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Fixed. Lib/E: How to Perfect the Fine Art of Problem Solving
An art historian and lawyer who uses works of art to teach us how to hone our perceptions and visual intelligence, presents a paradigm-shattering twist on problem solving that helps us find solutions to the problems we face every day. As technology has become essential to our daily lives, our reliance on the internet and our electronic devices has exploded, short-circuiting our brains and weakening the critical skills we need to find solutions to difficult issues. Amy Herman has developed a unique approach to problem solving that uses works of art to revitalize our minds and help us think creatively. She's trained thousands of people from organizations around the world, including the FBI, CIA, Navy SEALs, the IMF, Scotland Yard, Interpol, and the State Department. In Fixed., Herman outlines her step-by-step approach, providing a fresh set of tools to help us kickstart our critical thinking skills and enable us to find solutions to some of our most intractable problems. Herman explains the artist's use of the creative process and teaches us how to analyze paintings, sculpture, mixed media, photography, and contemporary art. By learning how to look at these works more astutely, we hone our powers of perception and discover deep-seated truths about ourselves that often prevent clear-thinking and optimal decision making. Once we recognize our biases, we can overcome them and see solutions we were previously blind to. Herman's approach doesn't take an art degree--only the willingness to open our eyes and our minds. Things go wrong all the time. Fixed. offers an innovative and proven way to see problems differently--and craft better solutions for productivity, profit and peace.
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First published December 1, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
January 1, 2022
A few months ago Amy Herman was the speaker of a professional development seminar I attended at work. She was fabulous - one of the most interesting speakers I've heard. I have her other book but I haven't read it yet. I enjoyed this book. It's not as good as seeing her in person but if you don't have that opportunity then this is a great choice. I recognized some of the artwork and what she was saying in the text as the same as what I saw and heard at the presentation. If you need to flip your thinking, then this is the book to read. Full review soon.
March 29, 2023
Now I'm a true fan of fine art and learning from interesting mental frameworks. This book did more to sell consultancy services than to educate, and ebbed from rote business cliches to self-aggrandizement. It lacked basic fact-checking, it reinforced gender binaries that are typical of classical art, and seemed very much pro-carceral state.
This could be a wonderful premise, but the execution missed the mark.
This could be a wonderful premise, but the execution missed the mark.
November 2, 2022
To be fair, this is a very pretty book — and I like Gericault’s Raft of the Medusa as much as the next person — but most of Herman’s “solutions” seemed relatively self-evident and conspicuously sandwiched between references to her other books and consultancy services.
March 1, 2022
Loved the art history
November 1, 2022
Pictures are too small to observe many details mentioned in the text.
Too much promotion of her business.
Too much promotion of her business.
September 12, 2022
Sometimes the subtitle just says it all.
Amy Herman explores the fine arts with the tools of an engineering mindset. Using self-awareness questeing, breaking apart perspective, notan study, embracing the unfamiliar and shifting perspective, we explore the uncomfortable and challenging feelings that art can give.
“Art and artist themselves, often get a bad reap for being complicated, obtuse, even obscene, but that is exactly why they provide the perfect backdrop for problem-solving, since our issues today are similarly convoluted” (p.6)
The book is structured incredibly well. We look at a number of thought-provoking paintings to “expand elasticity of our observations” such as “Officer of Hussars” (Kehinde Wiley, 2007); “School of Culture” ( Marshall, 2012); and “Icon” by Karen Zack. Most powerfully we examine Théodore Géricault, Raft of the Medusa, and explore themes that are present in our times. Violence, hope, family relations, race, and our fragile condition.
Sherman provides a great selection of fine art, and I often found myself amazed between my first look and a view after understanding context. The exploration proves more fruitful than landing on a side. For instance, looking at Pygmalion and Galatea (by Jean-Lofn Gerome”, 1890) she explores how people’s emotional response is attenuated or aggregated by the male/female relationship at the center of the portrait.
More than anything, she gives us tools to explore our own limitations. It’s not that we can’t appreciate the straight-forward beauty or honor our expression. It’s just that we can build a deeper, more satisfying and ultimately more truthful connection to art, and our lived experience, once we’ve stepped outside of it. Easy to say, hard to do.
My greatest appreciation is that this book challenged my notion of art’s unchallegability, and in it’s more absurd and unimaginative artifacts, a refuge for the immature and self-satisfied. Exploring art as a process to better understand and maybe transform , may be the ultimate problem-solving tool our world can fasten upon.
Amy Herman explores the fine arts with the tools of an engineering mindset. Using self-awareness questeing, breaking apart perspective, notan study, embracing the unfamiliar and shifting perspective, we explore the uncomfortable and challenging feelings that art can give.
