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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, George Willett ISBN: 1-57675-227-5 Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers Pub. Date: 01 September, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (11 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A New "Classic" in Creative Thinking
Comment: The fact that von Oech draws heavily upon the "ancient wisdom of Heraclitus" in this book correctly suggests what a creative mind such as von Oech's can accomplish when seeing direct and useful correlations between an ancient Greek philosopher (other than Plato and Aristotle) and intellectual challenges in the 21st century. Von Oech describes Heraclitus as "the world's first creative teacher." He recalls being "infected" (happily) with the Heraclitean "bug" while studying in Germany 30 years ago. Now von Oech has written a book in which he brilliantly and entertainingly examines concepts such as symbol, paradox, and ambiguity in relation to creative thought. He offers 30 "Creative Insights" of Heraclitus which include, for example, these five:
#2. "Expect the unexpected or you won't find it."
#4 "You can't step into the same river twice."
#12 "Many fail to grasp what's right in the palm of their hand."
#26 "Donkeys prefer garbage to gold."
#29 "Your character is your destiny."
Individually and even when clustered with the other 25, these "Creative Insights" may seem unworthy of careful consideration. In fact, von Oech provides a brief but insightful analysis of each which effectively demonstrates the wisdom of #12. Truly creative thinkers are always alert to what I call "the invisibility of the obvious." They are not threatened by or even uncomfortable with symbol, paradox, and ambiguity. On the contrary, their minds are stimulated by them.
Throughout his book, von Oech inserts a number of brief puzzles for the reader to solve. (The correct answers are included and explained within the "Final Thoughts" section.) These puzzles are fun to grapple with, of course, and presumably most readers will solve them of them. My point is, the answers to the unsolved puzzles are no less obvious than the answers to the others, no matter which specific puzzles the reader is unable to solve.
Frankly, when I began to read this book, I really did not know what to expect. What of value could I possibly learn from a relatively obscure Greek philosopher? However, von Oech had already convinced me of the value of an occasional "whack on the side of the head" and "kick in the seat of the pants" so I gave him the benefit of the doubt. (See #12.) As always, von Oech is immensely entertaining. He has superb writing skills. And of course, he is an immensely creative thinker in his own right. I strongly recommend this little (in length) book to literally anyone who wants to put white caps on her or his gray matter. Those who share my high regard for this book are strongly urged to read all of von Oech's previous books as well as those written by Guy Claxton, Edward de Bono, Lynne Levesque, and Michael Michalko.
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: Philosophy as if it Matters
Comment: I was first tempted to give this book only one star for disparaging the notion of "pure philosophy." But then I began to question what the purpose of philosophy was. Who has done philosophy more of a disservice, Von Oech, who sees the creative potential in Heraclitus and passes it on to willing readers, or the academics, who have purified and rarefied philosophy into something quite unrecognizable to the ancient Greeks? That was the easiest question I've had to answer in quite a while. Von Oech gets what the pointy-headed pettifoggers of academe do not: philosophy is only effective as it relates to the world. It is not a mere matter of linguistics nor an interpretation by each textual reader, but rather a force guiding humans towards creativity through its answers to our everyday questions. There was a time in the past when philosophers wrote for the educated public. Nowadays, philosophers write for other philosophers, substituting rhetoric and wordplay for creativity. The loser is our culture, which depends upon philosophy as a lynchpin.
Von Oech's fascination with Heraclitus goes back to 1971 while studying in Germany. Picking up a book of Heraclitus' epigrams, Von Oech became instantly hooked when he read "the way up and the way down are one and the same." He writes that this caused him to spend the next several weeks trying to figure out its meaning. Since then, he says, he's wanted to put out a "creativity tool" based on the works of Heraclitus.
And what a creativity tool he has created. His grasp of Heraclitus is firm and, moreover, he is able to apply each epigram he examines to the problems of thinking and creativity in the workplace. The reader will also notice a warmth coming through: a deep love of the subject and philosophy in general, something we do not always get from our academics, as anyone who had to sit through Philosophy 101 with a boring pedant will tell you. And Von Oech will succeed in doing what our friends in the ivory tower have failed to do, and that is to instill a love of wisdom in the heads of his students. For that, Roger von Oech, I salute you.
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Title: A WHACK ON THE SIDE OF THE HEAD : How You Can Be More Creative by Roger Von Oech, Warner Booksp, Roger Von Oech ISBN: 0446674559 Publisher: Warner Business Books Pub. Date: 01 December, 1998 List Price(USD): $15.99 |
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Title: A Kick in the Seat of the Pants by Roger Von Oech ISBN: 0060960248 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 01 February, 1986 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: Creative Whack Pack by Roger Von Oech ISBN: 0880793589 Publisher: U.S. Games Systems Pub. Date: 01 November, 1989 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: Innovative Whack Pack by Roger Von Oech ISBN: 157281442X Publisher: U.S. Games Systems Pub. Date: September, 2003 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: 01 November, 1991 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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