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Văzând ceea ce alţii nu văd. Uimitoarele căi ale perspicacităţii
Expert în psihologie cognitivă, Gary Klein este un fin observator al oamenilor aflați în mediul lor natural și utilizează o uimitoare varietate de anecdote dintr-o mare diversitate de industrii și domenii, ca să elucideze ce sunt ideile perspicace și cum survin ele. Când, de ce și cum se formează ideile pătrunzătoare?
Dr. Klein disecă impedimentele care stau în calea perspicacității – organizații care pretind că prețuiesc creativitatea și încurajează descoperirile revoluționare, dar, în realitate, îi împiedică pe angajații lor să lanseze idei turbulente, precum și sisteme IT care sunt „programate să tâmpească“.
Deopotrivă sofisticată sub aspect științific și plină de anecdote captivante din știință, afaceri și alte industrii, cartea lui Klein descrie forțele care impulsionează ideile noastre pătrunzătoare zi de zi.
Dr. Klein disecă impedimentele care stau în calea perspicacității – organizații care pretind că prețuiesc creativitatea și încurajează descoperirile revoluționare, dar, în realitate, îi împiedică pe angajații lor să lanseze idei turbulente, precum și sisteme IT care sunt „programate să tâmpească“.
Deopotrivă sofisticată sub aspect științific și plină de anecdote captivante din știință, afaceri și alte industrii, cartea lui Klein descrie forțele care impulsionează ideile noastre pătrunzătoare zi de zi.
376 pages, Paperback
First published June 25, 2013
581 people are currently reading
8156 people want to read
About the author
Gary Klein
45 books221 followersGary Klein, Ph.D., is known for the cognitive models, such as the Recognition-Primed Decision (RPD) model, the Data/Frame model of sensemaking, the Management By Discovery model of planning in complex settings, and the Triple Path model of insight, the methods he developed, including techniques for Cognitive Task Analysis, the PreMortem method of risk assessment, and the ShadowBox training approach, and the movement he helped to found in 1989 — Naturalistic Decision Making. The company he started in 1978, Klein Associates, grew to 37 employees by the time he sold it in 2005. He formed his new company, ShadowBox LLC, in 2014 and is the author of five books.
The Lightbulb Moment: Insights are unexpected shifts in the way we understand how something works, and how to make it work better. The talk examines two mysteries. First, where do insights come from? This talk presents a new account of the nature of insights. Second, how can we trigger more insights? This talk describes a strategy for adopting an insight mindset.
The Lightbulb Moment: Insights are unexpected shifts in the way we understand how something works, and how to make it work better. The talk examines two mysteries. First, where do insights come from? This talk presents a new account of the nature of insights. Second, how can we trigger more insights? This talk describes a strategy for adopting an insight mindset.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 213 reviews
October 13, 2017
In a nut shell, the book is an exploration of the phenomena and process of insight.
The through line of the book is the wonderfully simple but oddly profound idea of the up and down arrow. The up arrow represents insights (which we would all like to increase) and the down arrow represents mistakes (which we would all like to decrease). It's pretty much a no duh so far right?
The authors simple but actually profound observation is that these two drives are often (if not always) at odds. in other words, when you're too concerned with minimizing mistakes, you (almost necessarily) stifle discovery.
Those of you more versed in organizational psychology are probably not all that impressed by what you're reading so far. If this is the case, than the devil is in the absence of details. You need to read the book in order to get the full effect. It's the authors process of elaboration on these simple concepts that make this book such an eye opener.
As should be apparent, this book is kind of blowing my mind and I'm pretty much loving it. If that sounds a little under committed, it's because I'm not 100% sure why I'm finding this book so gratifying.
Yes it's well written. Yes its base on a sound, well constructed, well considered set of ideas. But I'm liking it a little more than I should based on the text its self. So I'm a little suspicious.
I guess the subject is particularly interesting for me at this juncture of my life and career. As I mentioned, the subject of the book is insight. What they are, how do we get them, why don't we get them and what (exactly) are they good for.
For the majority of my life, I pretty much worshiped insight and assumed the acquisition of insight to be life's pinnacle endeavor. Then at a certain point, I started to become skeptical.
After years (nay decades) of intellectual, creative and spiritual noodling that lead to plenty of "earth shattering" epiphanies about the nature of the mind and about myself and my mental processes and motivations and about the world and the cosmos blah blah blah, I was still horrendously underachieving. None of it was helping me manifest much of anything.
After some soul searching, I had an epiphany (i.e. an insight). I realized that I was kind of useless to everyone, most notably myself, because I wasn't converting any of these insights or ideas into anything remotely resembling a useful service, product or action.
Then it hit me (in the form of another insight). Ideas alone are about useless. Genius ideas are worth squat if they never see the light of day. And even mediocre ideas can be game changers with good execution (for example Apples Think Different ad campaign).
It's kind of a liberal truism that insight alone has intrinsic value. For much of the history of psychotherapy (the equivalent of church for the liberal atheist) the goal was to gain insight into the "causes" of your neurosis, name it, and then you're pretty much done.
One of my republican friends (yes I have one of those) devastated me with a critique of liberalism; "you liberals think that having a correct position on an issue is what being a good person is all about, but when it comes down to doing something good, y'all disappear (he probably heard it on Fox News or something, but it's still good).
His point was that liberal intellectuals and spiritual seekers think philosophizing is the same as doing estimable acts. But it ain't. It's all about rolling up your sleeves and getting your hands dirty DOOING good, not just talking about it. I had to concede to him on that one. It was an astute observation.
When I was studying to become a therapist, I discovered the behaviorally oriented approach, which basically asserts that you actually don't have to understand why you're fucked up in order to get better, you just have to change the behavior. Furthermore, even if you do understand why you're fucked up, it's not actually all that helpful, because you still have to change you're behavior.
This was radical to me. The idea that insight might not be necessary or important or even helpful at all in the therapeutic process. That sent me on an anti insight kick for a while.
I began to see smart people overvaluing ideas and undervaluing actions. I saw people putting the breaks on and trying to figure it all out when they desperately needed to simply take a step. I saw people trying to think their way out of issues they behaved their way into. I still do.
My mantra was (and still is) insights are useless unless they somehow engender adaptive behavior. Working hard to have them, in or out of the therapeutic context may be a huge waste of time and effort. You can have them and still be just as fucked as ever.
But after reading this book I'm realizing that insights are actually an equally important left foot to the right foot of adaptive behavioral change. You can't take a step in the right direction unless you identify the right direction to step to.
Duh right?
The fact of the matter is that we often hear of people revolutionizing their lives due to a sudden stroke of insight. Weather the insight is sudden or accumulated gradually, having deep insights and epiphanies are not only deeply pleasurable, they are also integral to the change process.
If this sounds kind of obvious, it's because it is. I'm just a little slow to catch on. Anyway.
This book is all about the systematic exploration of the insight process. It's written like a mystery story. And it's kind of awesome.
The through line of the book is the wonderfully simple but oddly profound idea of the up and down arrow. The up arrow represents insights (which we would all like to increase) and the down arrow represents mistakes (which we would all like to decrease). It's pretty much a no duh so far right?
The authors simple but actually profound observation is that these two drives are often (if not always) at odds. in other words, when you're too concerned with minimizing mistakes, you (almost necessarily) stifle discovery.
Those of you more versed in organizational psychology are probably not all that impressed by what you're reading so far. If this is the case, than the devil is in the absence of details. You need to read the book in order to get the full effect. It's the authors process of elaboration on these simple concepts that make this book such an eye opener.
As should be apparent, this book is kind of blowing my mind and I'm pretty much loving it. If that sounds a little under committed, it's because I'm not 100% sure why I'm finding this book so gratifying.
Yes it's well written. Yes its base on a sound, well constructed, well considered set of ideas. But I'm liking it a little more than I should based on the text its self. So I'm a little suspicious.
I guess the subject is particularly interesting for me at this juncture of my life and career. As I mentioned, the subject of the book is insight. What they are, how do we get them, why don't we get them and what (exactly) are they good for.
For the majority of my life, I pretty much worshiped insight and assumed the acquisition of insight to be life's pinnacle endeavor. Then at a certain point, I started to become skeptical.
After years (nay decades) of intellectual, creative and spiritual noodling that lead to plenty of "earth shattering" epiphanies about the nature of the mind and about myself and my mental processes and motivations and about the world and the cosmos blah blah blah, I was still horrendously underachieving. None of it was helping me manifest much of anything.
After some soul searching, I had an epiphany (i.e. an insight). I realized that I was kind of useless to everyone, most notably myself, because I wasn't converting any of these insights or ideas into anything remotely resembling a useful service, product or action.
Then it hit me (in the form of another insight). Ideas alone are about useless. Genius ideas are worth squat if they never see the light of day. And even mediocre ideas can be game changers with good execution (for example Apples Think Different ad campaign).
It's kind of a liberal truism that insight alone has intrinsic value. For much of the history of psychotherapy (the equivalent of church for the liberal atheist) the goal was to gain insight into the "causes" of your neurosis, name it, and then you're pretty much done.
One of my republican friends (yes I have one of those) devastated me with a critique of liberalism; "you liberals think that having a correct position on an issue is what being a good person is all about, but when it comes down to doing something good, y'all disappear (he probably heard it on Fox News or something, but it's still good).
His point was that liberal intellectuals and spiritual seekers think philosophizing is the same as doing estimable acts. But it ain't. It's all about rolling up your sleeves and getting your hands dirty DOOING good, not just talking about it. I had to concede to him on that one. It was an astute observation.
