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The Creative Contrarian: 20 "Wise Fool" Strategies to Boost Creativity and Curb Groupthink
The Creative Contrarian presents 20 strategies to provoke your thinking, enhance your creativity, break out of groupthink, or convey prudent warnings in a changing and unpredictable world. The Wise Fool is the archetypal contrarian known for creativity, candor, irreverence, and humor. The book helps you �Stay Foolish� by taking a whack at the assumptions that keep you mired in conventional and stale solutions. By employing Wise Fools, kings, pharaohs, and emperors stimulated their creativity and considered alternatives. This book will help you see the world from the Wise Fool�s point of view. The tone of the book is friendly and fun. It is full of stories (both contemporary and historical), useful examples, and practical tips. It also includes a hands-on Wise Fool oracle to help readers generate their own creative insights.
203 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 5, 2021
4 people are currently reading
38 people want to read
About the author
Roger Von Oech
41 books32 followersRoger von Oech is an American speaker, conference organizer, author, and toy-maker whose focus has been on the study of creativity.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 14, 2022
This is consistent with Wiley’s reputation for publishing self-promotional books for small businesses in wide-spaced, big fonts, peppered with quotations to barely fill 191 pages.
But these anecdotes have better quality than most seemingly self-published Wiley books. For one, the writing is clear and free of mistakes, thanks to the obvious work of a good editor. They also used quality smooth paper to heighten the disturbing drawings. To hit 200 pages, there is a bibliography at the end all the way from 1494 (is that even in print?).
What is Roger selling? The idea that you should question everything and go against the crowd. Like that annoying guy Tom Hanks played in “Big” who said in a corporate meeting, “I don’t get it.” And that was enough to win him the CEO’s favor after they played chopsticks on a giant keyboard in a giant toy store. Which proves that if you’re Tom Hanks, you can be your Own Man.
This is a quick read to whet your appetite to know more, but there really isn’t much more to being oppositional. Just don’t follow grammatical rules and “Think Different” even if you call yourself a fruit.
To keep the book’s usefulness after you scan it in an hour, Roger wants you to randomly open a passage when you have a problem. And who hasn’t asked the Universe to give us signs through innocuous means like tea leaves and Tarot cards?
Maybe if you have the budget, you can hire Roger to “train” your workers to be more annoying —I mean contrarian. That would work if they cared to jeopardize their jobs, miss deadlines, and risk the ire of their “progressive” boss.
Still, I got several good ideas and confirmation of my biases from this book. But I was born an unfeeling fool who cannot control my impulse to speak the truth. So for me, it doesn’t pay to be the Bad Guy, unless you want a career in activism, law, journalism, or comedy (I tried three of those).
Sure there are the geniuses and innovators, but they’re such a minuscule number in history that it’s unlikely we can simulate their thinking or success. Or maybe the point is just to think? At the very least, borrow this book from your library to nudge your mental complacency.
@IvyDigest
But these anecdotes have better quality than most seemingly self-published Wiley books. For one, the writing is clear and free of mistakes, thanks to the obvious work of a good editor. They also used quality smooth paper to heighten the disturbing drawings. To hit 200 pages, there is a bibliography at the end all the way from 1494 (is that even in print?).
What is Roger selling? The idea that you should question everything and go against the crowd. Like that annoying guy Tom Hanks played in “Big” who said in a corporate meeting, “I don’t get it.” And that was enough to win him the CEO’s favor after they played chopsticks on a giant keyboard in a giant toy store. Which proves that if you’re Tom Hanks, you can be your Own Man.
This is a quick read to whet your appetite to know more, but there really isn’t much more to being oppositional. Just don’t follow grammatical rules and “Think Different” even if you call yourself a fruit.
To keep the book’s usefulness after you scan it in an hour, Roger wants you to randomly open a passage when you have a problem. And who hasn’t asked the Universe to give us signs through innocuous means like tea leaves and Tarot cards?
Maybe if you have the budget, you can hire Roger to “train” your workers to be more annoying —I mean contrarian. That would work if they cared to jeopardize their jobs, miss deadlines, and risk the ire of their “progressive” boss.
Still, I got several good ideas and confirmation of my biases from this book. But I was born an unfeeling fool who cannot control my impulse to speak the truth. So for me, it doesn’t pay to be the Bad Guy, unless you want a career in activism, law, journalism, or comedy (I tried three of those).
Sure there are the geniuses and innovators, but they’re such a minuscule number in history that it’s unlikely we can simulate their thinking or success. Or maybe the point is just to think? At the very least, borrow this book from your library to nudge your mental complacency.
@IvyDigest
October 26, 2021
BE TRUE TO YOU
Being true to yourself sometimes involves seeing and acting contrary to the mainstream. You may need to "develop a thick skin" or "flex your risk muscle" to navigate uncharted waters. Roger offers these and 18 other "Wise Fool" strategies in this delightful and inspiring book to help us be more creative in our work and personal lives.
He shares stories from across many field and periods of history when some people chose to "drop what's obsolete" and "use their forgettery" to discover unimaginable solutions to problems. When we employ these and other strategies, we can more easily traverse the rapids of our lives. Just imagine what new realities we can create when we "find what's out of whack," "exercise humility" and "laugh at it."
I've enjoyed all of Roger's previous products from the ground breaking book "A Whack on the Side of the Head" to the idea stimulating magnetic manipulative toy, the Ball of Whacks. Thank you Roger for this artistically designed, well-researched and playfully crafted revivification of the Wise Fool. May it help us all break through our logjams and flourish!
Being true to yourself sometimes involves seeing and acting contrary to the mainstream. You may need to "develop a thick skin" or "flex your risk muscle" to navigate uncharted waters. Roger offers these and 18 other "Wise Fool" strategies in this delightful and inspiring book to help us be more creative in our work and personal lives.
He shares stories from across many field and periods of history when some people chose to "drop what's obsolete" and "use their forgettery" to discover unimaginable solutions to problems. When we employ these and other strategies, we can more easily traverse the rapids of our lives. Just imagine what new realities we can create when we "find what's out of whack," "exercise humility" and "laugh at it."
I've enjoyed all of Roger's previous products from the ground breaking book "A Whack on the Side of the Head" to the idea stimulating magnetic manipulative toy, the Ball of Whacks. Thank you Roger for this artistically designed, well-researched and playfully crafted revivification of the Wise Fool. May it help us all break through our logjams and flourish!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews