This short clip was sent in by SISOT Baard Røsvik.

1. Professor George Gallup founder of The Gallup Poll, Princeton said in 1980: I believe that what Michael is doing with the School of Thinking may be the most important thing going on in the world today.
2. ITEM: One day in 1999, a multi-national corporation bought 6,800 copies of Software For Your Brain to give to all of their leaders to read.
3. Steve says: December 30th, 2008 at 9:15 am What a great book! My sides were splitting with laughter at points throughout the book as I associated them with individuals, companies & the religious zealots of today. This should be read by everyone that wants to think for themselves – very enlightening to know others thinking the same as I have been since a kid.  “Why?” What a great word to ask yourself & the person preaching their version of the truth! Happy to pronounce that – I am a bright!

There have been many international editions of this classic book over the past 20 years. It introduced the Universal Brain Software known as cvs2bvs.  Software For The Brain has now been read by thinkers in over 48 countries around the world.

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••• Click here for FREE DOWNLOAD NOW! …

(European Edition)

What Did The Pope Say About Child Abuse?

According to the Pope’s Pastoral letter he is “deeply disturbed by the information which has come to light regarding the abuse of children” . The Pope proposes “some concrete initiatives to address the situation”. His two main initiatives are “intense prayer” and “Apostolic visitations”:

Vatican Press Office: 20.03.2010:  Dear Brothers and Sisters of the Church in Ireland, it is with great concern that I write to you as Pastor of the universal Church. Like yourselves, I have been deeply disturbed by the information which has come to light regarding the abuse of children and vulnerable young people by members of the Church in Ireland, particularly by priests and religious. I can only share in the dismay and the sense of betrayal that so many of you have experienced on learning of these sinful and criminal acts and the way Church authorities in Ireland dealt with them.

… For the full letter click through to Vatican’s Press Office bulletin …

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What Did Jesus Say About Child Abuse?

Acording to the Catholic Bible (Douay-Rheims version) in Matthew Chapter 18, Jesus is passionate about the subject. He spells out, in detail, his view of the unique value and superior status of children in “the Kingdom of Heaven”. According to the Catholic Bible, Jesus condemns child abuse in no uncertain terms and with some of his strongest language on record:

1 At that hour the disciples came to Jesus, saying: Who thinkest thou is the greater in the kingdom of heaven? 2 And Jesus calling unto him a little child, set him in the midst of them, 3 And said: Amen I say to you, unless you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, he is the greater in the kingdom of heaven. 5 And he that shall receive one such little child in my name, receiveth me.

6 But he that shall scandalize one of these little ones that believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone should be  hanged about his neck, and that he should be drowned in the depth of the sea. 7 Woe to the world because of scandals. For it must needs be that scandals come: but nevertheless woe to that man by whom the scandal cometh. 8 And if thy hand, or thy foot scandalize thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee. It is better for thee to go into life maimed or lame, than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into everlasting fire. 9 And if thy eye scandalize thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee. It is better for thee having one eye to enter into life, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire. 10 See that you despise not one of these little ones: for I say to you, that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.

It took 51 years before hard disk drives reached the size of 1 TB (terabyte, i.e. 1,000 GB). This happened in 2007. In 2009, the first hard drive with 2 TB of storage arrived. So while it took 51 years to reach the first terabyte, it took just two years to reach the second.

This article looks back at how hard disk drives have evolved since they first burst onto the scene in 1956. We’ll examine the radical changes over time for three different aspects of HDDs: Size, storage space, and price.

••• Click through to this thought-provoking article …

From the book Psychology of Intelligence Analysis, “Several techniques for seeing alternative perspectives exploit the general principle of coming at the problem from a different direction and asking different questions. These techniques break your existing mind-set by causing you to play a different and unaccustomed role.”

Thinking Backwards. One technique for exploring new ground is thinking backwards. As an intellectual exercise, start with an assumption that some event you did not expect has actually occurred. Then, put yourself into the future, looking back to explain how this could have happened. Think what must have happened six months or a year earlier to set the stage for that outcome, what must have happened six months or a year before that to prepare the way, and so on back to the present.