When I was studying to become a therapist, I discovered the behaviorally oriented approach, which basically asserts that you actually don't have to understand why you're fucked up in order to get better, you just have to change the behavior. Furthermore, even if you do understand why you're fucked up, it's not actually all that helpful, because you still have to change you're behavior.
This was radical to me. The idea that insight might not be necessary or important or even helpful at all in the therapeutic process. That sent me on an anti insight kick for a while.
I began to see smart people overvaluing ideas and undervaluing actions. I saw people putting the breaks on and trying to figure it all out when they desperately needed to simply take a step. I saw people trying to think their way out of issues they behaved their way into. I still do.
My mantra was (and still is) insights are useless unless they somehow engender adaptive behavior. Working hard to have them, in or out of the therapeutic context may be a huge waste of time and effort. You can have them and still be just as fucked as ever.
But after reading this book I'm realizing that insights are actually an equally important left foot to the right foot of adaptive behavioral change. You can't take a step in the right direction unless you identify the right direction to step to.
Duh right?
The fact of the matter is that we often hear of people revolutionizing their lives due to a sudden stroke of insight. Weather the insight is sudden or accumulated gradually, having deep insights and epiphanies are not only deeply pleasurable, they are also integral to the change process.
If this sounds kind of obvious, it's because it is. I'm just a little slow to catch on. Anyway.
This book is all about the systematic exploration of the insight process. It's written like a mystery story. And it's kind of awesome.
February 3, 2020
So coincidences and curiosities do turn into a-ha moments.
Q:
What sparks an insight?
What happens that lets us make sense of a jumble of unconnected and sometimes contradictory facts, events, and impressions?... (c)
Q:
No one had heard of Markopolos, who was rumpled where Madoff was smooth, excitable where Madoff was calm. Markopolos himself admits that he is a bit eccentric—for example, naming his twin sons Harry Louie and Louie Harry. More seriously, you have to be a bit nuts to embark on
a prolonged investigation the way Markopolos did. (c)
Q:
We tend to notice coincidences, associations we don’t fully understand, based on relationships we can’t articulate. People who can pick up on trends, spot patterns, wonder about irregularities, and notice coincidences are an important resource. They may often be wrong, so we shouldn’t automatically believe them even if they feel very confident. Nevertheless, they should be listened to, rather than ridiculed, because they just might be on to something. (c)
Q:
Naturalistic methods can be a bit nerve-wracking because you never know what you are looking for. You sift through the stories, on the lookout for patterns that might be meaningful. When you do laboratory studies in psychology, you define in advance what data you’re going to collect, what hypotheses you’re going to test, what statistics you’re going to use. But the story-based strategy leaves all of that open. You can’t define in advance how you are going to analyze your data because you don’t know what patterns might emerge. Reviewing the stories is scary and exciting. (c)
Q:
What sparks an insight?
What happens that lets us make sense of a jumble of unconnected and sometimes contradictory facts, events, and impressions?... (c)
Q:
No one had heard of Markopolos, who was rumpled where Madoff was smooth, excitable where Madoff was calm. Markopolos himself admits that he is a bit eccentric—for example, naming his twin sons Harry Louie and Louie Harry. More seriously, you have to be a bit nuts to embark on
a prolonged investigation the way Markopolos did. (c)
Q:
We tend to notice coincidences, associations we don’t fully understand, based on relationships we can’t articulate. People who can pick up on trends, spot patterns, wonder about irregularities, and notice coincidences are an important resource. They may often be wrong, so we shouldn’t automatically believe them even if they feel very confident. Nevertheless, they should be listened to, rather than ridiculed, because they just might be on to something. (c)
Q:
Naturalistic methods can be a bit nerve-wracking because you never know what you are looking for. You sift through the stories, on the lookout for patterns that might be meaningful. When you do laboratory studies in psychology, you define in advance what data you’re going to collect, what hypotheses you’re going to test, what statistics you’re going to use. But the story-based strategy leaves all of that open. You can’t define in advance how you are going to analyze your data because you don’t know what patterns might emerge. Reviewing the stories is scary and exciting. (c)
January 25, 2019
I learned almost nothing from this book. It was filled with assumptions about how people come to gain insight. Some of the stories were interesting-- a firefighter started a fire to escape a bigger fire; Darwin, Einstein, and Watson and Crick had insights about science; Daniel Boone's daughter was captured by Native Americans -- but there was nothing in any of his arguments that convinced me the author had discovered anything real about how someone comes to gain insight. The best he seemed to be able to do was to analyze twin pairs. That is, he took the closest person with the same knowledge and tried to come up with a story about why one person had insight while the twin failed to have insight. That didn't really tell me much. It told me only what happened between sets of people. In no way can this information be generalized. I would like to see what would happen if a large sample of people, with the same education as Watson and Crick had, were given the same information they had. How many of them could come up with the structure of DNA? Maybe, and that is a big maybe, with a large sample, I might know something more general. That is if researchers can manage to control for enough factors when trying to home in on the actual factors responsible for insight. This book was a long way from that type of effort.
Also, it really bugs me when authors use their pop-sci books to tell me how exceptional their kid is. That is talk that would be better shared with friends around a dinner table.
Also, it really bugs me when authors use their pop-sci books to tell me how exceptional their kid is. That is talk that would be better shared with friends around a dinner table.
March 19, 2023
4 Stars for Seeing What Others Don’t: The Remarkable ways We Gain Insight (audiobook) by Gary Kline read by Christopher Lane.
This book is a deep dive into problem solving and how some people see the solution and how it eludes others.
This book is a deep dive into problem solving and how some people see the solution and how it eludes others.
February 20, 2015
Full of fluff. This book used 300+ pages to say what could have been said in 50
August 7, 2017
Not very logical book about insights. Bunch of stories, vague ideas.
March 26, 2020
Please note that my reviews aren't really review, they are more like my cliff notes that I take while reading books.
PART I - ENTERING THROUGH THE GATES OF INSIGHT: HOW DO INSIGHTS GET TRIGGERED?
1. Hunting For Insights
Martin Seligman is the father of "Positive Psychology" as described in the Happiness Advantage
This inspired Klein to balance out the decision researchers who were trying to reduce errors, while he wanted to help people gain expertise and make insightful decisions.
Insight - an unexpected shift to a better frame.
We are built to seek insights which is why people like to do puzzles of all sorts.
2. The Flash of Illumination
Graham Wallas published The Art of Thought, the first modern account of insight.
4 stage model of insight:
Preparation - where we fruitlessly investigate a problem;
Incubation - we stop consciously thinking about the problem and let our unconscious work (like when Peter would shoot hoops to clear his mind);
Illumination - insight bursts forth with conciseness, suddenness and immediate certainty;
Verification - we test whether the idea is valid
Klein notes that in many instances, there was no preparation done
Sometimes the insight happens instantly (like a cop seeing something funny). So incubation is out
Defined 5 Candidate Strategies for gaining insights:
Connections
Coincidences
Curiosities
Contradictions
Creative desperation
3. Connections
we see two things, not necessarily connected and make a connection. Like the ability to use torpedoes in low water at place X (Taranto) would also work at place Y (Pearl Harbor)
Exposing ourselves to lots of different ideas might help us form new connections.
We need to do more than connect dots, we need to see past the non-dots and anti-dots.
It also requires we change the way we think
4. Coincidences and Curiosities
When the same thing appears again and again, we need to notice these coincidences and look for the pattern.
Curiosities often provoke a "What's going on here?" type of attitude, like when Dr. Flemming found that mold had killed Staphylococus and other bacteria. Further investigation let to discovering bacteria.
Unlike coincidences, curiosities are sparked by a single event and then followed up with investigating.
Following a curiosity may waste some time but be much trouble, coincidences can mislead us.
"The greatest obstacle to Knowledge is not ignorance; it is the illusion of knowledge", Daniel Boorstin.
We shouldn't believe in coincidence regardless of the evidence, but remember the "evidence" can be wrong. Both ulcers being caused by bacteria and not stress, or yellow fever/mosquitos show this
5. Contradictions
Unlike coincidences when things seem to fit together, contradictions cause more of a "No Way!" feeling.
Think the young cop who saw a guy flip a butt on his new car, it didn't make sense to not care about the car.
To make discoveries we are told to keep an open mind, however, having a suspicious mind can help, too.
In science we need paradigm shifts to have breakthroughs, these count as insights.
6. Creative Desperation - Trapped by Assumptions
Being chased by fire, he's looking for an assumption to overturn. Use the fire for me by clearing a path.
Instead of harassing people to do timecards, she rewarded them for getting them in on time.
7. Different Ways to Look at Insight
Like Dan Kahneman's System 1 (quick) and System 2 (deliberate) in his Thinking Fast and Slow we use
The process of gaining insight (upward arrow ) to offset the worries about decision biases (down arrow)
8. The Logic of Discoveries
Our natural tendency is to explain away deviant data points (aka things that go against the norm)
Connections, coincidences, and curiosities all try to build on a new potential anchor (core belief)
Triple Path is 1) Connections/Coincidences/Curiosities/ 2) Contradictions 3) Creative desperation
PART II = SHUTTING THE GATES - WHAT INTERFERES WITH INSIGHTS?
9. Stupidity
What prevents us from having insights? His friend saw the loophole in fantasy sports, why did he miss it?
He left his keys in the briefcase even though it prevented him from being able to drive, why did he miss such an obvious contradiction. Ditto his friend leaving items on the staircase and yet still falling on them.
