Page 113 - THE DO-IT-YOURSELF LOBOTOMY Open Your Mind to Greater Creative Thinking

104 180° THINKING: A TNEREFFID WAY TO IDEATE

OF POSSIBILIT

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When you reestablish your base point 180 from conventional thinking, you not only
have a new starting place for your thinking, but also a full 180 of territory to consider.

WHAT’STHE PRESSURE?

The brakes on a train operate by air pressure. But the air pressure is
not used in the way it was originally intended. It’s used exactly the
opposite way. You see, the first air brakes on trains were designed to
operate as follows: Someone who wanted to stop the train would pull a
certain lever, air pressure would trigger the brakes, and the train
would stop. Problem was, the hoses that were used to channel this
pressurized air were made of rubber, which erodes, wears out, and can
be delectable to certain rodents. As holes developed in the rubber
hoses, when the air brakes were triggered...well, you can probably
figure out the unsatisfactory result.
The solution to this alarming problem was to reverse the thinking
that produced air brakes in the first place. The improved method of
stopping trains still used air pressure, but the air pressure was used to
keep the brakes off. To stop the train, instead of using pressurized air to
close the brakes, air was released to close the brakes. A 180° solution, if
ever I saw one.
Oh, by the way, they still used the same type of rubber hoses to
channel the air, but now if the rubber is compromised in any way, the
brakes simply activate and stop the train. Yes, this could be a problem