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Title: Expect the Unexpected (Or You Won't Find It): A Creativity Tool Based on the Ancient Wisdom of Heraclitus by Roger Von Oech ISBN: 0743222873 Publisher: Free Press Pub. Date: 04 September, 2001 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $18.50 |
Average Customer Rating: 5
Rating: 5
Summary: Expand Your Mind
Comment: "Expect the Unexpected or You Won't Find It" is a collection of thirty of Heraclitus' epigrams along with an examination of some of their different facets. Heraclitus was a Greek scholar who answered many of life's questions with comments that were purposely designed to be obscure. This forced the recipient to think creatively to find their answer. Many of them contain internal paradoxes and so part of the creative process is figuring out the paradox and how it applies to your situation.
As Roger von Oech goes through each of the thirty selected epigrams he includes some of the ways that they can be interpreted, ways that they have been interpreted in the past, anecdotes, jokes, and riddles that illustrate the epigram and other ways of illuminating just how deep these pieces of wisdom are. Does he give a complete explanation of how they can be interpreted? No, because that is part of the design of these epigrams, they can be applied to different circumstances and product different but still correct answers. His illustrations are there to open your mind to the creative possibilities that lie hidden within just a few wise words.
Some of these I have heard in the past such as "You can't step into the same river twice". Others are less common but just as full of wisdom such as "On a circle, an end point can also be a beginning point". If you want a book that expands your creative mind and also shows you how to break out of old patterns of thinking in any situation, then this is the book for you. Well written and sure to point the reader to new directions of thinking, it is a highly recommended read.
Rating: 5
Summary: New Windows and Mirrors to Stimulate Your Mind
Comment: I have long been a fan of Roger von Oech's work on creativity (see A Whack on the Side of the Head and the Creative Whack Pack card deck). I found this book to be a pleasant and valuable addition to my resources for stimulating my thinking in new ways.
The book's core are 30 epigrams ("a terse, witty, and often paradoxical saying") of the 125 that have come down to us in the quotations of other authors from Heraclitus, as written 2500 years ago. Mr. von Oech has taken the traditional translation and updated it into more conceptual English in many cases, which makes the material more accessible. "All things happen according to the logos" (from Heraclitus by T. M. Robinson, University of Toronto Press, 1987) becomes "The cosmos speaks in patterns." Each epigram begins with an imaginative line drawing to give you an initial impression of the concept. Mr. von Oech goes on to provide some key subpoints in a brief essay, some examples of the concepts and subpoints in action, and occasionally gives you puzzles and brain teasers to play with (the answers are at the end of the book).
The longer the section, the better I liked it. So I left the book wishing it had been longer. That's my usual test of how helpful a book was to me. While many of these epigrams meant nothing to me on first reading them, Mr. von Oech's explanations soon made each an old and valuable friend.
Mr. von Oech suggests three ways to use the book. First, you can read it from start to finish as a creativity workbook. Second, you can take one epigram a day and make it the focus of a meditation for that day. You can repeat the list at the end of 30 days ("You can't step into the same river twice" so you should get new insights each time). Third, you can use the book as an oracle. When you have a question, randomly pick an epigram (there's a random number table in the book to help you do this) and apply it to the problem. I would like to suggest a fourth application, as well. You could use the epigrams to stimulate group creativity in problem-solving situations involving others.
Space does not permit (nor would fairness allow) publishing all the epigrams here, but let me share the ones that had the most impact on me.
"That which opposes produces a benefit."
"A wonderful harmony is created when you join together the seemingly unconnected."
"I searched into myself."
"Many fail to grasp what's right in the palm of the hand."
"Things love to conceal their true nature."
"Those who approach life like a child playing a game, moving and pushing pieces, possess the power of kings."
"Sea water is both pure and polluted: for fish it's drinkable and life-giving; for humans undrinkable and destructive."
"It is disease that makes health pleasant, hunger that makes fullness good, and weariness that makes rest sweet."
"The way up and the way down are one and the same."
"A thing rests by changing."
"Donkeys prefer garbage to gold."
"Every walking animal is driven to its purpose with a whack."
"Your character is your destiny."
"The Sun is new each day."
The summary combines all thirty epigrams into a brief essay. I encourage you to take one of the epigrams above and apply it today. If it helps you, go on to use another one tomorrow. If that is working, order this book and keep using other epigrams daily until the book arrives. Then, see how Mr. von Oech's thoughtful ideas about the epigrams expand your thinking even further!
Be prepared to find diamonds in your coal mine!
Rating: 5
Summary: He did it again!
Comment: Roger Von Oech has an uncommon gift: he can mix knowledge, wisdom and humour. Von Oech is a fan of Heraclitus. If you really like to think creatively you will be a fan too.
I have never believed in reading about the theory of creativity: is like believing that you are exercising by watching ESPN. If you want to achieve the reality of a way to stimulate your creative thinking this book is for you.
Any work from this author is satisfaction guaranteed.
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Title: A Whack on the Side of the Head: How You Can Be More Creative by Roger Von Oech, Roger Von Oech, George Willett ISBN: 0446674559 Publisher: Warner Books Pub. Date: 1998 List Price(USD): $15.99 |
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Title: KICK IN THE SEAT OF by Roger Von Oech ISBN: 0060960248 Publisher: HarperCollins (paper) Pub. Date: 1986 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: Creative Whack Pack by Roger Von Oech ISBN: 0880793589 Publisher: United States Games Systems Pub. Date: 1990 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: Thinkertoys (A Handbook of Business Creativity) by Michael Michalko ISBN: 0898154081 Publisher: Ten Speed Press Pub. Date: 1991 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Why Didn't I Think of That? Think the Unthinkable and Achieve Creative Greatness by Charles W. McCoy Jr. ISBN: 0735202575 Publisher: Prentice Hall Press Pub. Date: 15 January, 2002 List Price(USD): $22.00 |
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