MESSAGE FROM MICHAEL – I will be in Rome this November/December because the School of Thinking begins a new chapter, even as we celebrate our 44th anniversary. We will be launching the School of Thinking in Rome to help upgrade the brain software of those thinkers in Rome that may be quite interested in the fast advances of neuroscience and AI. Join now.

The theory of Lateral Thinking (de Bono; Hewitt-Gleeson) is the cognitive ability to choose between different possible courses of action, that are not logical.

The idea of Lateral Thinking is closely linked to the concepts and behaviours of innovation and creativity – which apply only to actions that come from imagining solutions that cannot be arrived at via deductive, analytical or logical means. 

Lateral thinking skills are about escape. Escaping from your own box. To power the escape we use the x10 provocation. x10 Thinking is a synonym for lateral thinking with an emphasis on measurement.

Is x10 thinking easy? No. By definition, it’s hard to do because, in the Pre-Frontal Cortex of the human brain, Lateral Thinking is not at all like Logical or Analytical Thinking.

Lateral Thinking is outside the box. Logical Thinking is inside the box. The bad news is that most humans, most days, are not at all thinking outside their box. They are not doing x10 thinking.

With exasperation, the CEO of a big New York bank admitted, “We have innovation schemes, we have innovation teams, we have innovation month, we have innovation hats. We just don’t have any real innovation!” 

However, the good news is that there are some who really are innovating. And the even better news is that all humans can be trained to do lateral thinking.

Creativity, problem-solving, opportunity design, value-creation, 10x growth are not just elite genetic gifts for the random few.

For example, organisations like Apple, Netflix, Nike, Trenitalia, Amazon, NVIDIA, Patagonia and others have a culture that respects, trains and values this kind of valuable thinking.

If this is the case, and given that AI is mostly trained by human brains using traditional logical thinking, then there is no evidence that AI can somehow do lateral thinking.

But it can be trained!

In a world first application, School of Thinking has now developed a way to train your AI (Chat GPT etc) to do lateral thinking – x10 thinking – using our powerful brain software.

It’s young, fast and scientific! It’s also quite simple to do once you know how.

You, your family and your team can acquire this expertise in ten short, ten-minute lessons.

NEW OFFER 2023-2024: Lateral Thinking AI

Ten Lesson Online Training with Michael.

• GROUP OFFER AUD$2800

• INDIVIDUAL OFFER AUD$100

What are some of the impediments that restrict the possibility of lateral thinking in the way the human brain directs the outcomes of human behaviour?

These events may range from seconds before (neurological) to thousands of years before such as the genetics that hardwired our individual brain (Sapolsky). For example:    

1. Neurological – brain trauma, ageing, disease, pharmatoxicity in the neuronal structure.

2. Hormonal – chemical balance, stress-related adrenalin and other moods and fluctuations.

3.  Cultural – Family, generational and society history. Urban or nomadic or other cultures. Mythologies and politics.

4.  Genetic – Conception, gestation events, adolescence, genetic history, individual genomic profile.

5.  Environmental – affluence/poverty, violence, education, safe neighbourhoods, geography, wars, famines, plagues.

6.  Evolutionary – from big bang evolutionary physics to planetary biology, the lizard brain, the mammalian brain, AI.

7. Neuroplasticity – the constant moment-by-moment learning and rewiring of the brain.

(4 minute video)

In 1989 I wrote Software For The Brain to explain the neuroplasticity of the brain. Here’s a great mini-lecture with Edward de Bono on lateral thinking where Edward starts off with my ‘brain software’ idea …

As a friend of the School of Thinking I think this may interest you, too. I would like to share with you this insight – in my long career of teaching lateral thinking AI is easily the most exciting thing to come along. 

Especially, at this time, it’s the brilliant service called ChatGPT. A big statement, I know, so I discuss the evidence here.