“Art and artist themselves, often get a bad reap for being complicated, obtuse, even obscene, but that is exactly why they provide the perfect backdrop for problem-solving, since our issues today are similarly convoluted” (p.6)
The book is structured incredibly well. We look at a number of thought-provoking paintings to “expand elasticity of our observations” such as “Officer of Hussars” (Kehinde Wiley, 2007); “School of Culture” ( Marshall, 2012); and “Icon” by Karen Zack. Most powerfully we examine Théodore Géricault, Raft of the Medusa, and explore themes that are present in our times. Violence, hope, family relations, race, and our fragile condition.
Sherman provides a great selection of fine art, and I often found myself amazed between my first look and a view after understanding context. The exploration proves more fruitful than landing on a side. For instance, looking at Pygmalion and Galatea (by Jean-Lofn Gerome”, 1890) she explores how people’s emotional response is attenuated or aggregated by the male/female relationship at the center of the portrait.
More than anything, she gives us tools to explore our own limitations. It’s not that we can’t appreciate the straight-forward beauty or honor our expression. It’s just that we can build a deeper, more satisfying and ultimately more truthful connection to art, and our lived experience, once we’ve stepped outside of it. Easy to say, hard to do.
My greatest appreciation is that this book challenged my notion of art’s unchallegability, and in it’s more absurd and unimaginative artifacts, a refuge for the immature and self-satisfied. Exploring art as a process to better understand and maybe transform , may be the ultimate problem-solving tool our world can fasten upon.
March 3, 2023
If I had to describe this book succinctly it would go something like "Unsatisfying" or maybe "a stretch".
I bought this book because I love 1) personal growth books and 2) art history so, naturally, I thought this book would be perfect. However, upon reading it, I found it to be unhelpful on both fronts. If you have literally no idea how to solve a single problem maybe advice such as "break it into bite-sized pieces" and "just do it" are helpful. To me, they were not.
Furthermore, the main reason I bought this book was for the art, but that was unsatisfying too. Too many of the examples seemed to be a stretch. For example, to demonstrate that others may see things from different perspectives, the authors shows two pictures of the same scene at different focal lengths. Can you say: "No shit?". All of the examples seemed to result in a book with artworks haphazardly and shallowly used to "help" the readers understand her problem-solving points. I do not feel like any of the art references helped me to better grasp any of the problem-solving techniques which was quite a bummer to me.
I gave this book two stars because, despite all of the cons, there were some interesting case studies as well as, if distilled to purely a problem-solving book, it does somewhat deliver on that promise. But her thesis that art can help us to understand these themes did not come through.
What's a bummer is that I do think art can help people problem-solve, but if readers' only exposure to that thesis was this book, I do not think they'd be convinced as such. A shame.
I bought this book because I love 1) personal growth books and 2) art history so, naturally, I thought this book would be perfect. However, upon reading it, I found it to be unhelpful on both fronts. If you have literally no idea how to solve a single problem maybe advice such as "break it into bite-sized pieces" and "just do it" are helpful. To me, they were not.
Furthermore, the main reason I bought this book was for the art, but that was unsatisfying too. Too many of the examples seemed to be a stretch. For example, to demonstrate that others may see things from different perspectives, the authors shows two pictures of the same scene at different focal lengths. Can you say: "No shit?". All of the examples seemed to result in a book with artworks haphazardly and shallowly used to "help" the readers understand her problem-solving points. I do not feel like any of the art references helped me to better grasp any of the problem-solving techniques which was quite a bummer to me.
I gave this book two stars because, despite all of the cons, there were some interesting case studies as well as, if distilled to purely a problem-solving book, it does somewhat deliver on that promise. But her thesis that art can help us to understand these themes did not come through.
What's a bummer is that I do think art can help people problem-solve, but if readers' only exposure to that thesis was this book, I do not think they'd be convinced as such. A shame.
February 18, 2024
This book was a deliberate challenge to my way of thinking about art. Originally I chose the book based on the title but then hesitated when I noticed the context of the book was utilizing artwork to as its primary means of communicating its message.
Truthfully, I sat the book back on the shelf and walked away. However, I am glad to report I returned sometime later after finding a desire within to challenge myself to step outside of my intellectual comfort zone. This I believe has been to my personal benefit as Amy Herman has done a phenomenal job of teaching valuable lessons on identifying and breaking through mental biases that readers are unlikely to know they even have.
The meticulous journey through various forms of art serves to bring the user to a more elevated level of understanding of both themselves and others. In addition, the focus on the practical implementation of what is being taught is likely to prove helpful to anyone who is willing to sit down and read. The end message that she is trying to communicate seems like a combination of Richard Feynman and Charlie Munger with lots of focus on asking the big question "Why?" and acknowledgement that there are biases that each of us have and those will always tint the glass through which we see the world.