Thinking backwards changes the focus from whether something might happen to how it might happen. Putting yourself into the future creates a different perspective that keeps you from getting anchored in the present. Analysts will often find, to their surprise, that they can construct a quite plausible scenario for an event they had previously thought unlikely. Thinking backwards is particularly helpful for events that have a low probability but very serious consequences should they occur, such as a collapse or overthrow of the Saudi monarchy.

Crystal Ball. The crystal ball approach works in much the same way as thinking backwards. Imagine that a “perfect” intelligence source (such as a crystal ball) has told you a certain assumption is wrong. You must then develop a scenario to explain how this could be true. If you can develop a plausible scenario, this suggests your assumption is open to some question.

Devil’s Advocate. A devil’s advocate is someone who defends a minority point of view. He or she may not necessarily agree with that view, but may choose or be assigned to represent it as strenuously as possible. The goal is to expose conflicting interpretations and show how alternative assumptions and images make the world look different.

••• Click through for original article …

••• Click through to CIA’s World Factbook …

University of Melbourne Student Entrepreneurs‘, Mark Parncutt, sits down with Michael to discuss issues on entrepreneurship among University students …

In April 2010 SOT will accept the first intake of qualified Esquires into the School of Chivalry. The motto of the School of Chivalry is QRH.

There will be ten candidate Esquires in the First Intake.

The purpose of the new school will be to provide coaching in the strategies of chivalry – training and service – to qualified candidates. Qualified candidates will be those who are on the SOT’s Roll of Thinking Instructors.

More information next week.

Caravaggio • Knight of Malta

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571 – 1610)
Portrait of a Knight of Malta, Fra Antonio Martelli, 1607-8
Oil on canvas
Galleria Palatina, Palazzo Pitti, Florence

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Australian Wisdom

All cultures have their unique perspective and Australia is no exception.

While humans all share the same gene pool there are many different human meme pools and many different human cultures.

Australia’s unique history and isolation has sometimes been a source of fascination for others around the world. Soviet Russia’s Vladimir Lenin once observed: “What sort of peculiar capitalist country is this in which the workers’ representatives predominate in the upper house….and yet the capitalist system is in no danger?”

Those Australians who have been clever enough and lucky enough to survive 50 years or more (400,000+ hours) of life have learned a thing or two. Here are some examples of their Grey Hat Thinking from Australians, old and older:

Kerry Packer – billionaire: Never complain, never explain.

Australian proverb: The bigger the hat, the smaller the property.

Elizabeth Blackburn – Nobel Laureate: I got it for curiosity.

General D.M. Mueller: As a leader you must celebrate life, you must celebrate success and paradoxically, you must celebrate heroic failures.

Jack Lang – Labor premier: Always back the horse named self-interest, son. It’ll be the only one trying.

Ann Daniel – Emeritus Professor of Sociology: Be gentle, become creative.

Henry Lawson – poet: I’ve never seen anyone rehabilitated by punishment.

Douglas Mawson – scientist and polar survivor: It’s dead easy to die; it’s the keeping on living that’s hard.

Dame Nellie Melba – opera singer: The first rule in opera is the first rule in life: see to everything yourself.

General Sir John Monash: Not lip service, nor obsequious homage to superiors, nor servile observance of forms and customs … the Australian army is proof that individualism is the best and not the worst foundation upon which to build up collective discipline.

Australian Aboriginal saying: May as well be here we are as where we are.

Danielle Wood – Author:  My grandfather, the remarkable man who inspired my first novel, The Alphabet of Light and Dark, once said to me: “There’s no such thing as biting off more than you can chew–you just take a big bite, and then chew like buggary”.

Bob Hawke – Prime Minister: Do you know why I have credibility? Because I don’t exude morality.

Ian Kiernan – organiser of Clean up Australia Day: Ordinary people need to lead and not sit there and think that governments are going to spoon feed them.

Saint Mary McKillop: Never see a need without doing something about it.

Harry (Breaker) Morant – executed soldier and poet: Shoot straight you bastards. Don’t make a mess of it.

Joan Kirner – Labor premier: There is no such thing as being non-political. Just by making a decision to stay out of politics you are making the decision to allow others to shape politics and exert power over you.

Convict saying: The law locks up the man who steals the goose from the common, but leaves the greater criminal loose who steals the common from the goose.

