Description

elib.tech  EXCLUSIVE:  Expect the Unexpected (Or You Won’t Find It): A Creativity Tool Based on the Ancient Wisdom of HeraclitusSHARING OUTSIDE THE PLACE  WILL RESULT IN GETTING BANNED!!!   [quote]The ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus was the first “creativity teacher,” says Roger von Oech, whose bestselling book A Whack on the Side of the Head set the standard for out-of-the-box thinking. In Expect the Unexpected, Von Oech uses 30 of Heraclitus’s pithy and paradoxical epigrams to approach problems in a fresh manner. He explains his premise: “Creative thinking involves imagining familiar things in a new light, digging below the surface to find previously undetected patterns, and finding connections among unrelated phenomena.”Von Oech uses the epigrams as creativity exercises–accompanied by mental puzzles, anecdotes, questions, and punchy footnotes–to demonstrate that Heraclitus’s 2,500-year-old creative insights have aged well. With his whimsical wand, von Oech transforms the epigram “A Donkey prefers garbage to gold” into an exploration of values. He uses Heraclitus’s observation that “A wonderful harmony is created when we join together the seemingly unconnected” to examine the use of metaphors in understanding problems. When Heraclitus observes that “Dogs bark at what they don’t understand,” Von Oech crafts a meditation about criticism. Executives, students, teachers, and parents will find an exciting and entertaining map for changing thought patterns, tolerating ambiguity, confounding expectations, and searching for hidden meanings. –Barbara Mackoff [/quote]REVIEWS[quote]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.”