These missed opportunities suggest that we count on insights, often so obvious, we don't recognize them.
False insight is when we think a change is coming but they are wrong that's why people overspent on stocks
We depend on memory to spotlight information without being asked. It should just pop up in our minds.
10. The Study of Contrasting Twins
Twins refers to two people with the same information. One had the insight, the other missed it.
4 reasons we might miss the chance to have an insight:
Flawed beliefs - like those who didn't think water could be causing the sickness, they refused to believe
The challenge is sometimes the data is flawed and sometimes the theory is flawed.
Lack of experience - having a generally prepared mind as well as knowledge in the appropriate area.
A passive stance - not scanning for new developments or opportunities. Be aware of your surroundings.
This was particularly true for contrasting twins. Think the cigarette on the car or fantasy baseball. Active people were often skeptical and ready to challenge the status quo.
They were more persistent and not stopped by failure.
A concrete reasoning style - if you aren't open to speculation but only facts, you'll miss possibilities.
11. Dumb by Design
4 Guidelines for computer system, which may hinder insight
The system should help you do your job better, the problem is it makes it tough to switch gears
The system should display critical cues, this may cause us to miss other cues once we have insight.
The system should filter out irrelevant data - this may have hidden data that became important, it prevents "happy accidents"
The system should help people monitor progress toward their goal. And if we change goals????
12. How Organizations Obstruct Insights.
They value predictability and recoil from surprises. They crave the absence of errors.
Insight is the opposite of predictable
If an idea is novel, people assume it isn't practical, reliable, or error free. New ideas are associated with failure
Organizations and people are programmed to discount anomalies and disruptive insights as long as possible.
Fear of errors of commission leads to errors of omission.
13. How not to hunt for insights
Impasse problems trick us into making unnecessary assumptions. Don't assume they were playing each other in checkers or that you have to stay in the lines for the 9 dot experiment.
Often experiments ae setup to work against our experience even though many insights need experience.
PART III Opening the Gates - How can we foster insights?
Chapter 14 Helping Ourselves
taka advantage of our Tilt! reflex when we see contradictions by replacing our feelings of consternation with curiousity
ask people what they were trying to accomplish instead of readiing them the riot act for not following directions.
seek others' perspectives and open yourself up to contradictory views, like the firechief learning from the new trainee.
expand our exposure to more people and new activities - they can create seeds for new insights.
critical thinking can help us undo our flawed assumptions, just be careful that we don't do too much critical thinking and stifle insights.
Incubation periods (sleeping on it) seems to work in some cases, but isn't always required.
Chapter 15 Helping Others
often the toughest part is understanding others' consusion and then correcting their flawed beliefs
plug into their desire for insight instead of pushing information on them
it's more than just changing beliefs, they/we need to act on the new information.
our core beliefs are harder to change, we need to help them make discoveries which will make them want to change.
teaching depends upon what others think, not what you think. We need to take their perspective not ours to understand why they are stuck.
16. Helping Our Organizations
Companies that use story telling and a key word can find out what motivates employees: good and bad.
Example the boss who moves away from the laptop to give undivided attention.
There are parts of organizations that monitor errors, why not one for insights?
Many companies that bought into the procedures of Six Sigma say revenue decreases. They had less errors
But in the process, they stifled creativity.
17. Tips for becoming an insight hunter
By not having much respect for the homemakers P&G's dismissive attitude caused them to miss a key insight
Low expectations lead to low realizations. Another reason to aim high.
Listen sympathetically and appreciatively to understand how people can arrive at incorrect conclusions.
She may have the details wrong, but could provide clues to the truth. Example - it wasn't really faster…
When listening to others consider their:
knowledge - do they know something we don't or do we know something they don't?
beliefs and experience - does something feel "off", trust your spidey senses.
motivation and competing priorities - are they trying to save money, face? Are they being arrogant? Etc.
constraints - ex: they couldn't see…, time, physical boundaries like and ocean.
Routinization of deviance - my key sticks, but it's been so gradual, I don't notice….
18. The Magic of Insights
PART I - ENTERING THROUGH THE GATES OF INSIGHT: HOW DO INSIGHTS GET TRIGGERED?
1. Hunting For Insights
Martin Seligman is the father of "Positive Psychology" as described in the Happiness Advantage
This inspired Klein to balance out the decision researchers who were trying to reduce errors, while he wanted to help people gain expertise and make insightful decisions.
Insight - an unexpected shift to a better frame.
We are built to seek insights which is why people like to do puzzles of all sorts.
2. The Flash of Illumination
Graham Wallas published The Art of Thought, the first modern account of insight.
4 stage model of insight:
Preparation - where we fruitlessly investigate a problem;
Incubation - we stop consciously thinking about the problem and let our unconscious work (like when Peter would shoot hoops to clear his mind);
Illumination - insight bursts forth with conciseness, suddenness and immediate certainty;
Verification - we test whether the idea is valid
Klein notes that in many instances, there was no preparation done
Sometimes the insight happens instantly (like a cop seeing something funny). So incubation is out
Defined 5 Candidate Strategies for gaining insights:
Connections
Coincidences
Curiosities
Contradictions
Creative desperation
3. Connections
we see two things, not necessarily connected and make a connection. Like the ability to use torpedoes in low water at place X (Taranto) would also work at place Y (Pearl Harbor)
Exposing ourselves to lots of different ideas might help us form new connections.
We need to do more than connect dots, we need to see past the non-dots and anti-dots.
It also requires we change the way we think
4. Coincidences and Curiosities
When the same thing appears again and again, we need to notice these coincidences and look for the pattern.
Curiosities often provoke a "What's going on here?" type of attitude, like when Dr. Flemming found that mold had killed Staphylococus and other bacteria. Further investigation let to discovering bacteria.
Unlike coincidences, curiosities are sparked by a single event and then followed up with investigating.
Following a curiosity may waste some time but be much trouble, coincidences can mislead us.
"The greatest obstacle to Knowledge is not ignorance; it is the illusion of knowledge", Daniel Boorstin.
We shouldn't believe in coincidence regardless of the evidence, but remember the "evidence" can be wrong. Both ulcers being caused by bacteria and not stress, or yellow fever/mosquitos show this
5. Contradictions
Unlike coincidences when things seem to fit together, contradictions cause more of a "No Way!" feeling.
Think the young cop who saw a guy flip a butt on his new car, it didn't make sense to not care about the car.
To make discoveries we are told to keep an open mind, however, having a suspicious mind can help, too.
In science we need paradigm shifts to have breakthroughs, these count as insights.
6. Creative Desperation - Trapped by Assumptions
Being chased by fire, he's looking for an assumption to overturn. Use the fire for me by clearing a path.
Instead of harassing people to do timecards, she rewarded them for getting them in on time.
7. Different Ways to Look at Insight
Like Dan Kahneman's System 1 (quick) and System 2 (deliberate) in his Thinking Fast and Slow we use
The process of gaining insight (upward arrow ) to offset the worries about decision biases (down arrow)
8. The Logic of Discoveries
Our natural tendency is to explain away deviant data points (aka things that go against the norm)
Connections, coincidences, and curiosities all try to build on a new potential anchor (core belief)
Triple Path is 1) Connections/Coincidences/Curiosities/ 2) Contradictions 3) Creative desperation
PART II = SHUTTING THE GATES - WHAT INTERFERES WITH INSIGHTS?
9. Stupidity
What prevents us from having insights? His friend saw the loophole in fantasy sports, why did he miss it?
He left his keys in the briefcase even though it prevented him from being able to drive, why did he miss such an obvious contradiction. Ditto his friend leaving items on the staircase and yet still falling on them.
These missed opportunities suggest that we count on insights, often so obvious, we don't recognize them.
False insight is when we think a change is coming but they are wrong that's why people overspent on stocks
We depend on memory to spotlight information without being asked. It should just pop up in our minds.
10. The Study of Contrasting Twins
Twins refers to two people with the same information. One had the insight, the other missed it.
4 reasons we might miss the chance to have an insight:
Flawed beliefs - like those who didn't think water could be causing the sickness, they refused to believe
The challenge is sometimes the data is flawed and sometimes the theory is flawed.
Lack of experience - having a generally prepared mind as well as knowledge in the appropriate area.
A passive stance - not scanning for new developments or opportunities. Be aware of your surroundings.
This was particularly true for contrasting twins. Think the cigarette on the car or fantasy baseball. Active people were often skeptical and ready to challenge the status quo.
They were more persistent and not stopped by failure.
A concrete reasoning style - if you aren't open to speculation but only facts, you'll miss possibilities.
11. Dumb by Design
4 Guidelines for computer system, which may hinder insight
The system should help you do your job better, the problem is it makes it tough to switch gears
The system should display critical cues, this may cause us to miss other cues once we have insight.
The system should filter out irrelevant data - this may have hidden data that became important, it prevents "happy accidents"
The system should help people monitor progress toward their goal. And if we change goals????
12. How Organizations Obstruct Insights.
They value predictability and recoil from surprises. They crave the absence of errors.
Insight is the opposite of predictable
If an idea is novel, people assume it isn't practical, reliable, or error free. New ideas are associated with failure
Organizations and people are programmed to discount anomalies and disruptive insights as long as possible.
Fear of errors of commission leads to errors of omission.
13. How not to hunt for insights
Impasse problems trick us into making unnecessary assumptions. Don't assume they were playing each other in checkers or that you have to stay in the lines for the 9 dot experiment.
Often experiments ae setup to work against our experience even though many insights need experience.
