Customer Reviews

Expect the Unexpected (Or You Won't Find It): A Creativity Tool Based on the Ancient Wisdom of Heraclitus

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I have long been a fan of Roger von Oech's work on creativity (see A Whack on the Side of the Head and the Creative Whack Pack card deck). I found this book to be a pleasant and valuable addition to my resources for stimulating my thinking in new ways.

The book's core are 30 epigrams ("a terse, witty, and often paradoxical saying") of the 125 that have come down to us in the quotations of other authors from Heraclitus, as written 2500 years ago. Mr. von Oech has taken the traditional translation and updated it into more conceptual English in many cases, which makes the material more accessible. "All things happen according to the logos" (from Heraclitus by T. M. Robinson, University of Toronto Press, 1987) becomes "The cosmos speaks in patterns." Each epigram begins with an imaginative line drawing to give you an initial impression of the concept. Mr. von Oech goes on to provide some key subpoints in a brief essay, some examples of the concepts and subpoints in action, and occasionally gives you puzzles and brain teasers to play with (the answers are at the end of the book).

The longer the section, the better I liked it. So I left the book wishing it had been longer. That's my usual test of how helpful a book was to me. While many of these epigrams meant nothing to me on first reading them, Mr. von Oech's explanations soon made each an old and valuable friend.

Mr. von Oech suggests three ways to use the book. First, you can read it from start to finish as a creativity workbook. Second, you can take one epigram a day and make it the focus of a meditation for that day. You can repeat the list at the end of 30 days ("You can't step into the same river twice" so you should get new insights each time). Third, you can use the book as an oracle. When you have a question, randomly pick an epigram (there's a random number table in the book to help you do this) and apply it to the problem. I would like to suggest a fourth application, as well. You could use the epigrams to stimulate group creativity in problem-solving situations involving others.

Space does not permit (nor would fairness allow) publishing all the epigrams here, but let me share the ones that had the most impact on me.

"That which opposes produces a benefit."

"A wonderful harmony is created when you join together the seemingly unconnected."

"I searched into myself."

"Many fail to grasp what's right in the palm of the hand."<P "When there is no sun, we can see the evening stars."

"Things love to conceal their true nature."

"Those who approach life like a child playing a game, moving and pushing pieces, possess the power of kings."

"Sea water is both pure and polluted: for fish it's drinkable and life-giving; for humans undrinkable and destructive."

"It is disease that makes health pleasant, hunger that makes fullness good, and weariness that makes rest sweet."

"The way up and the way down are one and the same."

"A thing rests by changing."

"Donkeys prefer garbage to gold."

"Every walking animal is driven to its purpose with a whack."

"Your character is your destiny."

"The Sun is new each day."

The summary combines all thirty epigrams into a brief essay. I encourage you to take one of the epigrams above and apply it today. If it helps you, go on to use another one tomorrow. If that is working, order this book and keep using other epigrams daily until the book arrives. Then, see how Mr. von Oech's thoughtful ideas about the epigrams expand your thinking even further!

Be prepared to find diamonds in your coal mine!

The fact that von Oech draws heavily upon the "ancient wisdom of Heraclitus" in this book correctly suggests what a creative mind such as von Oech's can accomplish when seeing direct and useful correlations between an ancient Greek philosopher (other than Plato and Aristotle) and intellectual challenges in 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 which include, for example, these five:

#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."

#29 "Your character is your destiny."

Individually and even when clustered with the other 25, these "Creative Insights" may seem unworthy of careful consideration. In fact, von Oech provides a brief but insightful analysis of each which effectively demonstrates the wisdom of #12. 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.

Frankly, when I began to read this book, I really did not know what to expect. What of value could I possibly learn from a relatively obscure Greek philosopher? However, von Oech had already convinced me of the value of an occasional "whack on the side of the head" and "kick in the seat of the pants" so I gave him the benefit of the doubt. (See #12.) As always, von Oech is immensely entertaining. He has superb writing skills. And of course, he is an immensely creative thinker in his own right. I strongly recommend this little (in length) book to literally anyone who wants to put white caps on her or his gray matter. Those who share my high regard for this book 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.

This gem of a book is shy 200 pages and is set in four sections beginning with Stir Your Mind with Heraclitus, then The Creative Insights of Heraclitus, Final Thoughts and Answers to Puzzles. It's nice that on page 5 the author tells the reader who are unfamiliar with this Greek sage, who he was and when he lived. 500 BCE. "This means that he was an almost exact contemporary of the Chinese thinkers Lao-tzu and Confucious, the Indian contemplative Siddhartha Gautama (the historical Buddha) and was only a little younger than the Persian prophet Zarathustra."

On page 12 and 12 the author lists thirty epigrams which he believes best express Heraclitus' philosophy of the creative spirit. And being a mathematical and puzzle solving family we were intrigued with the puzzles of life that the author discusses. I think great thinkers love math and life puzzles.