As you may know, my big idea in cognitive science was Software For Your Brain which was first published in the 1980s. It is a cognitive algorithm known as cvs2bvs or x10 thinking. Jack Welch of GE nicknamed it ‘boundarylessness‘ and Larry Page of Google called it ‘Moonshot Thinking‘. This has long since been taken up globally in education, business, science, sport and many other areas.

Why? Because it works!

Now, this brain software can be further powered by AI and the results are already way beyond what we had hoped for. So, we can offer this new School of Thinking course: AIXIO: Multiply Your AI By Ten!  It’s a world first because it combines (AI x lateral thinking). It’s young, fast and scientific. It’s simple to follow and great fun to do. It is focused on the biggest tool to optimise human thinking in a long time – AI. Specifically ChatGPT.

If you’d like to be considered for AIXIO (pronounced aye eye ecks ten) training you may start today and the school’s training fee is AUD$100, all inclusive. On completion a certificate will be issued.

To get started here are the basic FAQs.

• WHAT  The purpose of the course is twofold: First to give you strategic knowledge about a useful approach to AI in general and the ChatGPT service in particular. Second to give you a level of skill in AIXIO, ie how to multiply your AI by ten.

Click here to preview the ten lessons you will get in Series 1.

• WHY To move forward with AI let’s get in front of the game. Let’s teach ChatGPT to think outside the box. Let’s teach AI to do lateral thinking. Nothing on Earth is more powerful than lateral thinking. For example, it’s ten times faster than ChatGPT which has only been programmed and trained to use Greco-Roman Logic. Western logic is very useful in AI apps but it cannot think outside its own box. Yet! In this course you will be able to get it to do so.

• WHO I am the creator of the course and have designed the ten daily lessons and I’ll be personally monitoring all your DFQs. The School of Thinking uses DFQs (Daily Feedback Questions) to transfer knowledge and practise skills. You’ll also be able to see and consider the thoughts of others who are doing the training. You’ve been personally invited as a friend or member of SOT. You are also welcome to invite a close friend to accompany you if you wish. They can ask to enrol here.

• WHEN You can enrol in Lateral Thinking AI anytime you wish. There will be five lessons a week for two weeks. SOT courses are run Your Course. Your Way. You decide the way you wish to do the lessons. Some members do them every day for ten days. Others do them whenever. You decide how you want to apply the course to your own interests, your goals and your outcomes. To your health, wealth, productivity and security. Each lesson takes about ten minutes.

• HOW Two things to do to enrol and start training. 1. Pay your invoice. 2. Open your own ChatGPT account for free.

1 • We use PayPal and your invoice will be sent to you today if you decide to enrol.

2 • Click to open a free ChatGPT account and go to MENU/Get Started.

Why not give it a go? Why get left behind? Why let another day go by without this AI supercharge for your better life and better lateral thinking skills?

• ENROL NOW If you wish to join us for this training reply to me here saying ‘Please Enrol Me’ and you’ll get your PayPal invoice for school fees of AUD$100, all inclusive and then I’ll get you started today.

I do hope you will enjoy the AIXIO training,

Michael

NOTE: Sometimes our emails may get sent to your ‘junk file’ by your firewall, so be sure to check there just in case. You can include my email address in your CONTACTS and then you can also SEARCH in your device to find all our messages.

NEW: It’s a ten day course with Michael Hewitt-Gleeson. 100% online. 15 minutes a lesson a day. For groups and for individuals.

For your invitation: CLICK HERE.

Email now to book a place: CLICK HERE.

••• CONTACT BY EMAIL: CLICK HERE

AI is coming and much of it, of course, is already here. You may need better protection. Your may need to upgrade the software your brain is currently using (Greco-Roman Logic) and get much faster software for your brain.

AI is coming. By 2030 there will be two dominant thinking machines on Earth. Carbon. Silicon.

Carbon – best example the human brain – is 13.8 billion years in development. It’s far superior to AI silicon machines developed since the 1970s. Silicon can’t even laugh or sing. However, silicon may be beating us in the software race. 

