How to Become a Better Lateral Thinker or What I Learned From Edward De Bono

Strategies to be a better lateral thinker from the Father of Lateral Thinking

I can’t remember how I discovered lateral thinking puzzles but I do remember why I became fascinated with them — often the puzzles revealed an underlying assumption that was made without us knowing about it which, when actually challenged, would reveal the solution to the puzzle.

Here’s an example problem — see if you can get to the answer (typically, the person posing the lateral thinking puzzle would know the answer and the responder can ask as many yes or no questions as possible).

A man buys three bananas for a dollar. He then turns around and sells five bananas for a dollar. In this process, he becomes a millionaire. How?

I have asked this question to a lot of friends and co-workers who ask if there’s something funny about the bananas, is it the same dollar (currency) that he is buying and selling for, maybe he’s using the bananas to do something in between which results in additional profits, etc. I’ll reveal the answer at the end of this post.

As I was browsing a used book sale, I saw several books by Edward de Bono — having recognized his name as the authority in lateral…