We have a lot to learn from great philosophers. And one of them I haven't mentioned so far is Francis Bacon. Francis Bacon, 1500 something. He really wanted to use philosophy as a tool. He founded applied philosophy and he proposed a method, etc. I remember one sentence from him. You have to obey the forces you want to command. I love this sentence because it's a paradox. Most of people oppose, obey, command. If you obey somebody else command, if you command somebody, good. He said no, no, no, no. And philosophy is often about going ahead of paradoxes. You have to obey the forces you want to command. Like if you're in a balloon, I don't know, somewhere above the ocean if you want to make a right with a balloon, you don't have the energy like with a car. You have to obey the laws of the wind, and then you can command in the wind to make a right. It's a metaphor, but I use it a lot. And what I'm going to do with you during the 6 lectures is to learn from great philosophers and, probably this sentence we already did. If you want to be better on change, you have to obey the laws of change. You have to change, rise, etc. If you want to be better on thinking, you have to obey the laws of thinking, and that's what we are doing together now. We just saw one of the laws, probably the most important one, the 2, the 2 brains. We have 2 brains, with different capacity. One is imagination, and produces a lot, but doesn't know what is good, knows well what is new. The other brain, probably on the left side, I don't know. The other brain is judgement, doesn't know what is much, or many, but knows what is good. And to summarize the laws, maybe we can say the best way to have a good idea is to have many ideas. It shows immediately the 2 pieces, the 2 parts of the process. We have 2 brains. We need 2 brains, but not at the same time. I show a cartoon. Now you want to laugh when you see this but in the end, I've seen this a lot. During meetings, some people are on the imagination mode, and others on judgment and not a highly productive meeting because there is something wrong in, in the meeting itself. They don't obey the laws of thinking, and you see that with yes-but syndrome. Very often, somebody comes with an idea, and somebody else yes-but. Yes, but. The yes-but syndrome is, well I've seen it a lot. And, it shouldn't be like that. Why? Because we just saw a new idea is never good. So if somebody comes with a new idea, and you say, yes-but of course it's not good. It even doesn't pretend to be good, but just give this idea another chance. Another chance. You respect the rules of the thinking and then you have a more productive meeting. And sometimes, I ask whether people are there on one or the other brain. And of course I'm right brained, I know it. That's why I never worked alone. I always have worked with other people, more on the left side because you need both. If you look at some great companies, like Hewlett-Packard, Rolls-Royce, 2 names. I don't know those people but I wouldn't be surprised to have one of the 2, one side, the other 2 on the other sides. You need the 2 brains sometimes in, I just read the biography of the Lumiere brothers, who invented the the movie, etc. Of course they were organized. One was more imagination, the other was more judgment. It's not a surprise to have 2 people, good combination, and sometimes people are making mistakes. Even Plato, Plato, the great Plato made a mistake. He had a lot of ideas. He had a lot. He was proposed by his friend in Sicily to come and to check, to use, to apply his method. It was a disaster. He was, Plato was jailed. Can you imagine that? He was jailed because he's not a man of reality. He's a man of perception, and you need to, to know who you are. Some people are wiser like Einstein for example, in 46, 7, 8, 48 probably, he was proposed to become as president of Israel, the new state of Israel. He said no. No, no, no. You're wrong. I'm not somebody who has to decide. No, I'm somebody on the right side, etc. So it's not a surprise. You see the 2 brains everywhere. You have to respect, you need both, but not at the same time. Another good story is path finder. 20 years ago, the NASA launched a spacecraft to planet Mars. And they invented a completely new way to land on the planet. The spacecraft was not equipped with rockets or parachutes, it was surrounded by air bags. And when the space craft arrive on the planet, it bounced like this, like this. It was a complete success. On one of the picture you can see a little piece of the balloon, of one balloon hanging like this. It was a complete success. But I ask you to imagine the meeting, at the NASA where for the very first time in this business, somebody said, I have an idea. We should let spacecraft bounce of, on planets when they arrive. Imagine the meeting. Imagine the yes-but. You, everybody has tens of dozens of yes-but. NASA succeeded in accepting this new idea as a new idea. And they moved to a yes-and attitude. And finally, they completely succeeded in a complete new way to land on the planet with a, it was much cheaper. It was a complete success. So the yes-but should disappear and be replaced by yes-and. Every time it's possible. Of course you need both, and you should never finish with a yes-and. At the end, you reach the good idea. So, there are many, many things to be said about creativity, and I selected probably the main rule. The best way to have a good idea is to have many ideas. If you respect this, probably the chance of success is much higher.
