I absolutely love books on how to be more creative, especially when they're quirky and fun. So, I'm really excited that today getFreshMinds is the first stop on the A Whack on the Side of the Head virtual book tour.
But wait, Katie... hasn't that book been out for a while? Of course! This is the 25th anniversary addition - that has been updated and packed full of great new information!
So, what do I think? Flat-out, this is a great book for learning to be creative. It's full of exercises (which makes it easy to learn from), but it's also written in a light-hearted, engaging manner (which makes it a lot more fun that you'd expect from a book that's supposed to teach you something!)
Basically, A Whack on the Side of the Head challenges us to look at the way we do things in a different way - while sympathizing that it can be tough!
My absolute favorite story in the book is where Roger is at dinner with his family, and gets a very abrupt reminder that it's easy to assume things have to be done a certain way: (I'll share his words with you, because this is absolutely priceless!)
On my son's seventh birthday, our family went out to dinner. Alex ordered salmon. When our dinners arrived, he looked at his plate. Next to the salmon lay a wedge of lemon. "What's this for?" he asked.
I explained to him that it was used to season the fish. "But you better taste it first," I warned.
A moment later, I heard him exclaim "Yow! That's the sourest lemon I've ever tasted."
That's such a great example of how we get stuck in a certain way of thinking, and never even consider that there might be some other way. (I know I never would have thought, in my wildest dreams, that someone would taste the lemon!)
The book has a ton of great example like that, and a bunch of really good techniques for getting whacked out of your normal thinking. My favorites are when Roger challenges us to look for the "second right answer" and to ask "what if" questions.
I also love the section where he wrote about how metaphors can help people see a situation in a completely new light simply by changing the way they're looking at it, and then gave a ton of fantastic metaphors to describe "life".
So, when I was told I could ask Roger some questions, I challenged him to demonstrate how to use metaphors to take a new perspective on a subject.
My question: How is creative thinking like competitive swimming?
Here are two of Roger's answers:
It's good to try a different swimming event away from your specialty; doing this will stretch you. Similarly, taking on a project outside your own "comfort zone" will help you learn some new things.
If you don't train, you get out of shape. If you don't using your creative thinking skills and try new things, they will atrophy and get out of shape as well!
(I'll share the rest in a later post... because I'm planning on using them for a contest.)
In A Whack on the Side of the Head, Roger also says that it's important to look for the opportunities in failures. So, I asked him to prove it... by telling us a failure of his and how it lead him to something new.
Roger says:
My third book, "Expect the Unexpected or You Won't Find It" was published several days before September 11, 2001. (This book is about the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus whom I consider to be the world's first "creativity teacher.") As a result of 9/11, most of the media and promotional stuff for the book got washed away. The few interviews I did do had questions such as: "How does your book relate to Al Qaeda?" and "What should we be doing about anthrax terrorist attacks?"
Post 9/11 was a very strange time. And of course, the world didn't feel like hearing about 2,500 year old creativity ideas. I learned that you can have the greatest idea in the world, but if the timing's not right, there's very little you can do.
So, I picked up the pieces in 2002. I found a new publisher for a soft cover version of the book. In 2003, I created a new card deck with some of Heraclitus' basic ideas (this became the "Innovative Whack Pack").
And I was able to incorporate some of my favorite Heraclitus' ideas and stories in the new 25th Anniversary Edition of "Whack." Things worked out okay, just not the way I had expected. Which is fitting considering the title of the book ("Expect the Unexpected").
Then, finally, I had to ask Roger what whack on the head inspired him to write A Whack on the Side of the Head for the first time?
Roger says:
Back in the early 1980s, most creativity books were pretty straight-forward and didactic. I saw a need in the marketplace for a creative thinking book that was fun, informative, and interactive.
I feel you improve your ability to be creative by doing not by being preached at. Thus, I wanted my book to have a lot of exercises. I also wanted the book to be off-beat and be filled with unusual illustrations. Fortunately, I had a very good relationship with George Willett and he came through with a lot of wonderful drawings.
In addition, when I was writing the first edition back in 1982 I already had five years experience doing creative seminars with companies such as IBM, DuPont, Hewlett-Packard, and Apple. These sessions gave me a pretty good sense of what ideas would work in a book. Also, the seminar participants provided me with many fun and useful anecdotes and stories.
Roger also told me that he hopes this book reaches a new generation of creative thinkers... and I completely agree with him. I read a lot about creativity, and this book is one of my favorites. It's a lot of fun to read, it can be absorbed easily in chunks or as a whole, and it give people a lot of ways to improve their creative thinking. It is definitely worth reading!
Hey Katie,
Thanks for the very kind review and interview. It was as kick to do. Best wishes to you and your many readers!
(I, too, like the story about my son eating the lemon.)
Posted by: Roger von Oech | June 17, 2008 at 03:10 AM
To this day, still the 'sourest' lemon I've ever tasted!
;)
Posted by: Alex von Oech | June 17, 2008 at 04:39 PM
Katie
Great precis of the book and the ideas in it. I read it nearly 15 years ago and probably need to buy the new version!
Posted by: Nick Bush | June 23, 2008 at 11:28 AM