Customer Reviews

Advantage Play: The Manager's Guide to Creative Problem Solving

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How I got the book:
Self-purchased (I paid for this with my own money)

Background:
David Ben is a magician and producer. However, his early career choice was tax law, which makes for an interesting switch, doesn't it? He studied and practiced magic, illusion, sleight of hand, etc. for many years and developed close relationships with Stewart James and Ross Bertram, both accomplished magicians. He also does corporate keynote speaking on creativity and problem solving.

Advantage Play is a business book that talks a lot about magic and illusion. However, the book uses the practice of developing and performing magic tricks as a means to help business people to create and implement solutions to business problems. The key theme throughout this book is the use of smart thinking and preparation to accomplish great things, while using a bit of performer's panache and methods to "wow" your clients, employees, etc.


The strengths:
The problem solving and idea generation ideas in this book are great. Chapter 4, "Manufacturing Ideas", blew my mind when I first read it, because there's a wealth of techniques there that Ben picked up from magician Stewart James. This material alone is worth the book's cover price.

The descriptions of how magic tricks can be created, including the importance of separating the magic trick from the desired effect, are also very illuminating. His continual emphasis on research, preparation and practice is right on the mark.

The areas for improvement:
The book does suffer a bit from a somewhat bland interior and layout, but that's a minor quibble.

A bigger concern, however, is that this book does suggest a number of ways to manipulate people for gain. Ben doesn't encourage unethical behavior, but there's no doubt that these tips, tricks, and ideas could be used to prey on the weak and ignorant. It's also important to remember that tricking someone or cheating in a legitimate business relationship is normally leads to disaster, so it's important to take this work with a heavy dose of ethics.

Other points of interest:
There are some interesting points in here about David Copperfield, one of the world's most famous illusionists. There's also a cool story about a magician who managed to fool Harry Houdini.