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A review by gautamgopalk
The Mechanism of Mind by Edward de Bono
slow-paced
1.0
The Mechanism of Mind by Edward de Bono was published in 1969 where the author tries to present some toy models of how the mind works based on its functionality. The book is divided into two parts with the first part focussing on what the author calls "the memory surface" and the second part focusing on types of thinking. The book slowly builds up to focus the reader's attention on lateral thinking as opposed to natural, mathematical or logical thinking.
Despite writing this in simple English and with many examples, it is a very dry read. The content is repetitive and the writing is exhausting. Reading this book can feel like a chore and it seems quite outdated since most concepts presented in this book seem childishly obvious. There isn't anything scientific in this book and the author concedes as much towards the end of the book, since the motivation is to merely present some simplistic models of the mind and implore the readers to think about lateral thinking. His later book Po: Beyond Yes and No published in 1973 might be a better read than The Mechanism of Mind for the curious reader, although neither are great.
Despite writing this in simple English and with many examples, it is a very dry read. The content is repetitive and the writing is exhausting. Reading this book can feel like a chore and it seems quite outdated since most concepts presented in this book seem childishly obvious. There isn't anything scientific in this book and the author concedes as much towards the end of the book, since the motivation is to merely present some simplistic models of the mind and implore the readers to think about lateral thinking. His later book Po: Beyond Yes and No published in 1973 might be a better read than The Mechanism of Mind for the curious reader, although neither are great.