Analogies and Lateral Thinking

Basically an analogy could be looked at as:
- comparing two or more things, persons, processes, systems, etc;
- finding a correspondence or partial similarity between X and Y.

Is a mental process that we unconsciously use in our daily thinking.

In the Lateral Thinking book, Edward de Bono, proposes using Analogies in a way that according to him would stimulate flow of ideas. 

So instead of waiting for ideas to magically pop up in our head, start to compare what you are working on with something else. That something else should be a simple story, process, action, something that you're familiar with.

He argues that analogies are vehicles for Processes, Relationships, Functions.

He suggests to develop the analogy and then translate it back to our problem. 

Edward de Bono is not the first to have noticed this process. According to Michael Michalko, Leonardo da Vinci used frequently analogies to come up with new ideas.