While I don't believe my review does this book justice, I hope that anyone who read this far seriously considers picking this book up and giving it a read as it is rare to find a book that hits so hard at the fundamental way we view ourselves and world around us.
Truthfully, I sat the book back on the shelf and walked away. However, I am glad to report I returned sometime later after finding a desire within to challenge myself to step outside of my intellectual comfort zone. This I believe has been to my personal benefit as Amy Herman has done a phenomenal job of teaching valuable lessons on identifying and breaking through mental biases that readers are unlikely to know they even have.
The meticulous journey through various forms of art serves to bring the user to a more elevated level of understanding of both themselves and others. In addition, the focus on the practical implementation of what is being taught is likely to prove helpful to anyone who is willing to sit down and read. The end message that she is trying to communicate seems like a combination of Richard Feynman and Charlie Munger with lots of focus on asking the big question "Why?" and acknowledgement that there are biases that each of us have and those will always tint the glass through which we see the world.
While I don't believe my review does this book justice, I hope that anyone who read this far seriously considers picking this book up and giving it a read as it is rare to find a book that hits so hard at the fundamental way we view ourselves and world around us.
April 14, 2024
This book wasn't what I expected. I thought it was going to be a systematic approach to problem-solving... I didn't realize that 'fine art' in the subtitle was a double entendre (or is that a pun?), as the author spends most of the book actually critiquing fine art. To be fair, she does it through the lens of attempting to help people figure out how to open their eyes to details they otherwise might not see, and then uses the analogy of art critique to help them get past their biases and prejudices and to see a problem in a whole new light. But that's really all I got out of the art critique portion, and I feel like that point could have been made in a few sentences, or a chapter at most. Instead, the book belabored that point. Also, there were a whole lot of assumptions that a left-leaning perspective on various issues was the only correct way to interpret said issues, and if you employed her techniques, surely you would come to see that, too. I guess everyone thinks their view is the right one, so I can't fault her too much for that... and fair enough, if the entire book was about said issues (people can say what they want; that's what free speech is all about). But when it's made as a side point in a larger issue, I felt a little bit ambushed. I didn't care to know her opinions on those subjects; I'm reading the book to learn about problem solving.
September 23, 2022
Wow - I really enjoyed this book! It sat on my shelf for weeks and got passed over again and again as I opted to read others that I thought were more interesting. It wasn’t until the library wouldn’t let me renew it again that I finally decided to give this book a read before returning it, and I sure am glad I did!
I’ve read a ton of nonfiction on human behavior, etc, so I wasn’t really expecting to learn anything new or groundbreaking… and that’s probably true. BUT I found this presentation of using art to expand our thinking and thoughtfulness extremely provocative. I didn’t want to put the book down! Maybe it’s because I’ve never taken an art history class in my life (fair enough), but I loved it. Extremely intelligent and thoughtful author with a great selection of artwork to contemplate and a lovely writing style, a well-edited book imho, and fantastic font = great read!
I’ve read a ton of nonfiction on human behavior, etc, so I wasn’t really expecting to learn anything new or groundbreaking… and that’s probably true. BUT I found this presentation of using art to expand our thinking and thoughtfulness extremely provocative. I didn’t want to put the book down! Maybe it’s because I’ve never taken an art history class in my life (fair enough), but I loved it. Extremely intelligent and thoughtful author with a great selection of artwork to contemplate and a lovely writing style, a well-edited book imho, and fantastic font = great read!
May 18, 2023
Almost made it halfway through before abandoning this garbage. It's like reading blog posts from some academic asshole that believes they have been blessed with some unique ability to combine art with problem solving.
It was indeed incredible to read how the author contort their racist comments into something palatable and then brag about it in a book.
The portion describing a holocaust memorial and then immediately dropping into describing helping HIG improve interrogation techniques was rather disturbing.
Ultimately i decided to bail on this because there was nothing of value. Just a lot of posturing about being insightful about art and whining about social issues. No thanks.
It was indeed incredible to read how the author contort their racist comments into something palatable and then brag about it in a book.
The portion describing a holocaust memorial and then immediately dropping into describing helping HIG improve interrogation techniques was rather disturbing.
Ultimately i decided to bail on this because there was nothing of value. Just a lot of posturing about being insightful about art and whining about social issues. No thanks.
December 19, 2022
I picked this up on a whim at my library and didn't realize the art angle until I got home and opened it. Admittedly I was apprehensive but decided to give it a try; really glad I did. This book is about how to change your mindset and how to communicate better with others in a way that recognizes we all have different experiences. While there are a few techniques tied to art theory on how to evaluate a problem, a lot more time is spent on how to get past surface-level opinions and confront things that make us uncomfortable. Worth reading regardless of your field.
