CONCEPT
Random Entry
De Bono's technique of introducing an arbitrary, irrelevant element into a problem to force associative paths the pattern would never generate — the simplest lateral tool, and in AI collaboration, one of the most powerful.
Random entry is the most operationally simple of de Bono's lateral thinking techniques. Select a random word. Connect it to the problem. Follow the connections. The technique requires no training in provocation types, no understanding of cognitive science — only the willingness to hold an apparently irrelevant element in mind long enough for associative machinery to find a connection. Its power derives from the same self-organizing dynamics that make patterns resistant to change: the random element is guaranteed to be outside the pattern, and the brain's (or model's) associative power is forced to build a bridge between domains that had no prior connection.
In The You On AI Field Guide
De Bono's canonical demonstration: a 1976 advertising workshop on improving a pencil. Dictionary opened at random. The word was 'nose.' The audience laughed, then started thinking. Within fifteen minutes they had generated more genuinely novel ideas than two hours of conventional brainstorming had produced — pencils that released scents when