The Dog Excercise Machine
As designers we're called upon to regularly create new and fresh ideas. However how our brains have been conditioned to think can guide us down some well trodden paths in our quest for something original.

As part of an experiment in how people think, Edward De Bono, a specialist in lateral thought, undertook an experiment with a group of four to 14 year olds. They were simply asked to design a dog exercising machine. The object of this experiment was to show how children with no firm preconceptions can come up with ideas that went outside the normal boundaries.

• One child's park had a catapult that hurled magnetized dog biscuits, which dogs chased as the biscuits automatically flew back.
• A girl put her pet on springs that jiggled its feet.
• A device that pulled dogs along was propelled by an ingenious power plant: the energy was created by the dog's barking into a speaking tube.
• One machine threatened punishment, using a hammer to whack a dog on the back if it refused to exercise.

This process of thinking without boundaries or impediments becomes more limited with peoples growth and experience of the world. As De Bono puts it

"The Brain is fundamentally uncreative. It is an environment in which dominant paths or patterns form, where established ideas tend to establish themselves further, where alternative pathways are naturally suppressed."

The Dog Exercising Machine is a great starting point for those interested in evolving their thought processes..

Some more interesting reading on the quirks of the mind.
Edward De Bono : Serious Creativity
Malcolm Gladwell: Blink

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