Skip to main content

Lateral Thinking by Edward de Bono

This was one of the most valuable books I read all year. It has certain problems (one of which is the author's inability to use a comma!), but this book will teach a patient reader anything and everything about how to think creatively. 

Some notes/reminders: 

* The mind as a self-maximizing memory system that grabs set patterns and is resistant to letting go of mentally acquired patterns and conceptions. 
* Sequence of arrival of information and how it locks in certain conceptual frameworks. 
* Logical/vertical thinking (where every step has to be judged/right), vs lateral thinking where you embrace being wrong on purpose, deliberate restructuring of inputs and information, etc. 
* Use of the made-up word "PO" as a conversational/cognitive trigger for lateral thinking, both linguistically and conceptually.

More Posts

How to Make Money in Any Market by Jim Cramer

Not Cramer's best, although there are insights here. I recommend instead two of Cramer's earlier works: Real Money: Sane Investing in an Insane World  and Getting Back to Even . The central idea in  How to Make Money in Any Market  is to structure your portfolio with roughly half of your assets in a low-fee S&P 500 index fund, and roughly the other half in five or so carefully researched "hero" stocks that are meant to be long-term secular growers and compounders over time. A remaining sliver of your portfolio should be in some sort of hedge: gold or Bitcoin [1] . Chapter 7 walks readers through this elegant portfolio structure. [A quick  affiliate link to Amazon  for those readers who would like to support my work here: if you purchase your Amazon products via any affiliate link from this site, or from my sister site  Casual Kitchen , I will receive a small affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you!] The books' weaknesses show u...
Read more

Best and Worst Books, 2025

I read another 50+ books in 2025, and these are the ones that stood out--both the good and the terrible. Each link below will take you to my review and discussion notes. If you'd like to support my work here, please  feel free to use this Amazon link to do your shopping . I'll be paid a modest affiliate fee at no extra cost to you. Thank you for reading, and all the best for 2026! See also! 2024's Best and Worst 2023's Best and Worst 2022's Best and Worst ******************************** Best (5/5 stars or close): Deep Response by Tyler Disney A Technique for Producing Ideas by James Webb Young Before the Dawn by Shimazaki Toson Broken Money by Lyn Alden The Collapse of British Power by Correlli Barnett Uncommon Therapy by Jay Haley The Dhandho Investor by Mohnish Pabrai The Practicing Mind by Thomas M. Sterner Perpetuity by Kevin Joseph Ghost Boy by Martin Pistorius Worst (1/5 stars or close): Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker By All Means Available by Mic...
Read more

The Dhandho Investor by Mohnish Pabrai

Worth reading, and rereading, and re-rereading. An elegant book that teaches fundamental principles of value investing, and much more. The Dhandho Investor  also has the highly unusual quality of being useful at a wide range of reader sophistication levels: you can gain tremendously from this book as a beginner or as a deeply experienced investor. I'll single out Chapters 5 and 6 for particular mention: Chapter 5 describes author Mohnish Pabrai's investing framework, with nine interlocking and synchronistic rules. Chapter 6 describes in very simple language all of the gigantic structural advantages of investing in the stock market, as it offers low frictional costs, a tremendous selection of possible businesses, and, most importantly, periodic incredible opportunities. These two chapters explain why you will take a pass on almost all investments--but then, once in a while, make large bets on specific situations that meet your requirements. [A quick  affiliate link to Amazon ...
Read more