Some Food for Thought for ED

You know me. I like to stretch. Read this review and see if there are some ideas in here for economic development. I believe there are.

In Expect the Unexpected, author Von Oech draws heavily upon the "ancient wisdom of Heraclitus" as he suggests correlations between an ancient Greek philosopher (other than Plato and Aristotle) and the 21st century. Von Oech describes Heraclitus as "the world's first creative teacher." He recalls being "infected" (happily) with the Heraclitean "bug" while studying in Germany 30 years ago.

Now von Oech has written a book in which he brilliantly and entertainingly examines concepts such as symbol, paradox, and ambiguity in relation to creative thought. He offers 30 "Creative Insights" of Heraclitus. For example: #2. "Expect the unexpected or you won't find it", #4 "You can't step into the same river twice"; #12 "Many fail to grasp what's right in the palm of their hand"; #26 "Donkeys prefer garbage to gold"; and #29 "Your character is your destiny."

Truly creative thinkers are always alert to what I call "the invisibility of the obvious." They are not threatened by or even uncomfortable with symbol, paradox, and ambiguity. On the contrary, their minds are stimulated by them. Throughout his book, von Oech inserts a number of brief puzzles for the reader to solve. (The correct answers are included and explained within the "Final Thoughts" section.) These puzzles are fun to grapple with, of course, and presumably most readers will solve them of them. My point is, the answers to the unsolved puzzles are no less obvious than the answers to the others, no matter which specific puzzles the reader is unable to solve.

Von Oech had already convinced me of the value of an occasional "whack on the side of the head" and a "kick in the seat of the pants." As always, von Oech is immensely entertaining. He is an immensely creative thinker in his own right. I strongly recommend this book to literally anyone who wants to put white caps on her or his gray matter. Those who share my high regard for it are strongly urged to read all of von Oech's previous books as well as those written by Guy Claxton, Edward de Bono, Lynne Levesque, and Michael Michalko.