As an example the letters of the alphabet can be grouped into four different categories (1)A,M (2) B,C,D,E,K;(3)F,G,J,K,L; and (4) H,I. Figure out the pattern and place the remaining 13 letters in their appropriate categories.

Or how about Find what the following words have in common: laughing, starburst, calmness, crabcake, stuffed, canopy, hijack.

Now the book is much more than mind games. It is after all about thinking outside the box, or simply thinking, which sadly many people are afraid to do. The author like his subject knows the value of straining ones brain. Asking questions and looking for more than one answer. Dissecting life's challenges and seeing each lesson as the next step to the next lesson and in the end wisdom.

The author realizes that digging deeper for questions and answers produced gems of wisdom and solutions and that we simply need to be open to the possibilities. Optimistic rather than pessimistic. This is a book that men as well as women will savor. And one both my husband and I find ourselves opening and re-reading and realizing that new lessons and gems of wisdom are there no matter how often we re-read the book.

And if you end up with a headache when reading this book it is my opinion that your brain has had a good workout.

I was first tempted to give this book only one star for disparaging the notion of "pure philosophy." But then I began to question what the purpose of philosophy was. Who has done philosophy more of a disservice, Von Oech, who sees the creative potential in Heraclitus and passes it on to willing readers, or the academics, who have purified and rarefied philosophy into something quite unrecognizable to the ancient Greeks? That was the easiest question I've had to answer in quite a while. Von Oech gets what the pointy-headed pettifoggers of academe do not: philosophy is only effective as it relates to the world. It is not a mere matter of linguistics nor an interpretation by each textual reader, but rather a force guiding humans towards creativity through its answers to our everyday questions. There was a time in the past when philosophers wrote for the educated public. Nowadays, philosophers write for other philosophers, substituting rhetoric and wordplay for creativity. The loser is our culture, which depends upon philosophy as a lynchpin.

Von Oech's fascination with Heraclitus goes back to 1971 while studying in Germany. Picking up a book of Heraclitus' epigrams, Von Oech became instantly hooked when he read "the way up and the way down are one and the same." He writes that this caused him to spend the next several weeks trying to figure out its meaning. Since then, he says, he's wanted to put out a "creativity tool" based on the works of Heraclitus.

And what a creativity tool he has created. His grasp of Heraclitus is firm and, moreover, he is able to apply each epigram he examines to the problems of thinking and creativity in the workplace. The reader will also notice a warmth coming through: a deep love of the subject and philosophy in general, something we do not always get from our academics, as anyone who had to sit through Philosophy 101 with a boring pedant will tell you. And Von Oech will succeed in doing what our friends in the ivory tower have failed to do, and that is to instill a love of wisdom in the heads of his students. For that, Roger von Oech, I salute you.

"Expect the Unexpected or You Won't Find It" is a collection of thirty of Heraclitus' epigrams along with an examination of some of their different facets. Heraclitus was a Greek scholar who answered many of life's questions with comments that were purposely designed to be obscure. This forced the recipient to think creatively to find their answer. Many of them contain internal paradoxes and so part of the creative process is figuring out the paradox and how it applies to your situation.

As Roger von Oech goes through each of the thirty selected epigrams he includes some of the ways that they can be interpreted, ways that they have been interpreted in the past, anecdotes, jokes, and riddles that illustrate the epigram and other ways of illuminating just how deep these pieces of wisdom are. Does he give a complete explanation of how they can be interpreted? No, because that is part of the design of these epigrams, they can be applied to different circumstances and product different but still correct answers. His illustrations are there to open your mind to the creative possibilities that lie hidden within just a few wise words.

Some of these I have heard in the past such as "You can't step into the same river twice". Others are less common but just as full of wisdom such as "On a circle, an end point can also be a beginning point". If you want a book that expands your creative mind and also shows you how to break out of old patterns of thinking in any situation, then this is the book for you. Well written and sure to point the reader to new directions of thinking, it is a highly recommended read.

Roger Von Oech has an uncommon gift: he can mix knowledge, wisdom and humour. Von Oech is a fan of Heraclitus. If you really like to think creatively you will be a fan too.

I have never believed in reading about the theory of creativity: is like believing that you are exercising by watching ESPN. If you want to achieve the reality of a way to stimulate your creative thinking this book is for you.

Any work from this author is satisfaction guaranteed.

I've enjoyed Roger's other works very much. His newest book is also a wonderful tool. I like the stories and examples. I also like the way in which he's taken these ancient epigrams and made them relevant to contemporary issues. He's made Heraclitus come alive! I received this book as a gift, and I think I'll give it to others as well. It's a nice package!

