Plus, Minuses, Interesting (PMI) Thinking Tool

In Edward De Bono's Thinking Course, the first thinking tool that he shared was the PMI (plus, minuses, interesting). It is a broad scanning tool that I think most of us can one way or another identify with.

The PMI is an attention directing tool as it requires your attention towards
  • plus points
  • then minus points
  • lastly, the interesting points
I tried using it in my blog post assessing the recent Google PageRank downgrade. To use PMI effectively, attention must be focused at one point (plus, minuses, and interesting) at a time. It is this "will" to look at a particular direction at a time that makes it so important.

Prejudice can't be avoided. However, with PMI, prejudice is used to explore the subject matter. Rather than use intelligence to support a particular prejudice.

PMI is ideally used when we have no doubt about a situation and instantly decided that we like it or otherwise. We can start by doing a PMI. Afterwards, observe and react to it.

Try it!
Related notes:

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