Stever's blog

Dominant ideas

June 15, 2009 at 6:34 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

Dominant ideas are “obvious” ideas that polarize thought. Classic dominant ideas are “the earth is flat” and “the earth is the center of the universe”. Once dominant ideas are in place, additional evidence is interpreted in such a way that supports the dominant idea. For example, a paranoid schizophrenic views a person’s nice act as yet another piece of evidence that he is out to get him. While it’s easy for us to be critical of those that perceive things backwards, I guarantee that we are all captives of the same philosophy. One of the ideas of lateral thinking is to identify what the dominant ideas even are. Once the dominant idea is identified, it becomes easier to break out of it.

So just remember, there are breakthrough ideas all around us, but most of us don’t do them because they look wrong.