The Art and Science of Light Bulb Moments

If you are looking for inspiration then this book is a must. The Art and Science of Light Bulb Moments by Tom Evans is all about generating ideas but also provides techniques to help you actualise the ideas.

The book is well structured and has an enjoyable style. Each chapter introduces a technique and gives you an excercise to complete, finishing with a recap of the main points. The result is an absolute joy to read and although I didn’t complete all the excercises along the way, I’m very much looking forward to working my way back through them.

The thing that most stands out for me is that the author made me believe that I really could generate that light bulb moment and made me feel excited about giving it a go. One of the things I look out for in a brilliant business book is inspiration and this one definitely offers that.

The techniques in the book very much draw on mind maps to help you tap into your creativity, which is something that interests me. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a very structured, list-loving person and so anything that can help me draw on my inner creativity is very welcome.

The only criticism I’d have for the book is that in some cases the directions for completing the exercises could be clearer – I found I had to read through a couple of times to fully grasp what I should do, but it’s worth taking the time to do so to get the most out of it.

In case I haven’t made it clear already, I’m a big fan of this book. It combined interesting theory with practical application, in a very easy-to-read style, resulting in a truly inspirational book.

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29 January 2012 | Filed Under Effectiveness | | 2 Comments

How to Win Any Argument

I was pretty excited to start this book. It’s not a title that would usually attract me, so I was interested to try something new. Unfortunately, I’ll have to say up front that I didn’t get on with it at all.

My main problem with the book is that it bombards you with anecdotes to the point that the I felt the message was lost. This meant that I found there was very little I could take away from it and ended up wondering what the point was.

Don’t get me wrong, examples are good. I remember reviewing a book a while ago that barely had any examples, and that was hard going. But … please, please, please don’t just give anecdote after anecdote and leave me to decipher the message myself. I never was any good at cryptic crosswords.

I like to balnace my book reviews with positive and negative. I’ve covered the negative, so let’s see what I can come up with for positive:

The style of the book is easy going, making it a pretty easy read (something I’m always keen on!)
The anecdotes are quite interesting, so if that’s something you feel you would enjoy then this could be the book for you

However, I’ll have to say that it’s not the book for me. Having read it I don’t feel that I’m any more equipt to win arguments.

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