There are at least two mathematical reasons why new ideas are essential. As information organizes itself in the brain patterns are formed. These are added to by new information. The process is solidified by language. All this makes it difficult to put information together in a new way. That is why processes like lateral thinking are essential in an asymmetric patterning system.

There is a huge need for new thinking in world affairs. People and nations get stuck in old concepts. Judgment is used rather than design in conflicts.

There is a real need for new thinking. Where is it to come from?

Many years ago I tried to set up a ‘creative centre’ in the United Nations to generate new ideas that are so badly needed. This proved impossible. the representatives of different nations believe their duty is to represent the thinking of their country not to generate new ideas. Koffi Annan was present at one of the meetings and was rather negative about the whole idea.

If an individual country has a new idea then that idea is seen as being in line with the policy of the country and not independent.

So there is a need for an independent source of new ideas.

Source: http://www.edwdebono.com/debono/msg21u.htm

According to the peak-end rule, we judge our past experiences almost entirely on how they were at their peak (pleasant or unpleasant) and how they ended. Virtually all other information appears to be discarded, including net pleasantness or unpleasantness and how long the experience lasted.

In one experiment, one group of people were subjected to loud, painful noises. In a second group, subjects were exposed to the same loud, painful noises as the first group, after which were appended somewhat less painful noises. This second group rated the experience of listening to the noises as much less unpleasant than the first group, despite having been subjected to more discomfort than the first group, as they experienced the same initial duration, and then an extended duration of reduced unpleasantness.

This heuristic was first suggested by Daniel Kahneman and others. He argues that because people seem to perceive not the sum of an experience but its average, it may be an instance of the representativeness heuristic.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak-end_rule