simplified.

Maybe one day de Bono will take a leaf out of his own book and simplify his main works into a single slim volume. It must be satisfying to look back on a life's work filling the bookshelves, but how much more satisfying would it be to have that life's work in a single volume and thereby easily accessible. It could be called "The Readers Digest de Bono", or "The Best of de Bono" or, perhaps, ideally, "de Bono Simplified".

excellent
"All the best ideas are simple" - so they say and this book is no exception. It makes you really think about the whole meaning of simplicity and what an amazing thing it would be if people genuinely valued it as a quality. Anyone who has ever battled with programming their video recorder will wish the designer had read this book first !

I understand the earlier reviewers frustration with the apparent repetition - but I would defend this as De Bono's way of trying to make a fundamental point - he comes at it by giving lots of examples in the hope that one of them rings a bell with you and then ahhh - suddenly you get it...! Perhaps not everyone needs that but I personally found that entirely forgivable in the context of this very interesting and thought provoking book.

Simply simple
This book doesn't have the same potency as other De Mono books and I can't see his new word Simping making the dictionary the way Lateral Thinking did but I think it succeeds in what it sets out to do.
I have got some new ideas and thinking tools from reading this book so I think it's well worth the cover price. Simplicity is hugely important in my life and I am glad there is a book that looks at the subject without going down the much trampled self help path an its often meaningless 'spiritual' slant.
This book will also act as a good reference when life gets a bit complex.
De Bono also exposes the motives behind those too superior to read or write simlified texts, let this be a warning to everyone predisposed to French Philosophical meanderings.