A whack to wake your brain from stupor

A WHACK ON THE SIDE OF THE HEAD
How You Can Be More Creative
By Roger von Oech
Illustrations by George Willet
196 pages
Available at Goodwill Bookstore

So, when was the last time you came up with a creative idea? In one of the many interesting and amusing anecdotes that pepper his book, Roger von Oech mentions a man who realized the last time he actually used creative thinking was over a year ago. And how did that happen? Von Oech points out, "This person wasn’t very motivated. He seemed to be saying, ‘Everything is fine,’ and there’s no reason to deviate from what’s worked in the past." Just like most everyone who has settled comfortably in the cushions of routine and familiarity, living life in auto-mode. For people who have forgotten how it is to challenge the rules, or how it’s like to see everyday things in a different way, A Whack on the Side of the Head is just the perfect shot of espresso.

It reads like an Enhance Your Creativity class in 196 pages of trivia (how Johann Gutenberg combined the functions of the coin punch and the winepress to come up with the printing press, for example), quotes (like a businessman’s words that "Sacred cows make great steaks"), brain teasers (try this one for size: By adding just one line, how can you turn the Roman numeral nine into a six?), and sensible, easy-to-follow tips and exercises that surely shakes one’s brain from stupor with a resounding whack.

The book is actually a compilation of what Von Oech notes as the top 10 mental locks that he says are "especially hazardous to our thinking." Number one on his list is our lamentable early academic training to always give the right answer. In preschool we were taught to color the sky blue, the trees green and the sun yellow. "Children enter school as question marks," he quotes, "and they leave as periods." Another entry in his top 10 list is our black-or-white obedience to following the rules – which is one other thing we got from our academic training. Nobody slays a sacred cow, even if nobody remembers why it is sacred in the first place.

Quoting Pablo Picasso ("Every act of creation is first of all an act of destruction"), the author sets off to destroy these 10 mental locks after first identifying them and tracing how they came to be, to create paths towards improved creativity. Writing in engaging, simple language, he uses humor to make the ride to creativity breezier than most self-help books – without sacrificing effectively.

And finally, just when you think you’ve harvested enough tips to set you well on your way to artistry, Van Oech hands you your ticket in the form of Another Whack on the Side of the Head, the book’s final chapter which is entirely devoted to the practical application of your new and enhanced creativity.