Thinkertoys: How to See Something Everything Differently

This week I read Thinkertoys, all 665 iBook pages of it, and in a fairly small print. In the past several years, it has been extremely rare for me to buy a book and not end up reading it within a short period of time; however, this is what happened to this book. I purchased the hard copy version at least a couple of years ago, and always looked forward to reading it—believing it was a book that had practical knowledge in it. The reason I never read the hard copy book was its size, it is more of a text book than one you can simply hold in your hand to read.

Now that I have finally read it, I recognize that my gut feelings were correct, namely that this book had many nuggets of information that I believe are useful to me in both my personal and professional life. According to the author, “Thinkertoys train you how to get ideas. They are specific hands-on techniques that enable the reader to come up with big or small ideas, ideas that make you money, solve problems, beat the competition, and further your career; ideas for new products and new ways of doing things.” 

Ultimately, the book will help you achieve the following: “You will find yourself looking at the same information everyone else is looking at yet seeing something different. This new and different way of seeing things will lead you to new ideas and unique insights.”

This book is really more of a workbook for individuals that want to learn tips, strategies, and techniques to be more creative—by putting structure in, and to the creative thought process. He divides the book in two main types of creative thought processes: 1.) Linear Thinking and 2.)Intuitive Thinking. 

Although I forced myself to read the entire book in one week, this really should be used as a reference book as to how to perform Creative Inducing Activities—whether for a business owner that wants to individually think of more creative ideas, or for corporations that are looking to create brainstorming sessions, such as those used for sales teams at corporate retreats.

While most of the author’s examples are what I would term active strategies to induce creative thinking, he also discussed the benefits of “relaxation and meditation.” He has several techniques that “produce alpha brain waves that are slower and deeper than beta waves. Alpha waves quiet your mind so you can see the solutions that are already there.” Essentially, he says sometimes our brains are firing so much, that we don’t benefit from information and creativity that may be found in our alpha brain waves. 

A great analogy of this is as follows: “Stars cannot be seen during the day, because their faint points of light are overwhelmed by the sun. In a similar way, some ideas cannot be discovered because their faint points of light are overwhelmed by your brain’s active beta waves, which are as noisy as a goose eating dominoes.”

The book contains lots of interesting facts, stories, analogies and mental puzzles. For anyone that wants to read a book that offers some concrete strategies and tips on how to be more creative, I highly recommend this book. 

As a personal side note, I was convinced that if I read this book, it would have to make me smarter. After finishing the book, I don’t feel any smarter, but I do believe I now have new ways of viewing problems and attacking them in a more creative fashion.

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I was excited about this week’s book, “Founding Rivals”, because it was written by a Pepperdine Law School classmate of mine, Chris DeRose. I met Chris during the summer after the first year of law school, when we both attended a London “summer abroad” program. (Chris is on the left in the picture below taken during our trip to England)

Chris is a superb writer, and I was amazed at the great job he did of making the events leading up to the signing of the Constitution—and its ratification afterwards—interesting! 

I think Americans generally view the Constitution as the law of the land, and that its creation was based upon a solid agreement of the founding fathers. Chris’ book dispels that myth, in that the Constitution, its ratification and agreement by the states (at the time our country was founded), only occurred after critical elections, and after painstaking Constitutional conventions. It could have just as easily been decided to have the Constitution thrown out and something else put in its place—or even worse—having a confederacy of states without any uniform legal rules. I guess that would have made the U.S. something more like European countries.

The focus of Founding Rivals is on a single election involving James Madison and James Monroe (and important events that shaped the lives of the two men). As Chris states:

“But for the result of one election, the United States of America might well have died in infancy.”

“On the Federalist side stood James Madison, determined to defend the Constitution and the new government he had worked so hard to create. Against him stood James Monroe, Anti-Federalist, opponent of the Constitution as written, and erstwhile ally of Madison.”

Given the current state of politics, it was refreshing to read about the greatness of some politicians at the founding of the country, and the deep respect they had to that foundation. 

In summary, I am very impressed with Chris’ book, and it stands as an inspiration to others, in that, if you apply yourself,  you can do amazing things—such as get a book published. Chris has an ability to draft the human background stories in a way that brought the late 1700’s to life…

In the picture below: "Founding Rivals" book displayed in my office (Chris I still want my copy signed)

*Note this is not a business book, however, it provides a great discussion about the time period of the signing and ratification of the Constitution.  Also, besides being on display my second copy is on my IPAD.