PART III Opening the Gates - How can we foster insights?
Chapter 14 Helping Ourselves
taka advantage of our Tilt! reflex when we see contradictions by replacing our feelings of consternation with curiousity
ask people what they were trying to accomplish instead of readiing them the riot act for not following directions.
seek others' perspectives and open yourself up to contradictory views, like the firechief learning from the new trainee.
expand our exposure to more people and new activities - they can create seeds for new insights.
critical thinking can help us undo our flawed assumptions, just be careful that we don't do too much critical thinking and stifle insights.
Incubation periods (sleeping on it) seems to work in some cases, but isn't always required.
Chapter 15 Helping Others
often the toughest part is understanding others' consusion and then correcting their flawed beliefs
plug into their desire for insight instead of pushing information on them
it's more than just changing beliefs, they/we need to act on the new information.
our core beliefs are harder to change, we need to help them make discoveries which will make them want to change.
teaching depends upon what others think, not what you think. We need to take their perspective not ours to understand why they are stuck.
16. Helping Our Organizations
Companies that use story telling and a key word can find out what motivates employees: good and bad.
Example the boss who moves away from the laptop to give undivided attention.
There are parts of organizations that monitor errors, why not one for insights?
Many companies that bought into the procedures of Six Sigma say revenue decreases. They had less errors
But in the process, they stifled creativity.
17. Tips for becoming an insight hunter
By not having much respect for the homemakers P&G's dismissive attitude caused them to miss a key insight
Low expectations lead to low realizations. Another reason to aim high.
Listen sympathetically and appreciatively to understand how people can arrive at incorrect conclusions.
She may have the details wrong, but could provide clues to the truth. Example - it wasn't really faster…
When listening to others consider their:
knowledge - do they know something we don't or do we know something they don't?
beliefs and experience - does something feel "off", trust your spidey senses.
motivation and competing priorities - are they trying to save money, face? Are they being arrogant? Etc.
constraints - ex: they couldn't see…, time, physical boundaries like and ocean.
Routinization of deviance - my key sticks, but it's been so gradual, I don't notice….
18. The Magic of Insights
April 18, 2014
Some interesting little anecdotes, but the author's premise was stretched way too thin. Very repetitive, as the book could have gotten its same point across in 50-100 less pages.
February 27, 2023
Pentru mine cartea a fost o mare dezamăgire. :(
Începutul a fost interesant - primul exemplu de perspicacitate mi s-a părut genial: doi polițiști americani sunt în trafic, cel mai tânăr vede în Mercedesul nou-nouț paralel cu ei cum șoferul trage un fum din țigară și scutură scrumul pe tapițerie și se gândește 'proprietarul n-ar face asta, nici un prieten care a împrumutat-o, nu poate fi decât un hot' - au oprit mașina și chiar era furată!
Și primele 30-35 de pagini au fost la fel.
A prezentat câteva cazuri ale unor cercetători care pe baza experienței și cu ajutorul perspicacitatii, au făcut descoperiri importante.
Atunci mi-am spus că-mi voi schimba opinia despre psihologi (n-am nimic cu ei, doar că în 90% din cazuri nu subscriu părerilor dumnealor) - eram ferm convinsă că voi fi foarte încântată de carte și chiar voi afla lucruri utile - din păcate, m-am înșelat amarnic. :(
Primul semnal de alarmă a fost la exemplul unui caz de perspicacitate al unui pompier care a supraviețuit unui incendiu care i-a omorât vreo 12 colegi - ideea prezentată era: ce deștept a fost supraviețuitorul care făcuse un alt foc în jurul lui și cât de prosti au fost ceilalți pe care i-a ajuns focul și au ars de vii...
Un alt exemplu care nu mi-a plăcut a fost al unui alpinist care rămăsese cu un braț blocat de o piatră mare, i-a venit ideea să-și rupă mâna și s-o taie ca să poată scăpa. Dar ca și cazul anterior, totul a fost prezentat detașat, fără nici un pic de empatie, ca și cum alpinistul ar fi tăiat și aruncat o bucată de hârtie folosită, nu propria mână!
Ca erori de perspicacitate, au fost enumerate cele ale serviciilor secrete americane care nu au prezis corect atacurile de la 11 septembrie, o lovitură de stat și unificarea Germaniei.. puse aprox pe picior de egalitate... pe bune???
Autorul relatează mai multe cazuri ale unui frate, psihoterapeut - nu cumva ședințele sunt confidențiale? Nu cred că legea în America e mai blândă în această privință decât la noi, și avem lege sigur.
În unul din cazuri, o tipă a 'scăpat' de verișoara ei care îi era asociată, cu aceeași lipsă totală de empatie și respect pe care le arată autorul în 90% din relatări - evident, a fost lăudată pentru 'perspicacitate'.
La fel, își laudă fiica ce a avut 'perspicacitatea' de a omite informații importante când a vândut un e-reader unui bătrân... Explicația a fost 'dacă nu le-a cerut'... Cinste 100%,ce să zic... Sigur, se întâmplă în comerț, dar ca psiholog să susții că este corect și normal, mi se pare deja prea mult!
În schimb despre alt frate spune că este narcisist și manipulator - eu credeam că citesc o carte despre perspicacitate, nu despre rufele lor murdare spălate în public.
Trebuie să spun că în prima parte a cărții sunt multe referințe la fotbalul american, baseball, sportivi vedete, etc, cu terminologia de rigoare.
Am ajuns și la partea a treia, metode de sporire a perspicacitatii, care m-a enervat cel mai tare!
Cum autorul spune că îmbunătățirea performanțelor combină reducerea erorilor cu mărirea ideilor perspicace, se trece la prima parte -printre sugestii: mai puține reguli, mai puține controale, și mai puține persoane alocate pentru situațiile critice... Ahh, și folosirea unor persoane fără experiență, pentru că aceasta 'inhibă perspicacitatea.. Da, în prima parte, a subliniat de câteva ori că a determinat-o! I-aș sugera autorului să ceară unui neurochirurg începător să-l opereze singur, fără nici un plan și nici o regulă... Să facă ce-i trece prim cap, să vedem ce iese...
Concluzia este: perspicacitatea e magie și nu prea ai cum s-o îmbunătățești - vine când vine, dacă vine.
Eu zic că putea scrie asta pe prima pagină, imediat după exemplul cu polițiștii, nu la pagina 347,ar scuti cititorii de un efort inutil.
Ultimul lucru care nu mi-a plăcut: aproximativ 20-25% din citatele care îi 'întăresc' studiile sunt din cărți proprii - adică 'eu sunt de acord cu mine' - mare surpriză!
PS1:Scuze pentru review-ul lung.
PS2:Sunt sigură că există psihologi empatici, care nu-și tratează subiecții ca niște obiecte cu număr și atât, dar nu prea am dat peste asemenea cărți, dar mai caut. :)
Începutul a fost interesant - primul exemplu de perspicacitate mi s-a părut genial: doi polițiști americani sunt în trafic, cel mai tânăr vede în Mercedesul nou-nouț paralel cu ei cum șoferul trage un fum din țigară și scutură scrumul pe tapițerie și se gândește 'proprietarul n-ar face asta, nici un prieten care a împrumutat-o, nu poate fi decât un hot' - au oprit mașina și chiar era furată!
Și primele 30-35 de pagini au fost la fel.
A prezentat câteva cazuri ale unor cercetători care pe baza experienței și cu ajutorul perspicacitatii, au făcut descoperiri importante.
Atunci mi-am spus că-mi voi schimba opinia despre psihologi (n-am nimic cu ei, doar că în 90% din cazuri nu subscriu părerilor dumnealor) - eram ferm convinsă că voi fi foarte încântată de carte și chiar voi afla lucruri utile - din păcate, m-am înșelat amarnic. :(
Primul semnal de alarmă a fost la exemplul unui caz de perspicacitate al unui pompier care a supraviețuit unui incendiu care i-a omorât vreo 12 colegi - ideea prezentată era: ce deștept a fost supraviețuitorul care făcuse un alt foc în jurul lui și cât de prosti au fost ceilalți pe care i-a ajuns focul și au ars de vii...
Un alt exemplu care nu mi-a plăcut a fost al unui alpinist care rămăsese cu un braț blocat de o piatră mare, i-a venit ideea să-și rupă mâna și s-o taie ca să poată scăpa. Dar ca și cazul anterior, totul a fost prezentat detașat, fără nici un pic de empatie, ca și cum alpinistul ar fi tăiat și aruncat o bucată de hârtie folosită, nu propria mână!
Ca erori de perspicacitate, au fost enumerate cele ale serviciilor secrete americane care nu au prezis corect atacurile de la 11 septembrie, o lovitură de stat și unificarea Germaniei.. puse aprox pe picior de egalitate... pe bune???
Autorul relatează mai multe cazuri ale unui frate, psihoterapeut - nu cumva ședințele sunt confidențiale? Nu cred că legea în America e mai blândă în această privință decât la noi, și avem lege sigur.
În unul din cazuri, o tipă a 'scăpat' de verișoara ei care îi era asociată, cu aceeași lipsă totală de empatie și respect pe care le arată autorul în 90% din relatări - evident, a fost lăudată pentru 'perspicacitate'.
La fel, își laudă fiica ce a avut 'perspicacitatea' de a omite informații importante când a vândut un e-reader unui bătrân... Explicația a fost 'dacă nu le-a cerut'... Cinste 100%,ce să zic... Sigur, se întâmplă în comerț, dar ca psiholog să susții că este corect și normal, mi se pare deja prea mult!
În schimb despre alt frate spune că este narcisist și manipulator - eu credeam că citesc o carte despre perspicacitate, nu despre rufele lor murdare spălate în public.
Trebuie să spun că în prima parte a cărții sunt multe referințe la fotbalul american, baseball, sportivi vedete, etc, cu terminologia de rigoare.
Am ajuns și la partea a treia, metode de sporire a perspicacitatii, care m-a enervat cel mai tare!
Cum autorul spune că îmbunătățirea performanțelor combină reducerea erorilor cu mărirea ideilor perspicace, se trece la prima parte -printre sugestii: mai puține reguli, mai puține controale, și mai puține persoane alocate pentru situațiile critice... Ahh, și folosirea unor persoane fără experiență, pentru că aceasta 'inhibă perspicacitatea.. Da, în prima parte, a subliniat de câteva ori că a determinat-o! I-aș sugera autorului să ceară unui neurochirurg începător să-l opereze singur, fără nici un plan și nici o regulă... Să facă ce-i trece prim cap, să vedem ce iese...
Concluzia este: perspicacitatea e magie și nu prea ai cum s-o îmbunătățești - vine când vine, dacă vine.
Eu zic că putea scrie asta pe prima pagină, imediat după exemplul cu polițiștii, nu la pagina 347,ar scuti cititorii de un efort inutil.
Ultimul lucru care nu mi-a plăcut: aproximativ 20-25% din citatele care îi 'întăresc' studiile sunt din cărți proprii - adică 'eu sunt de acord cu mine' - mare surpriză!
PS1:Scuze pentru review-ul lung.
PS2:Sunt sigură că există psihologi empatici, care nu-și tratează subiecții ca niște obiecte cu număr și atât, dar nu prea am dat peste asemenea cărți, dar mai caut. :)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 5, 2024
"What sparks an insight? What happens that lets us make sense of a jumble of unconnected and sometimes contradictory facts, events, and impressions?
Once I got going on that one, a second mystery arose: What prevents us from grasping an insight? Even when it sits dangling in front of our eyes, ripe for the plucking? Even when others brighten at what they have unexpectedly uncovered?"
Seeing What Others Don't started out OK, but never really got off the ground. More below. The author drops the quote above near the start of the book.
Author Gary Klein is a research psychologist famous for pioneering in the field of naturalistic decision making. By studying experts such as firefighters in their natural environment, he discovered that laboratory models of decision making could not describe it under uncertainty/
Gary Klein:
Klien gets the book off to a good start with a fairly lively and engaging first chapter. Unfortunately, this proved to be the high water mark of the book. Generally speaking, I found much of the book to be far too slow. Much of the writing here was very long-winded and tedious.
The bulk of the book is the author examining many different historical figures who stumbled upon great discoveries or had illuminating epiphanies. John Snow's discovery of cholera at the water pump, Michael Burry's realization that the US housing market was overvalued circa 2007, and many other similar case studies are presented. The author attempts to explain how we make these kinds of discoveries.
Unfortunately, the rattling off of case study after case study left the overall narrative flow of this one feeling jumbled and incoherent. I found my finicky attention wandering numerous times.
The book was also way too long, and far too repetitive for the material covered. The author keeps rehashing the same case studies over and over again, making somewhat cherry-picked conclusions about the end results of each.
Finally, the author spends several hundred pages pontificating at great length, but never actually produces a cogent theory with any valid scientific rigour. There was just more endless pontification and postulating. God, this book was an exercise in frustration...
********************
Seeing What Others Don't did not meet my expectations. I would not recommend it.
Remind me to take a hard pass from anything else this author produces.
2 stars.
Once I got going on that one, a second mystery arose: What prevents us from grasping an insight? Even when it sits dangling in front of our eyes, ripe for the plucking? Even when others brighten at what they have unexpectedly uncovered?"
Seeing What Others Don't started out OK, but never really got off the ground. More below. The author drops the quote above near the start of the book.
Author Gary Klein is a research psychologist famous for pioneering in the field of naturalistic decision making. By studying experts such as firefighters in their natural environment, he discovered that laboratory models of decision making could not describe it under uncertainty/
Gary Klein:
Klien gets the book off to a good start with a fairly lively and engaging first chapter. Unfortunately, this proved to be the high water mark of the book. Generally speaking, I found much of the book to be far too slow. Much of the writing here was very long-winded and tedious.
The bulk of the book is the author examining many different historical figures who stumbled upon great discoveries or had illuminating epiphanies. John Snow's discovery of cholera at the water pump, Michael Burry's realization that the US housing market was overvalued circa 2007, and many other similar case studies are presented. The author attempts to explain how we make these kinds of discoveries.
Unfortunately, the rattling off of case study after case study left the overall narrative flow of this one feeling jumbled and incoherent. I found my finicky attention wandering numerous times.
The book was also way too long, and far too repetitive for the material covered. The author keeps rehashing the same case studies over and over again, making somewhat cherry-picked conclusions about the end results of each.
Finally, the author spends several hundred pages pontificating at great length, but never actually produces a cogent theory with any valid scientific rigour. There was just more endless pontification and postulating. God, this book was an exercise in frustration...
********************
Seeing What Others Don't did not meet my expectations. I would not recommend it.
Remind me to take a hard pass from anything else this author produces.
2 stars.
August 20, 2013
This is a good follow-up book to read after Imagine: How Creativity Works and Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation, Where Good Ideas Come From is even referenced(and kind-of dismissed). Not surprisingly, no mention of Imagine but I still like that one a lot.
Insight definition and the path to having them is fleshed-out very well here. I really like all the specific stories he uses to make his points. Most of which were from history(intersting tidbits I had never heard) and many from the author's own experiences. There is even a story index to track them all. The conclusion is a good summation of the ideas in the book which is nice for going back and remembering later. It is one of those business innovation books but that does make up a lot of the book either, thankfully.
I did find it a little odd how he is skepitcal of the incubation period of before an insight. He even has a personal story where he had this incubation period. I see it this way:
The incubation period exists but it can be very short, which is what seems to bother the author because it does not fit all of the insights.
Two things seem to determine the incubation period:
1. The priority of connections/contradictions/weak anchors in the person's mind
2. Complexity of the issue
If the problem, is not considered particulary important you will not really think about it and if it is a complex issue you will need more time no matter what to find an answer. Stephen Johnson is definately on to something with the "slow hunch".
Insight definition and the path to having them is fleshed-out very well here. I really like all the specific stories he uses to make his points. Most of which were from history(intersting tidbits I had never heard) and many from the author's own experiences. There is even a story index to track them all. The conclusion is a good summation of the ideas in the book which is nice for going back and remembering later. It is one of those business innovation books but that does make up a lot of the book either, thankfully.
I did find it a little odd how he is skepitcal of the incubation period of before an insight. He even has a personal story where he had this incubation period. I see it this way:
The incubation period exists but it can be very short, which is what seems to bother the author because it does not fit all of the insights.
Two things seem to determine the incubation period:
1. The priority of connections/contradictions/weak anchors in the person's mind
2. Complexity of the issue
If the problem, is not considered particulary important you will not really think about it and if it is a complex issue you will need more time no matter what to find an answer. Stephen Johnson is definately on to something with the "slow hunch".
December 14, 2014
I read Kahneman's Thinking Fast & Slow earlier this year, and this was a great book for balancing the ideas from that book. Klein does a good job explaining his view of how people have come to surprising ideas that solved seemingly intransigent problems, but his model deals with more than just the "impasse" approach to problem-solving. He also explains how making connections, seeing contradictions, and experiencing happy coincidences contribute to great insights. In terms of how he balances TF&S, Kahneman's heuristics and biases approach emphasizes how our thinking habits often lead us astray, but he bases a lot on how people think about unfamiliar questions in controlled environments. Even Kahneman included a chapter on expertise and described how he collaborated with Klein. By contrast, Klein's analysis of his examples often go deep in trying to understand the thinking process of someone with a deep knowledge base and lots of experience who made a discovery or had an insight in the natural world of their expertise, not in the lab. But his model also covers the leap of insight that a rookie cop had or the inexperienced explorations of grad students trying something the established academic community dismisses as out of bounds. In the end, both Kahneman and Klein have contributed a great deal to my understanding of how people make judgments and come to conclusions. I appreciated Klein's focus on real world experiences and I appreciated the breadth of Kahneman's studies and how his biases and heuristics can be demonstrated over and over as affecting our thinking process. If you're at all interested in social or cognitive psychology, I think you'll get something valuable from this book.
December 31, 2021
This is a very good book on the subject of insight. Everyone wants to be good at it. Very few know how.
There are many books on this subject. I have read many of them. Some of the good ones are Range , Where Ideas Come From, The Serendipity Mindset etc. They have all covered specific parts of Insight. But this book is special in two regards.
One, it’s comprehensive. It covers all aspects of insight. All the various methods of finding insights. Yes there are mire than one. Lots of examples are shared. Also covers the pitfalls of too many insights or bad insights. As well as why we miss out on insights. It explains insights in different contexts also. Like how to increase an organisations capability to generate more insights.
The second part is the rigour. Gary Klein is an academic and everything is very thorough as a result. His method of arriving at the core principles of finding insights is very scientific. Everything is argued well. Sometimes the book becomes a little dense but you can’t fault Klein for not being rigorous.
There is a lot of good stuff in there. Finding insights is one of humanity’s great strengths and this book does a good job of explaining how to become good at it.
There are many books on this subject. I have read many of them. Some of the good ones are Range , Where Ideas Come From, The Serendipity Mindset etc. They have all covered specific parts of Insight. But this book is special in two regards.
One, it’s comprehensive. It covers all aspects of insight. All the various methods of finding insights. Yes there are mire than one. Lots of examples are shared. Also covers the pitfalls of too many insights or bad insights. As well as why we miss out on insights. It explains insights in different contexts also. Like how to increase an organisations capability to generate more insights.
The second part is the rigour. Gary Klein is an academic and everything is very thorough as a result. His method of arriving at the core principles of finding insights is very scientific. Everything is argued well. Sometimes the book becomes a little dense but you can’t fault Klein for not being rigorous.
There is a lot of good stuff in there. Finding insights is one of humanity’s great strengths and this book does a good job of explaining how to become good at it.
March 15, 2014
Disclaimer: While I aim to be unbiased, I received a copy of this for free to review.
Now, I’ll be honest – when I started reading this, I was a skeptic. I didn’t believe in the so-called ‘science of insights‘, or the field of naturalistic decision-making that the author helped to pioneer. Boy, was I in for a surprise.
Klein writes with such passion and such conviction that you quickly come round to his point of view, and he’s done the hard-work for you by researching over a hundred cases of insight, from Napoleon‘s insight to cut off the supply lines at the battle of Toulon to Alexander Fleming‘s discovery of penicillin and the cop who realised a carjacking was in progress when a driver flicked ash over the dashboard of a brand new BMW.
Klein classifies each of the insights in his collection as connections, coincidences, curiosities or contradictions, although insights can also come about through creative desperation or through a combination of multiple factors – in fact, these combinations are the most common source of insight.
I could talk about it forever, but suffice to say that Klein explains each of the concepts clearly and concisely, using real examples to illustrate his theories. The rest of the book explains how companies and organisations try to block these insights, no matter how much they may claim the contrary.
And Klein will also reveal how you can boost those insights – that’s invaluable advice, and it more than pays for the cost of the book. So go out and get it!
Now, I’ll be honest – when I started reading this, I was a skeptic. I didn’t believe in the so-called ‘science of insights‘, or the field of naturalistic decision-making that the author helped to pioneer. Boy, was I in for a surprise.
Klein writes with such passion and such conviction that you quickly come round to his point of view, and he’s done the hard-work for you by researching over a hundred cases of insight, from Napoleon‘s insight to cut off the supply lines at the battle of Toulon to Alexander Fleming‘s discovery of penicillin and the cop who realised a carjacking was in progress when a driver flicked ash over the dashboard of a brand new BMW.
Klein classifies each of the insights in his collection as connections, coincidences, curiosities or contradictions, although insights can also come about through creative desperation or through a combination of multiple factors – in fact, these combinations are the most common source of insight.
I could talk about it forever, but suffice to say that Klein explains each of the concepts clearly and concisely, using real examples to illustrate his theories. The rest of the book explains how companies and organisations try to block these insights, no matter how much they may claim the contrary.
And Klein will also reveal how you can boost those insights – that’s invaluable advice, and it more than pays for the cost of the book. So go out and get it!
December 10, 2015
The book discusses insight, where it comes from, what it is, and what it might mean to foster it. He lays out the anatomy of insight, valiently attempting a definition and clarification. I gave it four stars, reserving five only for the very best, as I did find it helpful to my brainstorm on this topic and fostering it within my organizations.
Key Take Aways:
Three stages and subsequent activity to understanding:
Triggers - a) a contradiction, b) connection, c) creative desperation
Activity: a) Use weak anchor to rebuild the theory b) add a new anchor c) discards the weak anchor
He speaks of coincidences and curiosities and the manner in which exploration should happen in both cases. The former has significant downside if the coincidence is wrong, while one can explore myriad of curiosities and lose only time (not go deeper into a wrong rabbit hole)
Four things that will stifle insight: a) gripped by flawed beliefs vs escape fixation b) lack of experience vs. experience c) Passive stance vs. active stance d) concrete reasoning vs. playful reasoning
He discusses the potential downside of having a system (insight doesn't happen within the existing structure by definition). The stronger the design the weaker the insight.
Overall, I love that he continuously brings it back to the bottom line challenge. Performance improvements occur from decreasing errors and increasing insights. Although the latter is the most profitable, the former is the easiest and is therefore typical management focus.
Key Take Aways:
Three stages and subsequent activity to understanding:
Triggers - a) a contradiction, b) connection, c) creative desperation
Activity: a) Use weak anchor to rebuild the theory b) add a new anchor c) discards the weak anchor
He speaks of coincidences and curiosities and the manner in which exploration should happen in both cases. The former has significant downside if the coincidence is wrong, while one can explore myriad of curiosities and lose only time (not go deeper into a wrong rabbit hole)
Four things that will stifle insight: a) gripped by flawed beliefs vs escape fixation b) lack of experience vs. experience c) Passive stance vs. active stance d) concrete reasoning vs. playful reasoning
He discusses the potential downside of having a system (insight doesn't happen within the existing structure by definition). The stronger the design the weaker the insight.
Overall, I love that he continuously brings it back to the bottom line challenge. Performance improvements occur from decreasing errors and increasing insights. Although the latter is the most profitable, the former is the easiest and is therefore typical management focus.
November 4, 2016
Interesting book on how we generate insights but offers minimal ideas on how we can boost our ability to garner insights. Maybe this wasn't the goal of the author but it would have made this book significantly more useful. Still, a decent read to at least get a better understanding of how our minds work when we craft a new insight.
February 26, 2015
من أروع الكتب التي قرأتها عن الإبداعي
يتحدث فيها المؤلف عن نموذج ابتكره لكيفية الحصول لللأفكار الإبداعية
وال Insight
ومن جمال الكتاب، أنه يسير معك خطوة خطوة في آلية قيامه بالبحث وكيف جمع القصص وكيف استخرج منها النموذج
كتاب ممتع حقا
يتحدث فيها المؤلف عن نموذج ابتكره لكيفية الحصول لللأفكار الإبداعية
وال Insight
ومن جمال الكتاب، أنه يسير معك خطوة خطوة في آلية قيامه بالبحث وكيف جمع القصص وكيف استخرج منها النموذج
كتاب ممتع حقا
August 24, 2018
Klein performs naturalistic research into the ways insights are formed and discovers three paths that lead to them: connections, contradictions, and creative desperation. His research is driven by a set of stories he selected across many decades, events, people, and experiences. The work was contrasted with lab experiments used to understand insights, especially to highlight the idea that those trials typically limit our understanding to a narrow set of ways insight is gained.
This book gave me some interesting ideas to consider and I'm looking forward to reading more of Klein's work.
This book gave me some interesting ideas to consider and I'm looking forward to reading more of Klein's work.
April 14, 2024
This book is better when it’s read in a few weeks rather than days.
The last chapter made it a solid 4star from a meh-3.5star book.
I do recommend reading this book in which you’ll maybe find one amazing insight or a plain sentence which will change your perspective on something forever.
The last chapter made it a solid 4star from a meh-3.5star book.
I do recommend reading this book in which you’ll maybe find one amazing insight or a plain sentence which will change your perspective on something forever.
February 21, 2025
I mostly already knew the information this book wanted to provide, but if you interested in insights and assumptions then I recommend it to you.
February 13, 2021
An interesting book I must say. Gary Klein has some amazing findings here which indeed show not just something that happens but something that I have seen happening to me too. Well done research with models provided for tracing how insights come into work. What is the aha! Moment and where in our mind does that happen. Many many things that call this book to be read with a pen and paper in hand. Good for research and thesis writing as well.
July 20, 2023
Fascinating read for a lifelong learner! Interesting real-life stories sprinkled throughout made for an enlightening and enjoyable read. Instructional and broadening to an intuitive, and it also highlighted the need to improve my listening skills.
April 10, 2015
In his book Klein shares stories involving his years of cognitive learning research that uncover the origins of creativity and how many successful innovators were able to create their marvelous ideas. The goal of the book is to help you train your brain to be more creative, effectively solve more problems, avoid disruptive idea blockers, and think faster than the average person.
For your convenience, I had Gary Klein on my podcast, The Entrepreneurs Library, to give a deep dive on Seeing What Others Don't. With Gary’s experience he gives amazing insight on how to unleash creativity you've never seen before. If you would like to get a more in-depth look from the author himself check out episode 196 on the EL website or you can find the show on iTunes.
For your convenience, I had Gary Klein on my podcast, The Entrepreneurs Library, to give a deep dive on Seeing What Others Don't. With Gary’s experience he gives amazing insight on how to unleash creativity you've never seen before. If you would like to get a more in-depth look from the author himself check out episode 196 on the EL website or you can find the show on iTunes.
March 25, 2016
I tried for a month with this book, but just couldn't finish it. It provided a lot of interesting information (thus the two stars), but Klein wrote it in an entirely unengaging way. He used a pile of newspaper and magazine clippings he'd collected through the years to craft a rubric on how people gain insights. I'm okay with that. What didn't really work for me was how he constructed the book around the rubric. Each part of his theory on insight was assigned a chapter and within that chapter he listed stories from his clippings that fit the theme. He didn't interview anyone or bring any information beyond his own observations and the clippings to the book. Essentially this book is a very large listicle. The limitations of his approach prevented me from ever becoming engrossed in my reading, instead I periodically had moments of "oh, that's interesting." I gave up on this book three weeks ago and at this point remember next to none of what I read.
February 25, 2014
There were a few good points in this book but there were also quite a few stories that were used to make essentially the same point, which is that a focus/an obsession with accuracy and predictability crowds out out ability to have insights.
It's probably a reasonably entertaining book (I'd already read almost all of the stories that were not the author's own so it was somewhat less entertaining for me). Though the book overall was a very quick read and the stories help us to remember the points so it wasn't too bad going over them again.
I would have preferred it to include more of the author's own work in industry, his vast experience consulting, the insights that he picked up from clients, more naturalistic studies from fellow consultants perhaps and just more meat to give us better insights into insights!
It's probably a reasonably entertaining book (I'd already read almost all of the stories that were not the author's own so it was somewhat less entertaining for me). Though the book overall was a very quick read and the stories help us to remember the points so it wasn't too bad going over them again.
I would have preferred it to include more of the author's own work in industry, his vast experience consulting, the insights that he picked up from clients, more naturalistic studies from fellow consultants perhaps and just more meat to give us better insights into insights!
November 12, 2020
Breezy written book that practices what it preaches: use storytelling to make your point. Many of the 120 stories Klein uses to get more insights in insights feature throughout the book; "Eventually I was able to sort these 120 cases into five different strategies for gaining insights: connections, coincidences, curiosities, contradictions, and creative desperation." (although, as another reviewer commented, the proud dad is a sometimes a bit too much with stories about his brilliant daughters).
I like the fact that he focusses on the up arrow (more insights); enough people already focus on reducing error. And as Klein writes: "the primary job of any organization is to produce good products and outcomes, not to avoid errors."
Below are quotes from the book:
To improve performance, we need to reduce errors and uncertainty and we need to increase insights.
Unfortunately, the two arrows often conflict with each other. The actions we take to reduce errors and uncertainty can get in the way of insights. Therefore, organizations are faced with a balancing act. Too often they become imbalanced and overemphasize the down arrow. They care more about reducing errors and uncertainty than about making discoveries. They fall into the predictability trap and the perfection trap.
Decision researchers were trying to reduce errors, which is important, but we also needed to help people gain expertise and make insightful decisions. To improve performance, we need to do two things. The down arrow is what we have to reduce, errors. The up arrow is what we have to increase, insights. Performance improvement depends on doing both of these things.
Many people spend time in activities like puzzles that call for insights because the act of struggling and then gaining understanding is so satisfying.
Fabius Maximus, nicknamed The Delayer, who avoided open battle with the Carthaginian leader Hannibal, relying instead on continual pressure.
He disagreed with the theory that people behave rationally and base their behavior on calculating the costs and benefits of each possible course of action. Wallas argued that politicians who want to get people to behave sensibly will need to study psychology. (...) In The Art of Thought, Wallas tried to apply concepts of psychology to show people how to think more effectively. (...) The most lasting contribution of The Art of Thought is contained in a chapter called “Stages of Control,” in which Wallas presents a four-stage model of insight: preparation, incubation, illumination, and verification.
So I don’t think deliberate preparation is necessary or even practical for many insights.
Our insights transform us in several ways. They change how we understand, act, see, feel, and desire.
Traditional decision researchers hadn’t come up with the recognitional strategy because their laboratory work on decision making typically studied novices trying to perform unfamiliar tasks. Their theories of decision making didn’t take expertise into account. Recognitional decisions depend on decades of experience to build up hundreds and thousands of patterns
Intuition is the use of patterns they’ve already learned, whereas insight is the discovery of new patterns.
All the coincidence stories in this chapter show people with the background and the expertise to judge that a coincidence might be important.
historian Daniel Boorstin: “The greatest obstacle to knowledge is not ignorance; it is the illusion of knowledge.” (...) people gripped by a flawed theory can ignore, explain away, or distort evidence that could lead to insights. (...) As the saying goes, “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you in trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”
In his work on chess grand masters the Dutch psychologist Adriaan de Groot used the term “creative desperation” to describe some of the brilliant strategies that players invented when they got into trouble.
Flawed beliefs, limited experience, a passive attitude, and a concrete reasoning style. A quadruple whammy that stifles insights. (...) We have trouble overcoming the four factors―flawed beliefs, insufficient experience, a passive stance, and a concrete reasoning style― that emerged from the contrasting twins study. One of them, the playful/ concrete reasoning style, is baked into our minds as part of our personalities.
Insights change our understanding by shifting the central beliefs— the anchors—in the story we use to make sense of events.
System designers should make it easy for users to shift goals and plans without getting disoriented.
To do your job as a manager, you can’t depend on insights. You can’t schedule them on a timeline.
The downside of checklists is that they intentionally induce mindlessness. (...) A checklist mentality is contrary to a playful, exploratory, curiosity-driven mentality.
Six Sigma got in the way of innovation. Too much energy was spent cutting defects to 3.4 per million, and not enough energy was expended developing new product ideas.
Decision biases are systematic deviations from rational standards of good judgment.
The heuristics-and-biases community has provided us with a stream of studies showing how our mental habits can be used against us and make us look stupid and irrational. They don’t offer a balanced set of studies of how these habits enable us to make discoveries. I see the examples in this book as a collective celebration of our capacity for gaining insights, a corrective to the gloomy picture offered by the heuristics-and-biases community.
I like the fact that he focusses on the up arrow (more insights); enough people already focus on reducing error. And as Klein writes: "the primary job of any organization is to produce good products and outcomes, not to avoid errors."
Below are quotes from the book:
To improve performance, we need to reduce errors and uncertainty and we need to increase insights.
Unfortunately, the two arrows often conflict with each other. The actions we take to reduce errors and uncertainty can get in the way of insights. Therefore, organizations are faced with a balancing act. Too often they become imbalanced and overemphasize the down arrow. They care more about reducing errors and uncertainty than about making discoveries. They fall into the predictability trap and the perfection trap.
Decision researchers were trying to reduce errors, which is important, but we also needed to help people gain expertise and make insightful decisions. To improve performance, we need to do two things. The down arrow is what we have to reduce, errors. The up arrow is what we have to increase, insights. Performance improvement depends on doing both of these things.
Many people spend time in activities like puzzles that call for insights because the act of struggling and then gaining understanding is so satisfying.
Fabius Maximus, nicknamed The Delayer, who avoided open battle with the Carthaginian leader Hannibal, relying instead on continual pressure.
He disagreed with the theory that people behave rationally and base their behavior on calculating the costs and benefits of each possible course of action. Wallas argued that politicians who want to get people to behave sensibly will need to study psychology. (...) In The Art of Thought, Wallas tried to apply concepts of psychology to show people how to think more effectively. (...) The most lasting contribution of The Art of Thought is contained in a chapter called “Stages of Control,” in which Wallas presents a four-stage model of insight: preparation, incubation, illumination, and verification.
So I don’t think deliberate preparation is necessary or even practical for many insights.
Our insights transform us in several ways. They change how we understand, act, see, feel, and desire.
Traditional decision researchers hadn’t come up with the recognitional strategy because their laboratory work on decision making typically studied novices trying to perform unfamiliar tasks. Their theories of decision making didn’t take expertise into account. Recognitional decisions depend on decades of experience to build up hundreds and thousands of patterns
Intuition is the use of patterns they’ve already learned, whereas insight is the discovery of new patterns.
All the coincidence stories in this chapter show people with the background and the expertise to judge that a coincidence might be important.
historian Daniel Boorstin: “The greatest obstacle to knowledge is not ignorance; it is the illusion of knowledge.” (...) people gripped by a flawed theory can ignore, explain away, or distort evidence that could lead to insights. (...) As the saying goes, “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you in trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”
In his work on chess grand masters the Dutch psychologist Adriaan de Groot used the term “creative desperation” to describe some of the brilliant strategies that players invented when they got into trouble.
Flawed beliefs, limited experience, a passive attitude, and a concrete reasoning style. A quadruple whammy that stifles insights. (...) We have trouble overcoming the four factors―flawed beliefs, insufficient experience, a passive stance, and a concrete reasoning style― that emerged from the contrasting twins study. One of them, the playful/ concrete reasoning style, is baked into our minds as part of our personalities.
Insights change our understanding by shifting the central beliefs— the anchors—in the story we use to make sense of events.
System designers should make it easy for users to shift goals and plans without getting disoriented.
To do your job as a manager, you can’t depend on insights. You can’t schedule them on a timeline.
The downside of checklists is that they intentionally induce mindlessness. (...) A checklist mentality is contrary to a playful, exploratory, curiosity-driven mentality.
Six Sigma got in the way of innovation. Too much energy was spent cutting defects to 3.4 per million, and not enough energy was expended developing new product ideas.
Decision biases are systematic deviations from rational standards of good judgment.
The heuristics-and-biases community has provided us with a stream of studies showing how our mental habits can be used against us and make us look stupid and irrational. They don’t offer a balanced set of studies of how these habits enable us to make discoveries. I see the examples in this book as a collective celebration of our capacity for gaining insights, a corrective to the gloomy picture offered by the heuristics-and-biases community.
February 14, 2022
I am not sure if I will be able to see what others don’t but my awareness around insight was enlightened. I loved the emphasis on balancing error-proofing and risk aversion with insight ( down arrow and up arrow balance), in life and within organizations. As a perfectionist and someone who always aspires to produce quality and ensure that I always comply, the book made me realize that I tend to be fixated on ideas, beliefs and ways to execute tasks that I might be inhibiting potential insights. I loved how the author explained the drivers of insight with the triple path - contradiction (find inconsistency), connection (coincidence, curiosity or spot implication), creative desperation (escape an impasse or deadend) - as well as the case studies he included to describe and discuss these concepts.
December 8, 2021
I was really enjoying this book....
But the examples used sometimes don't make sense.
And then there's a side story that just gets downright racist.
I don't know if Gary Klein believes that us Indigenous people don't read, but we do...
If Gary ever reads this: that was awful. Especially for a book about insights, I would have hoped that you'd see how that story was a no-go. =(
the information is light, easy to absorb, and this could have easily gotten four stars from me if it just didn't have to go into a multi-page story about "Indians" (Indigenous folk) kidnapping white ladies. Yet it did. I don't know why.
But the examples used sometimes don't make sense.
And then there's a side story that just gets downright racist.
I don't know if Gary Klein believes that us Indigenous people don't read, but we do...
If Gary ever reads this: that was awful. Especially for a book about insights, I would have hoped that you'd see how that story was a no-go. =(
the information is light, easy to absorb, and this could have easily gotten four stars from me if it just didn't have to go into a multi-page story about "Indians" (Indigenous folk) kidnapping white ladies. Yet it did. I don't know why.
November 20, 2022
Seeing What Others Don’t
The remarkable ways we gain insights
Dr Gary Klein
After fielding the nth enquiry on the long gap after my last book review, I decided to finally get down to it! I have a good excuse for the hiatus by the way – I have been bingeing on science fiction over the last month with a good reason. I suddenly seem to have come upon a treasure trove of great new science fiction novels that I had by some chance completely missed seeing till recently (happy to share the names if you are interested!). After due consideration, I have changed tacks to approach this differently – I am going to take up a fiction and non-fiction read in parallel. This way, I get my SF reading list to last a little longer and I keep my very small but dedicated (and persistent!) reader base happy!
As a data sciences professional, I have long been fascinated by the concept of insights – the mother lode at the end of countless hours of data cleansing and visualisation. The fascinating thing about this ‘art’, has been the fact that more of the ‘science’ doesn’t necessarily produce it. The best analysts in my team, through my career, have not necessarily been the most prodigious code writers – they have just had the knack of getting to the insight sooner, somehow. Dr Gary Klein, an eminent cognitive psychologist picks up on this theme in this fascinating book on the genesis of insights. He starts with some great stories that piqued his interest, of how people came upon some remarkable insights from commonplace information that came to them. He tells us of a cop who saw the driver of a BMW flick ash from his cigarette onto the seat next to him and immediately understood that it was a stolen vehicle. He talks about Harry Markopolos who saw a pattern in Bernie Madoff when no one else did; of Dr. Michael Gottlieb who made the connection between different patients that let him identify the AIDS epidemic, and so on.
The stories are all fascinating and well re-told by Dr Klein serving to keep us interested in the narrative. They also all had one thing in common – the fact that individuals saw a pattern in data, and were so bought into the conclusion, that they invested serious time and effort in following through on it. This theme was intriguing enough for Dr Klein to put in time collecting about 120 such instances and classifying them in an attempt at understanding the phenomenon. After painstaking analysis, Dr Klein identified the three primary classes of triggers leading to insights - making unexpected connections, identifying contradictions and being driven to despair by an unresolved problem. While there are other minor drivers like coincidences and curiosities, Dr Klein emphasizes the three main triggers as the primary drivers of insights. The trigger classes however do not take away from the fact the the person who got the insight typically saw the way to connect the dots by thinking out of the box, and also felt the conviction to take a risk on that basis.
Dr Klein moves on beyond classifying the source of insight, to looking at ways of making the process less serendipitous and happen more by design, especially in organisations. He points out while performance improvement may come from reduction of errors and investing on insights, the former is typically seen as the dominant path by most corporates. This leads to focus on reducing errors by design, over consciously building organization processes to look for insights. Additionally he also points out that the typical corporate structure is optimised to minimise defects as its also tougher to manage the change that is warranted by an insight, and acting on it. In fact most organization processes are geared to look for errors rather than for insights, spurred by initiatives like Six Sigma which make the control of defects their sole focus.
This is a fascinating book at multiple levels. While the act of getting to an insight has been a core part of my professional life for a long time, I hadn’t actually looked at the process by which we get one, much less look at its triggers. I suspect this is true for many of you. The triggers give you a deliberate way of looking at this process that will be hugely valuable. You can produce art not just through great talent or practice but also by deliberate application of technique – something we will do well to remember. The multitude of stories Dr Klein goes through have the dual impact of improving the narrative flow while at the same time also giving you more examples of insights which I dare say will train us for some more out of the box thinking. This is an interesting approach to writing a non-fiction book and while it may not play well to conveying all ideas, it is an engaging format where it works. The human mind is built to remember and respond well to stories – my recall of the concepts are better in this book in comparison to other non-fiction reads. It is also interesting to note that the act of having an insight has the intrinsic risk of investing in it, which is a natural individual and organisational deterrent. Status quo, as the author indicates, is easier to deal with than the change associated with the insight. So its not just about the insight, but also making the leap of faith to invest in it that completes it – something worth thinking about. The book introduced structure to an area I had always seen as a chaotic serendipitous process and it did so in a format that made reading it easy and memorable. In all definitely worth a read!
The remarkable ways we gain insights
Dr Gary Klein
After fielding the nth enquiry on the long gap after my last book review, I decided to finally get down to it! I have a good excuse for the hiatus by the way – I have been bingeing on science fiction over the last month with a good reason. I suddenly seem to have come upon a treasure trove of great new science fiction novels that I had by some chance completely missed seeing till recently (happy to share the names if you are interested!). After due consideration, I have changed tacks to approach this differently – I am going to take up a fiction and non-fiction read in parallel. This way, I get my SF reading list to last a little longer and I keep my very small but dedicated (and persistent!) reader base happy!
As a data sciences professional, I have long been fascinated by the concept of insights – the mother lode at the end of countless hours of data cleansing and visualisation. The fascinating thing about this ‘art’, has been the fact that more of the ‘science’ doesn’t necessarily produce it. The best analysts in my team, through my career, have not necessarily been the most prodigious code writers – they have just had the knack of getting to the insight sooner, somehow. Dr Gary Klein, an eminent cognitive psychologist picks up on this theme in this fascinating book on the genesis of insights. He starts with some great stories that piqued his interest, of how people came upon some remarkable insights from commonplace information that came to them. He tells us of a cop who saw the driver of a BMW flick ash from his cigarette onto the seat next to him and immediately understood that it was a stolen vehicle. He talks about Harry Markopolos who saw a pattern in Bernie Madoff when no one else did; of Dr. Michael Gottlieb who made the connection between different patients that let him identify the AIDS epidemic, and so on.
The stories are all fascinating and well re-told by Dr Klein serving to keep us interested in the narrative. They also all had one thing in common – the fact that individuals saw a pattern in data, and were so bought into the conclusion, that they invested serious time and effort in following through on it. This theme was intriguing enough for Dr Klein to put in time collecting about 120 such instances and classifying them in an attempt at understanding the phenomenon. After painstaking analysis, Dr Klein identified the three primary classes of triggers leading to insights - making unexpected connections, identifying contradictions and being driven to despair by an unresolved problem. While there are other minor drivers like coincidences and curiosities, Dr Klein emphasizes the three main triggers as the primary drivers of insights. The trigger classes however do not take away from the fact the the person who got the insight typically saw the way to connect the dots by thinking out of the box, and also felt the conviction to take a risk on that basis.
Dr Klein moves on beyond classifying the source of insight, to looking at ways of making the process less serendipitous and happen more by design, especially in organisations. He points out while performance improvement may come from reduction of errors and investing on insights, the former is typically seen as the dominant path by most corporates. This leads to focus on reducing errors by design, over consciously building organization processes to look for insights. Additionally he also points out that the typical corporate structure is optimised to minimise defects as its also tougher to manage the change that is warranted by an insight, and acting on it. In fact most organization processes are geared to look for errors rather than for insights, spurred by initiatives like Six Sigma which make the control of defects their sole focus.
This is a fascinating book at multiple levels. While the act of getting to an insight has been a core part of my professional life for a long time, I hadn’t actually looked at the process by which we get one, much less look at its triggers. I suspect this is true for many of you. The triggers give you a deliberate way of looking at this process that will be hugely valuable. You can produce art not just through great talent or practice but also by deliberate application of technique – something we will do well to remember. The multitude of stories Dr Klein goes through have the dual impact of improving the narrative flow while at the same time also giving you more examples of insights which I dare say will train us for some more out of the box thinking. This is an interesting approach to writing a non-fiction book and while it may not play well to conveying all ideas, it is an engaging format where it works. The human mind is built to remember and respond well to stories – my recall of the concepts are better in this book in comparison to other non-fiction reads. It is also interesting to note that the act of having an insight has the intrinsic risk of investing in it, which is a natural individual and organisational deterrent. Status quo, as the author indicates, is easier to deal with than the change associated with the insight. So its not just about the insight, but also making the leap of faith to invest in it that completes it – something worth thinking about. The book introduced structure to an area I had always seen as a chaotic serendipitous process and it did so in a format that made reading it easy and memorable. In all definitely worth a read!
May 2, 2021
Absolute garbage. I listened to the entire thing thinking *surely* it gets better at some point. It didn't. Clearly someone who thinks very highly of themselves but has nothing intelligent to say. Repeats the same four stories until I could recite them in my sleep but teaches and explains nothing. He finds time to praise and glorify colonization though
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