That Was The Week That Was — 5th July 2026

It is not the ideas we do not have that block our thinking but the ideas we already have. — Edward de Bono This week — after finishing Catch-22 by Joseph Heller — I started reading Edward do Bono's How to Have a Beautiful Mind. I was first introduced to de Bono by my friend Adam Todd many years ago via The Six Thinking Hats which we used in many meetings to great effect back when I was Creative Director of a design agency. Since then I've always been keen to constantly explore different ways of thinking so I can continually improve how I come up with ideas, listen, debate and generally explore the world around me. One recurring theme or methodology in de Bono's work is asking What if? Creating often absurdist provocations to encourage you to look at an issue or an idea in a completely different way. It's what he calls a Provocation Operation; deliberately outlandish statements designed to shock the brain away from regular patterns. I've always liked that idea and so in the process of…