Edward DeBono is a man who travels all over the world, giving seminars on how to think. He teaches what he calls "lateral thinking," and he illustrates what he means by that from an experience early in his life.

Some thirty years ago he was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford. One night he attended a party in London. The party lasted late, and he got back to Oxford after the gates were closed. Traditionally in that college the gates were locked at twenty minutes past midnight. So, in order to get to his room, he had to scale the college walls.

There were two walls, and he sai…