Think Like A Wise Fool

It's time for one of my very favorite creative thinking strategies:

Think Like A Wise Fool

Image from the Wise Fool

Carrying the strategy of "looking at things differently" to extremes brings us to the realm of the wise fool, the being for whom everyday ways of understanding have little meaning.

It's the wise fool's job to extol the trivial, trifle with the exalted, and parody the common perception of a situation. In doing so, the wise fool makes us conscious of the habits we take for granted and rarely question. A good fool needs to be part actor and part poet, part philosopher and part psychologist.

And throughout history, the wise fool has been consulted by Egyptian pharaohs and Babylonian kings, Chinese emperors, Greeks tyrants, and Hopi Indian chiefs.

The wise fool will reverse our standard assumptions. He'll say, "If a man is sitting on a horse facing the rear, why do we assume that it is the man who is backwards, and not the horse?"

The wise fool notices things that other people overlook. He might ask, "Why do people who pour cream into their coffee do so after the coffee is already in the cup, rather than pouring the cream in first and saving themselves the trouble of stirring?"

The wise fool can also be irreverent. He'll pose riddles such as,

"What does a rich man put in his pocket that the poor man throws away?" When he answers, "Snot," he forces us to re-examine the sanctity of our everyday rituals.

The wise fool can be cryptic. He'll say the best way to see something is with your ears. Initially, this may seem weird, but after you've thought about it, you might agree that listening to a story conjures up more images than watching television.

The wise fool can be absurd. Having lost his donkey, a fool got down on his knees and began thanking God. A passerby saw him and asked, "Your donkey is missing; why are you thanking God?" The fool replied, "I'm thanking Him for seeing to it that I wasn't riding him at the time. Otherwise, I would be missing as well."

The wise fool will take the contrary position in most conversations. Whereas many people would agree that, "If a thing is worth doing, it's worth doing well," The fool might say,

"You don't have to do things well! Indeed, it's okay to do them poorly; otherwise you'll never let yourself be a beginner at a new activity."

The great benefit of the fool's antics and observations is that they stimulate our thinking. They jolt us in the same way that a splash of cold water awakens us when we are drowsy.

Exercise: Where has "thinking like a wise fool" helped you look at a problem in a helpful way?

©Roger von Oech

Comments

[Saurabh Garg]

Hi,

I would choose "how to eliminate spam" and in my opinions, shut don free email service. You have to spend a credit to send an email and once it is read by someone, that person can choose to return the credit or convert into zero.

And this made me realize that the root of spam is free systems to send emails. Moment you stop that, spam stops.

But again this is not going to be commercially viable. Any ideas?

Regards,
SG

[Cam Beck]

What would a fool say about the current race to be the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party? - Nominate a Republican.

What would a fool recommend to stimulate the economy? - Do nothing.

What would a fool recommend to make paying taxes more enjoyable? - Offer the chance to pay taxes or see what's behind door #2.

What would a fool recommend to improve the quality of public education? - Kick out the teachers.

What would a fool suggest to eliminate SPAM? - Ship it all to Hawaii. Wait. Isn't it already there?

[Roger von Oech]

SG: About SPAM, not so foolish an idea. Paying for email—even just 1/20th of a cent per—would drastically cut it down.

Cam: You may have found a new calling for yourself! Good job as a Professional Fool!

[Peter Hoh]

The very foolish idea of a national primary is starting to look pretty good right now. A while back, Farhad Manjoo wrote about an interesting idea for voting. The article appeared under this subheading: The best way to make American elections fair, according to a new book, is to use a voting method known for ranking drunk sorority girls.

A favorite college professor once suggested handing out diplomas on the first day. The students who seem disappointed that they didn't learn anything are invited to attend classes.

Doonesbury's "Uncle Duke" is a great fool who has a terrific idea now and again. He once suggested getting the best teachers from around the country and putting them on cable.

Spam: I like the idea of a fee-based system for email, but I don't think it will happen. Seems to me that the filters have the upper hand right now. I have email accounts with earthlink, yahoo, and gmail, I see very little spam.

Taxes: random returns win prize money.

[Cam Beck]

Roger - Thanks! (I think...)

[Jorge Castillo]

I like the suggestions from Cam. I would suggest the following:

Fool on Democratic process: "Let Bush choose the candidate".

Fool on Economy stimulation: "Let's make a self-embargo".

Fool on paying taxes: "Let's make a Wii game for tax paying. Show your ability and got a discount!"

Fool on quality of public education: "Let students give the class and exam the teacher".

[Valeria Maltoni]

Spam: opt-in email. Only the people you know and want to correspond with you can email you. Period. Only a fool would pretend to know me ;-)

Taxes: for heaven's sake, do we think that things have changed since the laws where created? Only a fool would punish people who want to save.

Economy: a fool would do something. Well, already done, huh? Markets are self-corrective. What we need to watch is greed.

[Roger von Oech]

Peter: "getting the best teachers from around the country and putting them on cable." Not such a foolish idea at all.

Jorge: "Fool on Democratic process: 'Let Bush choose the candidate'." Fool's response: "I sort of feel sorry for Democrats after Bush is gone. Who are they going to demonize and go crazy about."

Valeria: "What we need to watch is greed." Well, what would Gordon Gecko say about that! The fool might say, "Greed is good; it inspires people not to be satisfied with what they've got."

[Shakespeare's Fool]

Roger,
My difficulty with getting advice on politics from fools is that I don't know whether the fool I hear is the Shakespearian court jester giving tart tongued wisdom or if the fool is of high IQ giving either smooth-talk un-wisdom or barbed tongued un-wisdom.

What should I make of the title of Jonah Goldberg's "Liberal Fascism" (without even speculating on what might be in the book)?

John

[Bill Machi]

Candidates:
Hey diddle diddle
The candidates are in a piddle
The media ran away with the story
The voters laughed to see such a race
and wondered where is Al "Gorey"

Economy:
A feather - I know I get stimulated when someone tickles me with a feather.

Taxes:
Put a scratcher game on the tax form and the winners get their taxes back.

School:
Have students start in 12th grade and work their way down to Kindergarten. The first few years would be rough but grades would improve by the end.

[Scrollwork]

Hello, Roger. I'd like you to know that I linked to this post from my 3-part blog series on fools. The series opens here:

http://scrollwork.blogspot.com/2011/03/scrollworks-school-for-fools-now-open.html

Part two cites your post. Please find it here:
http://scrollwork.blogspot.com/2011/03/why-you-should-listen-to-fool.html

And the conclusion is here:
http://scrollwork.blogspot.com/2011/03/how-to-be-fool-and-whats-in-it-for-you.html

I hope you enjoy reading it.

Best regards,
Scrollwork