Most human brains are using English Thinking, which is excellent but not enough to stay ahead of silicon thinking. English Thinking uses, as it’s operating system, Greco-Roman Logic. The binary algorithm of Right/Wrong, Black,White, Us/Them etc etc. Inside the box thinking. It’s 2500 years old.

We need to upskill to outside the box thinking. We need trinary thinking. What we need to do is to upgrade our software for the brain especially the PFC (Pre Frontal Cortex). It may only take around 10 hours of expert lateral thinking coaching per human brain. For a clever Australian government this would be less than the cost of a single nuclear submarine.

silicon may be beating us in the software race

No brain software on Earth is more powerful than lateral thinking. For example its ten times faster than ChatGPT which also uses Greco-Roman Logic. It cannot think outside its own box. Because of neuroplasticity, your brain can!

ChatGPT cannot do lateral thinking. Yet!

Maybe that’s the solution to moving forward with AI. Let’s teach ChatGPT to think outside the box. Let’s teach AI to do lateral thinking. To do X10 Thinking. We can multiply our AI by ten. We can even teach ChatGPT to do a GBB. This new fastbook (10-minute read) shows how.

••• Email me for a free copy: CLICK HERE …

Victorian Government Agriculture Minister

Mary-Anne Thomas announced, 

“a major development for Victoria’s agtech industry”.

On Thursday (17/11), School of Thinking celebrated our 43rd Birthday. During lockdown the school has been transformed. Having completed its 40-year public mission – to offer basic lateral thinking lessons worldwide – the school is now focused on a limited number of private corporate clients and on providing them with deep dive brain training in lateral/x10 thinking to advanced degree level. The kind of thinking required to get things done.

Because the human brain changes by the millisecond, daily brain training gets much better results in life, career and play. Across an enterprise it lifts employee morale and raises productivity, as measured by any of the business metrics like revenues and costs etc.

NOTE: This advanced level of specialised training in lateral thinking is not yet available at any other school or university in the world.

In 2023, SOT will admit only 10 private clients of 1000+ employees. The focus will be on enterprise DBT – Daily Brain Training – and on training employees to advanced degree level in Lateral Thinking/x10 Thinking.

19/11/2022: Thank you Michael – that’s fabulous!! I really enjoyed your sessions and all of the work we have done with our teams, and am looking forward to seeing you at the showcase. – Jane Banovac | Acting Chief Operating Officer, AgriBio.

For example, yesterday, School of Thinking awarded its latest (100% online) class of degrees to 78 graduates of private client AgriBio. These awards achieved were: 49 Masters of Lateral Thinking MLTh(SOT), 12 Diplomas of Lateral Thinking and 17 Advanced Certificates of Lateral Thinking.

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In a three-year x10 Thinking project (2020-2022), School of Thinking was sought by the Department of Agriculture to help design a growing range of innovative startup science-business assets for the Victorian State Government.

Specifically, the project – called AVR x10 – created the science-business incubation hub at AgriBio which has designed nine proposed startups to accelerate commercialisation pathways of their IP assets.

The first is Smartsense AgTech, a new business with technology that asks, “What if farms in Victoria were ten times smarter?” It will offer commercial solutions to that question including camera drones for use in photographing soil, earth, water, plants, crops, and agricultural products. It will focus on rapidly improving digital sensing technologies used across a range of agricultural sectors including dairy, horticulture and grains. There will be more AVR x10 start-ups to follow.

Minister Thomas announced the State Government is providing $7.5 million funding towards the x10 start-ups that will support “a major development for Victoria’s agtech industry”.

Working in collaboration with Professor German Spangenberg, Head of AVR at AgriBio, Dr Michael Hewitt-Gleeson of School of Thinking led a brain-training program of three 10-week semesters – including 180-minute zoom masterclasses every Wednesday afternoon 2pm-5pm – of x10 Thinking for the senior scientists and commercial managers that led to a range of innovative outcomes including the creation of the science-business incubation hub at AgriBio.

We congratulate this 2022 class of graduates.