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For my third book of the year, I chose "Onward" by Howard Schultz, after a client/friend highly recommended it. After somewhat scary revelations of my previous book “Boomerang”, I looked forward to reading “Onward” - an uplifting story of entrepreneurship. 

“Onward” proved to be just that (uplifting) and so much more. This book by Howard Schultz catalogs and follows his re-emergence as “ceo” of Starbucks in January 2008 (according to Schultz all leaders were lower case letters, and all the employees are termed “partners”). What makes this book particularly interesting is the timing of his re-emergence at Starbucks as the recession had officially begun in December 2007. 

After he came back, Starbucks had to deal with things that had never happened to the company before—the closing of hundreds of stores, the laying off of thousands of employees, negative earnings, and negative comps. In the book, you feel like you are there in the trenches fighting with him—as he states: “The crisis was forcing people all along the economic spectrum to come to terms with new realities and redefine how they lived in the world. Starbucks and I were hardly alone in our transformation.” 

By the end of the book Starbucks had turned the corner on the negative economic trends, and as Howard states, “I did welcome a shift from survival to growth mode” (emphasis added). You hear entrepreneurs that first start their business talk about being in “survival mode”, you hear seasoned business owners in the current economic climate speak of about being in “survival mode”—it was very intriguing to hear the ceo of Starbucks discuss the experience of the past two years as “survival.”

In fiscal 2010, Starbucks revenues increased to a record $10.7 billion. As Howard looks at how Starbucks got off-track, I think the following quote is on point: “Growth, we know all too well, is not a strategy. It is a tactic. And when undisciplined growth became a strategy for Starbucks, we lost our way. But no longer are we growing the company the way we did in the past. In short Starbucks today aims to be a very different type of company.”

After reading the book, and the Herculean work that Schultz did to transform his company, I believe this re-emergence as a ceo and leader of the company has been instrumental in Starbuck’s ability to be such a strong brand in the current economic climate. 

In addition to many useful nuggets of insights throughout the book, I also found it interesting and refreshing to read how Howard was influenced by the writings of a small merchant with one store in Italy. To me, it reflected how entrepreneurial mindset applies just as well to a small entrepreneurial company, as it does to this Mega-Company.

In that vein, I look “Onward” to my fourth book of the year—“Founding Rivals: Madison vs. Monroe (The Bill of Rights and the Election that Save a Nation”). I am very excited to finally get the chance to read this book because the author is Chris DeRose, a fellow Pepperdine Law School graduate. Let’s see if he can make the politics of the founding of America interesting (I have already read the first 40 pages or so and am already engaged to read onward).

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In life some things are easier to share than others. If you recently got engaged, married, had a baby, got a promotion or landed a great gig – sharing the news is exciting. You want the world to know.

Your estate plan is different—you don’t want the world to know your wishes (generally while you are alive this is to remain confidential). However, you do not want to be so private about your affairs that no one ever finds out about them (i.e. people digging your backyard to find your will or trust). Thus at some point you do want your affairs to be administered in the way that you direct them to be via proper legal documents.

Most people tend to delay making decisions about their financial affairs or what happens in case of their (gasp) death  even if their internal family dynamic is peaceful and distribution fairly straight-forward (for example, couple has only one child that will inherit everything). If no planning is done, the government has a plan for you it is called probate (you can read about it here).

Planning can be especially important if you don’t have children of your own and if you are not married (or have a domestic partner). The best planning you can do is by having the proper estate planning documents signed in front of witnesses, notary and documents drafted by an attorney, who becomes a trusted counselor. If not done properly or at all, various family members might argue, rightly or wrongly so, that they should be a beneficiary of your estate. Having an attorney draft your estate plan is critically important so that later your family can turn to someone who knew your wishes and can answer questions about your estate. Also, having an attorney allows for this process to stay private and takes the guesswork, confusion for your family and loved ones.  If done properly, estate planning documents can save your loved ones from the probate court and the potential of a lengthy litigation (where beneficiaries can try to interpret your wishes).  

The probate court has many cases when a person without children or spouse/partner suddenly, late in life, wills everything to someone who is not a family member or was unknown to the closest relatives.  Wills in those cases were handwritten, not drafted by attorney, raising suspicions about validity of the Will.  Leaving the estate to a friend or a charity is a perfectly fine choice however,  having an attorney draft those documents, having those documents signed in front of impartial witnesses provide a sense of security that these were truly your wishes. Also attorneys generally hold onto the original Will and give clients a conformed copy—this is to ensure no additional pages are added and that the Original Will is not altered in any way.