May 11, 2022
This book was accessible and brilliant. I never thought that looking at art could be an important exercise in honing problem-solving skills but I am totally sold now. You will be smarter and better equipped for daily life after reading this book. I feel so lucky that Herman wrote a book to share this information with everyone instead of just the high-level decision-makers she usually works with.
This book was interesting and inspiring. I'd recommend it to pretty much anyone.
This book was interesting and inspiring. I'd recommend it to pretty much anyone.
September 11, 2022
I do believe that Amy's method may have worked for the people she's helped in person through her workshops and sessions, but this book, for me, didn't help in any way to find a better way to solve problems. Different way, yes, but better (for me), no.
My failure to enjoy (and even perhaps learn from) this book may also stem from the fact that I'm very analytical and can't appreciate art as much as I'd like to. For the more open-minded, this book and its methods might work.
My failure to enjoy (and even perhaps learn from) this book may also stem from the fact that I'm very analytical and can't appreciate art as much as I'd like to. For the more open-minded, this book and its methods might work.
March 30, 2023
Fixed aspires to teach the artists method of imagining, creating and problem solving.
Her approach…
Prep:
Clean Your Lenses
Change Your Shoes
Define the Project
Draft:
Break It into Bite-Sized Pieces
Recognize Relationships and Red Herrings
Set a Deadline
Just Do It
Exhibit:
Manage Contradictions
Repair Mistakes with Gold
(taken directly from the Contents page)
These steps are illustrated and taught by having the reader look at and analyze works of art.
Her approach…
Prep:
Clean Your Lenses
Change Your Shoes
Define the Project
Draft:
Break It into Bite-Sized Pieces
Recognize Relationships and Red Herrings
Set a Deadline
Just Do It
Exhibit:
Manage Contradictions
Repair Mistakes with Gold
(taken directly from the Contents page)
These steps are illustrated and taught by having the reader look at and analyze works of art.
July 20, 2022
While the thought models and problem solving skills presented by Herman are not necessarily groundbreaking, they’re presented creatively, broadening the reader’s knowledge of art history. What I enjoyed most was Herman's integration of real life scenarios, ranging from historical moments to policy decisions and personal anecdotes where the same critical thinking skills are duly applied. Good read to remind ourselves to take time to uncover biases and ask questions, in spite of all the short form, attention-grabbing content we often consume in today's technology age.
April 1, 2023
“The brain is most effective at learning new material when stress hormones are slightly elevated by a novel experience, a theory verified by modern brain imaging. Therefore, the best way to rethink something we’ve been doing for years—the way we do our jobs, the way we interact with others, the way we see the world—is to step outside of ourselves, and outside of our comfort zone.”
July 25, 2022
I bought the audiobook version on the Amazon platform. Unfortunately, the book was made to read, and it has several images you need to check to fully understand the concepts.
The whole idea sounds good, it's probably a good book for reading, but it's a bad audiobook.
The whole idea sounds good, it's probably a good book for reading, but it's a bad audiobook.
July 27, 2022
Very interesting approach to problem solving on so many levels. Work Related, Relationships Related, and Life Related in general. I enjoyed the book, and it made me want to read more about it and other relevant topics.
October 7, 2022
Really just an update from her previous work Visual Intelligence. Even uses some of the same pictures. Concept is interesting but there is some cliche examples like the WWII bomber analysis. How many times have I read that one?
March 22, 2022
Interesting but a lot of the concepts were familiar.
March 27, 2022
This felt like the Ivy League version of Everything is Figureoutable and doesn't feel very tactical to problem-solving for a "How to" book.
August 9, 2022
Read the book on the Glose app. Unfortunately a number of the referenced artworks didn’t match up well with the text. Some interesting perspectives but had a hard time connecting. 3-
November 27, 2022
Art helps with problem solving....enjoyed the examples and the art....well written.
April 16, 2023
A great book about art and how a little curiosity regarding art can change our perception in and about life.
February 4, 2024
Good speakers are not always good writers and I am sure is more nice to see a lesson with her in person.
February 16, 2024
Art as insight
Six word review: Art insight into self and others.
I don’t need them but here are some additional words to exceed the 20 that Goodreads requires.
Six word review: Art insight into self and others.
I don’t need them but here are some additional words to exceed the 20 that Goodreads requires.
May 9, 2024
The author presents strategies for problem solving, using fine art as a way to change our perceptions.
October 31, 2025
This is my kind of wacky connections book. An art historian teaching various police & intelligence agency workers how to focus upon details, shift their perspectives, and release themselves from assumptions? I'm sold.
I bought this book in a thrift store in NYC near SoHo.
I bought this book in a thrift store in NYC near SoHo.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews