Prompt Foundry

The Quest for Discovery Builds Hope Eternal

This 1st Chapter is a prelude to the Prompt Foundry, about developing an insatiable desire to discover.

I did not realize I was a frustrated discoverer until I uncovered a little paperback book called "Parallel Thinking," by Edward De Bono, 1967 I think. To my surprise, I recently found it still in print though De Bono died in 2021 at 88 yrs of age. A Times review quote about that fist book read:

"This could be a very useful book for teachers and non-teachers alike. Dr. DeBono does not claim to be able to turn us all into Miltons, DaVincis, and Einsteins . . . but his techniques provide an alternative to just sitting around waiting for the Muse to appear. The Muse never appears to most of us—hence the value of this book." — Times Educational Supplement

My parents invested in our family's first set of Encyclopedia Britannica encyclopedias, A-Z.

I didn't realize it at the time, but Edward De Bono's writing was one of the packaged giveaways of the encyclopedia set. His writings piqued my interests, even though I did not know him from Adam. A summary of his Core Contributions to the discovery process included:

• Lateral Thinking: Introduced in 1967, this method involves solving problems through an indirect and creative approach, using reasoning that is not immediately obvious.
• Six Thinking Hats: A tool for group discussion and individual thinking involving six colored "hats," each representing a different perspective (e.g., emotions, logic, optimism).
• PO (Provocation Operation): A "thinking tool" or linguistic device used to signal a provocation—a statement meant to move thinking forward rather than being judged as right or wrong.
• The L Game: A simple but strategic two-player board game he invented in 1968 to demonstrate complex thinking with minimal pieces. (before this even came out, I came up with, from what I could tell, was one of the first, if not the first triangular chess game on my own.) 

I was one of the first in the family to dive into the Encyclopedia Britannica set offering to which they subscribed. I ordered a free add-on pamphlet and some free research papers. I recall picking subjects all over the board. I found myself as a kid in a candy store about life.

A "tween," someone between Middle School and High School, around 13-14 years old, in1966 or so, I found myself flipping and skimming its pages. Just two years before, in 1964, Ed White of Gemini IV performed the first American spacewalk. I was mesmerized at his floating weightlessly in outer space.

When shipments of encyclopedias and paraphernalia started coming in, I latched on to one of the first papers I sent for, It was about things called "matter" and "antimatter" and "gravity" and "antigravity," which captured my attention by reporting that there seem to be boundaries in our universe that seemingly come into contact with parallel universes of that violently repel each other. They are still studying such things today. But, as a kid almost 60 years ago, I was enthralled with notions of what it would be like if I approached those boundaries in an imaginary space voyage.

We had spoken about the four states of matter in school:

• gas;
• liquid;
• solids and;
• plasma.

I found myself trying out some of the "Lateral Thinking" booklet's ideas and concepts and quickly developed little games to feed an appetite I didn't realize at the time would turn insatiable. You could say, its concepts seemed to resonate easily with my way of thinking; its discussions piqued my interests right away. I decided to load up on information about those things outside of myself I had encountered.

I subsequently graduated from high school, way short of a Rhodes Scholar or any kind of scholar, for that matter, and enrolled in mechanical engineering and was blessed enough to be picked up by an Engineering & Construction company (EC) as a mail-runner and errand boy, for $1.85/hr to pay for my college tuition. Four short months after delivering mail and making copies for engineering design project managers, I was one of their first such hires to be promoted to the drafting table. (My four years of drafting classes in high school did me well, and my supervisors discovered I seemed to require very little supervision.)

After four of a five year mechanical engineering course study, I became disenchanted at the thought of graduating as an engineer after learning what engineers did at the EC company. So, I decided to throw away 100 hours of engineering to finish college with a Business, Statistical market research degree.

Little did I know that the six years of engineering design work experience I garnered with the science, physics, and mechanics and 60 hours of statistical business analysis under my belt. I was well prepared for what I found out international oil corporations really needed: application oriented, technically trained, financial analysts and market researchers. I stumbled into that candy store of life for the next 23 years to experience, learn and do things many do not ever even encounter in business.

After 23 years I decided to share my experiences with students when I became a Middle & High School Mathematics teacher for the next 12 years, after which I retired for health reasons.

I found myself to be that kid in a candy store again as I began teaching to purposefully pass on to the next generation(s) that to which I hade been blessed to experience...My way, which turned out to be many of the things you will find in this Prompt Foundry.

The next post I provide begins an example of how I came to rationalize a teaching alternative to the dogmatic and defensive in nature educational curriculum pre-college students have suffered through.

Again, I would love to read over your comments of your experiences that got you to where you are today in life.