“Most executives, many scientists, and almost all business school graduates believe that if you analyze data, this will give you new ideas. Unfortunately, this belief is totally wrong. The mind can only see what it is prepared to see.”

—  Edward de Bono

Serious Creativity: Using the Power of Lateral Thinking to Create New Ideas (1992)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Most executives, many scientists, and almost all business school graduates believe that if you analyze data, this will …" by Edward de Bono?
Edward de Bono photo
Edward de Bono 33
Maltese physician 1933

Related quotes

Douglas Adams photo

“See first, think later, then test. But always see first. Otherwise you will only see what you were expecting. Most scientists forget that.”

Douglas Adams (1952–2001) English writer and humorist
Henri Bergson photo

“The eyes see only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.”

Henri Bergson (1859–1941) French philosopher

Robertson Davies as quoted in The White Bedouin‎ (2007) by George Potter, p. 241
Misattributed

James K. Morrow photo

“The problem is, only a few people get to be scientists. You see the dilemma? Given the choice between a truth they can appreciate and a lie they can live, most people will take you-know-what.”

James K. Morrow book Only Begotten Daughter

Source: Only Begotten Daughter (1990), Chapter 7 (p. 138)

Byron Katie photo

“You can only see what you believe—nothing else is possible.”

Byron Katie (1942) American spiritual writer

Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life (2002)

“You have to see where the market is going. I always believe there is no sunset business. It’s all in the mindset because if you give up, then you die.”

Sukanto Tanoto (1949) Indonesian businessman

On film and Eastman Kodak, Globe Asia Interview, Sep, 2015. http://www.inside-rge.com/Sukanto-Tanoto-Resource-King-GlobeAsia
2015

Fran Lebowitz photo

“Most of my news, I get from the radio news stations. One of the stations' advertising lines is "Give us 22 minutes, we’ll give you the world." In 22 minutes, they just have time for the headlines, so they can only really tell you what happened — which, by the way, is the news. They tell you how many people were killed in Iraq today, but they don’t then bring on some Republican senator to explain to you how that’s good. Or, on the contrary, they don’t bring in a bunch of Democrats to tell you why it’s bad. They just tell you what happened. That’s the news. I am capable of analyzing my own news. What makes these people qualified to analyze my news for me? No matter what side they’re on, I never agree with them.”

Fran Lebowitz (1950) author and public speaker from the United States

Ruminator Magazine interview with Susannah McNeely (August/September 2005).

Seymour Papert photo

“Now, given that picture of a rapid change of society, one would expect to see a rapid evolution of the institutions charged with preparing the young for it. We do not see this. We see a much slower rate of evolution of the school and that means we're seeing a bigger and bigger gap between school and society. This gap is what I believe is responsible for the deterioration of performance in our schools and our educational systems. Because the children can see this; they can see that school is irrelevant. They feel that the pace of school and the mood of the school culture is out of sync with the society in which they live. And so it becomes harder and harder to get them to buy into the idea that school is satisfying their needs, that school is a bridge to the 21st century, as our political leaders keep on reiterating.”

Seymour Papert (1928–2016) MIT mathematician, computer scientist, and educator

The 11th Colin Cherry Memorial Lecture on Communication http://www.connectedfamily.com/frame4/cf0413seymour/recent_essays/cf0413_cherry_3.html (1998)

Flannery O’Connor photo

“Your beliefs will be the light by which you see, but they will not be what you see and they will not be a substitute for seeing.”

Flannery O’Connor (1925–1964) American novelist, short story writer

Source: Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose

Idegu Ojonugwa Shadrach photo

“Congratulations to the great minds. And the poor minds should know that whatever you see and experience today prepares you for better tomorrow; if you can learn at least.”

Idegu Ojonugwa Shadrach (1995)

Related topics