Professor Spangenberg has summarised in his letter to Dr Hewitt-Gleeson: “Thanks for all your amazing work in delivering a fantastic AVR x10 project. It has been a genuinely transformative initiative that will have lasting impact – I see the excitement of our AVR scientists in discovering their entrepreneurial skills, learning from each other, getting to know colleagues. Indeed, 5 start-up pitches in Term 1 alone is an exceptional achievement! And more to come in Term 2! Thanks again for making all of this possible”.

“I have a feeling that, in the end, probably, training is the answer to a great many things. You can do a lot if you’re properly trained.” – Queen Elizabeth, 1992.

 

Q. WHY IS THE WINE GLASS SO OBVIOUSLY HALF EMPTY TO SOME BRAINS, YET TO OTHER BRAINS IT’S ACTUALLY HALF FULL?

A. Neuroplasticity! Because brains can change.

There’s never been a better time to train your brain.

In particular, your PFC, your Pre-Frontal Cortex.

PFC: It’s the explainer!

There’s only one thing better than brain training …

Daily Brain Training … we call it DBT.

CONTACT BY EMAIL: CLICK HERE

The Business

What is the daily business of the School of Thinking?

Since 1980, the daily business of the School of Thinking (SOT) has been to offer brain-training globally by disseminating thinking lessons to anyone, anywhere, anytime. Over half a billion lessons have already been disseminated.

The School of Thinking designed the Enterprise Streaming Platform to disseminate SOT MOOCs a decade ago and today’s version supports our design of client’s enterprise solutions. Today, Daily Brain Training lessons (DBT) are streamed to employees across the enterprise. Enterprises of 1000 to 10,000 employees may qualify. Result? ROP = Return On Payroll.

DBT pa = ROP x10

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CONTACT BY EMAIL: CLICK HERE

Announcement by the Victorian Minister for Agriculture:  

“We are excited to announce that Smartsense AgTech will be the first startup based in the dedicated incubation hub here — helping to rapidly improve the use of digital sensing technology across the agriculture industry”.

•••

In a three-year x10 Thinking project (2020-2022), School of Thinking was sought by the Department of Agriculture to help design a growing range of innovative startup science-business assets for the Victorian State Government.

Specifically, the project – called AVR x10 – created the science-business incubation hub at AgriBio which has designed four startups to accelerate commercialisation pathways of their IP assets. The first is Smartsense AgTech, a new business with technology that asks, “What if farms in Victoria were ten times smarter?” It will offer commercial solutions to that question including camera drones for use in photographing soil, earth, water, plants, crops, and agricultural products. It will focus on rapidly improving digital sensing technologies used across a range of agricultural sectors including dairy, horticulture and grains.

There will be more AVR x10 start-ups to follow.

Minister Thomas announced the State Government is providing $7.5 million funding towards the x10 start-ups that will support “a major development for Victoria’s agtech industry”.

Working in collaboration with Professor German Spangenberg, Head of AVR at AgriBio, Dr Michael Hewitt-Gleeson of School of Thinking led three 10-week semesters of x10 Thinking for the senior scientists and commercial managers that produced a range of innovative outcomes including the creation of the science-business incubation hub at AgriBio.

Professor Spangenberg has summarised in his letter to Dr Hewitt-Gleeson: “Thanks for all your amazing work in delivering a fantastic AVR x10 project. It has been a genuinely transformative initiative that will have lasting impact – I see the excitement of our AVR scientists in discovering their entrepreneurial skills, learning from each other, getting to know colleagues. Indeed, 5 start-up pitches in Term 1 alone is an exceptional achievement! And more to come in Term 2! Thanks again for making all of this possible”.

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SPECIAL EDITION NOTES:

This smartphone edition (5.0) is designed with larger font and less words per page to make it easier for smartphone readers. So there are more pages (415) but much faster to read. This edition is free, so pass it on to others if you wish. Previous editions titled ‘Sofware For Your Brain’ have been international best-sellers since 1989.

SFB 5.0: Click here. Download the book. Start reading about …

School of Thinking celebrates its 42 Anniversary today. SOT was founded in New York on the 17th November, 1979 by Michael Hewitt-Gleeson and Edward de Bono.