Ned Kelly – bushranger: If my lips teach the public that men are made mad by bad treatment, and if the police are taught that they may exasperate to madness men they persecute and ill treat, my life will not be entirely thrown away.

Errol Flynn: Flynn is not always in.

Sandra Cabot – physician and author: Real women don’t have flushes, they have power surges.

Arthur Calwell – politician: It is better to be defeated on principle than to win on lies.

Oenone Wood – Champion cyclist: As a child my mum told me I could do anything. I believed her.

Australian observation: If the guy next to you is swearing like a wharfie he’s probably a billionaire. Or, just conceivably, a wharfie.

Australian observation: There is nothing more Australian than spending time in somebody else’s country.

Anon: It may be that your sole purpose in life is to serve as a warning to others.

Dame Edna Everage: Never be afraid to laugh at yourself, after all, you could be missing out on the joke of the century.

Sir Robert Menzies – Prime Minister: A man may be a tough, concentrated, successful money-maker and never contribute to his country anything more than a horrible example.

Tom Dystra – Aboriginal man: We cultivated our land, but in a way different from the white man. We endeavoured to live with the land; they seemed to live off it.

Phillip Adams – journalist: The most intense hatreds are not between political parties but within them.

Australian Aboriginal proverb: Those who lose dreaming are lost.

Australian proverb: Its like the axe that’s had two new blades and three new handles but otherwise is just as it was when grandfather bought it.

Geoffrey Blainey – historian: Nationalism is both a vital medicine and a dangerous drug.

Don Bradman – cricket player: When you play test cricket, you don’t give the Englishmen an inch. Play it tough, all the way. Grind them into the dust.

Janet Holmes à Court – CEO: The company was quite hierarchical. I often think it was like a pyramid with Robert (husband Robert Holmes à Court) at the top and lots of us paying homage to him. I try to turn the pyramid upside down so that I’m at the bottom and bubbling away and encouraging people and energising them so that they are all empowered so that they can do what they need to do, now that’s the dream.

DFQ: What is your favourite example of Grey Hat Thinking?
Post your comment below …

In a 2007 interview I was asked to add one more hat to the original ’6 thinking hats’ developed by SOT in 1983.

I have designed the 7th Hat for Wisdom which is the Grey Thinking Hat.

Of all the original 6 Thinking Hats–White, Black, Yellow, Red, Green, Blue–the Grey Hat is also the Senior Hat.

(Master Vincent van Gogh’s Self Portrait with Grey Hat, Paris, 1887)

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EXPERIENCE + KNOWLEDGE = WISDOM

wisdom n. experience and knowledge together
with the power of applying them critically or practically
- Oxford English Dictionary

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FROM BLACK TO GREY

is all about the escape

from judgmental thinking to wisdom.

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Survival is clever and requires intelligence. Long term survival endows wisdom and this is a very clever thing, indeed

From the hard-won accomplishment of longevity emerges broad experience and special knowledge. It cannot be taught. It also offers a deep appreciation of the role that sheer random luck plays in long term survival.

My father was one of the wisest people I have ever known. He had a great deal of experience. In WWII he had served and survived in two theatres of war. He received a classical education, was widely read and had a great deal of knowledge and common sense. He was also very lucky. He survived bowel cancer, completely, and other narrow escapes. He’s used to say, “Nobody’s perfect”. How right he was!

The Grey Thinking Hat is for Wisdom.

The experience of surviving for a complete generation through childhood, adolescence and adulthood endows knowledge and perspective that a young brain simply cannot match.

To achieve 50 years of survival, through two or more generations, allows the brain to build a database of experience which offers a perspective of history, an understanding of long term consequences, a faculty for prediction and a wisdom that cannot be acquired in any other way. It takes half a century.

••• Click through for the rest of this article …

Wikipedia: A Rube Goldberg machine is a deliberately over engineered machine that performs a very simple task in a very complex fashion, usually including a chain reaction.

The expression is named after American cartoonist and inventor Rube Goldberg. Since then, the expression has expanded to denote any form of overly confusing or complicated system.

Here’s a recent example, a 2010 music video by rock band OK Go entitled This Too Shall Pass …