Proper planning is a smart choice regardless of how simple or complex your estate or family situation might be, but particularly important for people who are single, without children or immediate family close by to ensure there is no abuse or any fraudulent activity going on. Letting the right people know (your family and attorney) about your wishes should let you sleep peacefully at night.

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My second book for the year is "Boomerang", and given the following article “US Debt Is Now Equal to Economy” on CNBC today, I couldn't have read it at a more appropriate time.  To anyone that is interested in learning more about the world economic debacle that has been going on for the past few years, I highly recommend it.

The book describes the economic events in Iceland, Greece, Ireland, Germany and finally the US, specifically in California.  The way Michael Lewis writes is colorful (aka profanity), humorous, and biting.  The events in Iceland, Greece and Ireland would be hysterically funny but given that Lewis just reports what he finds out, the truth seems at once both absurd and scary.  I found that when he got to the US, he left me wanting much more, but definitely believing that our economic system (and specifically governmental bodies--cities and municipalities) has some serious economic issues ahead—you only have to read the linked article to recognize this is proving to be true (and by other articles put out on a daily basis as to the economic status of the US and other nations). 

 After reading "Boomerang" I find it harder to believe statements from some economists that: “a better measure of the nation's debt is how much the government owes creditors, not counting $4.7 trillion owed to future Social Security recipients and other government beneficiaries. By that measure, the debt is roughly a third less: $10.5 trillion, or nearly 70% the size of the economy.” 

I am not an economist, but this is the type of thinking that underestimates the economic problems in the US (and other countries, too), an underestimation that is extremely dangerous—what are Social Security and Pensions off the Balance Sheet???   You just have to look at Vallejo, where Lewis states:  "Back in 2008, unable to come to terms with its many creditors, Vallejo had declared bankruptcy.  Eighty percent of the city's budget--and the lion's share of the claims that had thrown it into bankruptcy--were wrapped up in the pay and benefits of public safety workers."  I believe economists shouldn't be so quick to list Social Security and retirement plans as an unimportant factor of our debt.

Read the part of the book where Mr. Lewis discusses the financial situation with the mayor of San Jose and see if the following statement from today’s article appears a little scary—“Long-term projections suggest the debt will continue to grow faster than the economy, which would have to expand by at least 6% a year to keep pace.” 

Read this book and see if you have a different view of our economic issues.

Michael Lewis is one of those writers that amuses while he enlightens the reader (the humor, at times bordering being vulgar is appropriately placed).  Even though, some the characters are a bit one-dimensional as Forbes states in their review of the book,  I look forward to reading some of the other books that Michael Lewis wrote, including The Big Short.

Ultimately, our economic problem (yes it is OUR problem, not just America's but every citizen's problem) is as Lewis states it "a problem with the entire society" and all levels of society has played a role:  "from the top of society to the bottom."

Have you read this book? What are your thoughts?  Let me know here or on my Facebook page.

Boomerang, Week 2

I have already downloaded my book for next week (and begun reading it):  “Onward: How Starbucks Fought for Its Life without Losing Its Soul” by Howard Schultz based on a recommendation of my friend. Even by decreasing the font size, my IPAD says I have 596 pages until I finish it—Ouch!!!

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One of my resolutions this year was to read more. One book per week, ideally on my iPad while working out (a bit ambitious, I know).  Books inspire ideas, provoke, educate, delight and motivate. I especially love reading biographies, books about innovation, business and entrepreneurship. 

I am starting the year, re-reading one my favorites “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill.  I was introduced to this book by chance, awhile back while studying for my real estate broker’s exam. One of the instructors mentioned it as one of his favorite books and I decided to check it out to add some variety to my medley of law and real estate books at that time. 

Published in 1937, “Think and Grow Rich” summarizes the teachings of Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison and many others on achievement, success and breakthroughs. If you own your own business, or aspire to be an entrepreneur, innovator, self-starter, I think this book would make an excellent addition to your library. I have read this book many times, and every time I get some new nuggets of information that I somehow missed on a previous read.  I also find that reading it at the beginning of the Year can give you a little extra motivation to get some of those goals achieved… Afterall, I agree with Diana Scharf Hunt “Goals are dreams with deadlines”.

*To the left is the version of the book I have purchased many times and given as gifts to friends.

I was lucky enough to find a free version of this book on my iPad, check out iBooks to see if it is still available.

Have you read this book? What are your thoughts?  Let me know here or on my Facebook page.

Think and Grow Rich, Week 1

I have already downloaded my book for next week:  “Boomerang” by Michael Lewis--and I'm curious, if anyone has read it?

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