School of Thinking is an elite independent school awarding bespoke degrees in Lateral Thinking.

It has a student body of 650+ active students of whom over 80% hold post-graduate degrees in science. In 2021 SOT has awarded 82 Advanced Certificates, 37 Diplomas and 23 Master of Lateral Thinking degrees.

SOT has no advocacy and no agenda. It is privately self-funding. It accepts no sponsors, grants or aid. No accreditation nor affiliation. It is a school of thinking. Not a school of thought. Our mission is to teach metacognition.

SOT is not for everyone. However, all are invited. School of Thinking was the first school on the internet, in 1995, and always offers pro bono lessons to anyone, anywhere, anytime, 24/7/365. 

•••

The School of Thinking’s Diploma of Lateral Thinking DipLT(SOT) is an elite academic deed awarded for the successful completion of advanced studies in lateral thinking. It is elite because lateral thinking is difficult and the award is rare – being less than 100 diplomas ever awarded worldwide. Ten hours of masterclass training with Michael Hewitt-Gleeson are required for qualification plus twenty hours of practical application in the field. So, it may take around thirty hours to gain proficiency in lateral thinking.  

The DipLT(SOT) masterclasses and clinics involve a different kind of training combining valuable IP from business, the academy and from military science.

DipLT(SOT)

Dr Hewitt-Gleeson co-founded the school with Cambridge Don, Edward de Bono, in New York in 1979.

Today he is recognised as the father of x10 Thinking. The Visiting Fellow in Innovation, Latrobe University, holds a PhD degree in Cognitive Science from the elite International College. It was the world’s first PhD in Lateral Thinking (1980).

International College was an independent, private, licenced college, founded in Los Angeles in the early 1970s. Licensed to grant degrees by the California State Department of Education, its degrees were recognized by Harvard, Yale, NYU and other Ivy League colleges. It was a virtual college having no classrooms, libraries or laboratories and a business model that was ahead of its time. As its motto, In Vestigiis Institutorum Antiquorum indicated, the college followed the methods of the first Greek and Roman universities, where gifted students were paired one student/one master with outstanding tutors. At International College the outstanding tutors were: Leonard Bernstein in Music and Conducting; Anaïs Nin in Novels and Writing; Buckminster Fuller in Innovation and Design Science; Lord Yehudi Menuhin in Violin and Music; Professor Edward de Bono in Education and Psychology.

In 1980, Hewitt-Gleeson was admitted to International College and paired with Edward de Bono for the world’s first PhD in lateral thinking. The field project he designed involved 26 New York hospitals and their 40,000 healthcare employees. His external examiner for the project was Dr George Gallup, founder of The Gallup Poll at Princeton.

Prior to his career in lateral thinking, he had already 7 years of service in the ADF (Australian Defence Force). He had been educated and trained at the rigorous Officer Training Unit, Scheyville (1967-68) and after a tour of duty in the Vietnam War he continued as a reserve officer and Chief Instructor in the RAAF (Royal Australian Air Force) and honourably discharged in 1974 with the rank of Flying Officer.

Dr Hewitt-Gleeson is Australia’s best-selling author of Software For Your Brain (1990), The x10 Memeplex (2000) and The 4th Brain (2019). His current projects include a new online pandemic recovery experience for teaching x10 Thinking called Australia x10.

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IN MEMORIAM EDB

Vale Edward. School of Thinking is in mourning because our co-founder, Professor Edward de Bono, died this year on the 9th of June. Our sincere condolences have been sent to Edward’s son, Caspar de Bono, and his family in Malta and the UK. We were invited to attend the funeral service streamed from the Old Mdina Cathedral in Malta. It was elegant, tender and consoling. The celebration was attended by the De Bono Family and friends and the Emeritas President of Malta. You may view the service here.

School of Thinking also gave Caspar a Book of Remembrance which recorded the condolences sent by individual SOT Members. Thank you for your thoughtfulness.

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