A short, fascinating, and witty roadmap to finding inventive solutions.
A quick guide to developing ingenious problem-solving skills.
Bhargava and duPont present their Space, Insight, Focus, Twist framework to help readers improve both their mental agility and ingenuity. Step one is a “warmup stretch that makes limber, non-obvious thinking possible” using activities like mindful breathing and taking (small) risks. The next step involves learning how to insightfully navigate the world, including asking “storytelling questions” that can provide more in-depth information about someone, as well as focusing on the “afterthought”—or the seemingly insignificant detail people often add to the end of an anecdote that reveal more about them than the story’s apparent takeaway. The authors also introduce the concept of “nunchi,” the Korean term for “understanding what others think and feel without asking them directly,” which emphasizes the practice of paying close attention to others. In the third step, the guide encourages using a streamlined approach for managing obstacles, making the distinction between being a “satisficer,” or someone who accepts when an idea is “good enough,” and a “maximizer,” one who endlessly searches for “the best,” wasting valuable time and resources. The final step “is where the magic happens”; readers are expected to put their own spin on all they have learned so far and start seeing things a bit differently. The slim manual includes advice for mining the gray areas in the midst of “black or white” thinking for profitable ideas, as well as using “intersection thinking,” which combines two ostensibly dissimilar ideas into one brilliant new one. Each chapter opens with an anecdote about a historical figure or situation that bolsters the authors’ particular point and includes some personal stories, as well.
From the whimsical whiteboard illustration that acts as the table of contents to its wry tone (“If a rebuttal is, at its best, a thoughtful response refuting an argument someone makes, then a prebuttal is its far less intelligent cousin.”), Bhargava and duPont’s self-help guide goes beyond just being helpful to is downright fun to read. Clearly written and thoroughly researched, the book provides interesting, relevant stories and actionable suggestions (make a list of 10 things you never noticed before while on a nature walk, or change the order of things you do in the first hour after waking up). Basic illustrations, as well as important points highlighted in a bigger font, help visually break up the information. A few tips, like walking a trail backward to “offer a unique perspective,” can come across as a bit trite, and some abstract concepts may prove more challenging to put into action. But most of the advice here, such as letting your frustration “be a source of inspiration” to guide your brainstorming sessions, are ones that will likely push readers out of their comfort zones and produce real, measurable results. Sometimes eye-opening, sometimes challenging, Bhargava and duPont illustrate that reconsidering one’s approach to problem solving (and life in general) can be a lively—and even enjoyable—process. Another helpful guide from the wide-ranging Non-Obvious series.
A short, fascinating, and witty roadmap to finding inventive solutions.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: July 10, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
IN THE NEWS
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