A number of years ago, I read Roger von Oech's A WHACK ON THE SIDE OF THE HEAD. It was fairly early in my career, when the mold is still unformed but the message was poignant. Recently, when I ran across EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED and saw von Oech was the author, I decided to pick it up and renew myself to von Oech's teachings. What a breath of fresh air he offers with EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED.

von Oech draws heavily upon the ancient wisdom of Heraclitus, the Greek philosopher. Heraclitus, like Parmenides, postulated a model of nature and the universe which created the foundation for all other speculation on physics and metaphysics. The ideas that the universe is in constant change and there is an underlying order or reason to this change-the Logos-form the essential foundation of the primary Heraclitean view. Everytime one walks into a science, economics, or political science course, at most any level, significantly all the teachings originate with Heraclitus's speculations on change and the Logos.
Despite this and the fact the ancient Greeks considered Heraclitus one of their principal philosophers, precious little remains of his writings. The passages remaining are tremendously obtuse, not because they are quoted out of context, but because Heraclitus deliberately cultivated an obscure writing style (one that makes one THINK!). However, thanks to von Oech's passion for all that is Heraclitus and his teachings, we are presented with many the ancient 'riddles' and a modern day correlation and translation of each. von Oech recalls being struck with "the Heraclitean bug" while studying in Germany many years ago. Now, he has written a book in which he brilliantly and entertainingly examines concepts such as symbol, paradox, and ambiguity in relation to creative thought.

At the beginning of EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED, von Oech provides the reader with 30 creative insights to consider and explore our creative psyches. von Oech goes through each of the thirty selected epigrams, provides his interpretation along with examples, parables, and questions-the kind that make you go "Hmmm"- all the while stoking the creative being within. von Oech does not attempt to inform the reader that his interpretation is the correct one; to the contrary, he implores the reader to step outside the boundries of conventional thought to find the "correct" answer.

As he was in A WHACK ON THE SIDE OF THE HEAD, von Oech is immensely entertaining. He is an individual who has spent his career assisting others to think creatively. As a byproduct of this career, von Oech has proven himself to be a prodigous creative thinker in his own right. Those in the 'concrete' professions-attorneys, consultants, accountants-will find this book extremely insightful. Thinking in the abstract is incongruent with the 'concrete' professions (I know, I'm one of them). As such, having the fodder to stoke the creative juices, particularly when problem-solving, is a boon to any professional.

At it's small physical size and only 190-odd pages, this book is perfect to keep handy at your desk or any place one engages in thought. I plan to keep it nearby just to refer to when a problem presents itself in an ostensibly unsolvable manner.

Highly recommended.

Seems to me a different approach and format with the same recommendations as his other books. Read the authors other stuff along the way and this one is creative in its layout and approach but found it more of the same. Had trouble staying with it.

Someone who knows me well recommended Roger Von Oech's book "Expect the Unexpected" to me because she knew of my interest in Heraclitus (c. 500, B.C.), an ancient Greek Pre-Socratic philosopher. Heraclitus was a master of oracular, enigmatic sayings. He was known in antiquity as the "riddling" or as the "dark" philosopher. There are no surviving complete texts of Heraclitus. We know of him through brief quotations from other Greek philosophers and writers and from their descriptions and comments on his life and thought. Heraclitus is probably best-known for his doctrine that everything is in flux, in constant change. "Everything changes", he said [panta rhei in Greek) and "you cannot step into the same river twice for other waters keep flowing on and on". Heraclitus was a great influence on other philosophers and writers from Plato and Aristotle to Alfred North Whitehead and Martin Heidegger. I have been fascinated by him since youth.

On the surface, Roger Von Oech seems an unlikely person to write about Heraclitus. Von Oech is the founder and president of a firm known as Creative Think, headquartered in California, which is a consulting firm that gives presentations and seminars to large businesses and other organizations on creativity and increasing productivity. A glance at Creative Think's website shows that Von Oech has written several books and invented a number of gimmicky-looking gadgets with the goal of helping people expand their thinking horizons. He is obviously and engaging and successful entrepreneur. This made me suspicious of the book. What could Creative Think have to do with Heraclitus?

From the book, I learned that Von Oech holds a PhD in the history of ideas and that he has been studying Heraclitus since 1971, while engaged in graduate work in Germany. And his book shows that Von Oech has given Heraclitus a great deal of thought. I was impressed with his respect for and understanding of this difficult thinker. I was even more impressed, upon reflection, with Von Oech's ability and interpret Heraclitus's texts in an engaging, lively way to audiences and people that otherwise would have had no use for him. It takes some bravura to write a self-help book such as this with Heraclitus as the mentor. Von Oech has done it well.

This short book begins with a brief overview of Heraclitus followed by a list of what Von Oech terms "the Creative Insights of Heraclitus", consisting of 30 of his characteristic sayings. Von Oech advises that his book can be read straight through, or that the reader can meditate on each individual saying over time, taking the sayings at random or in some form of order. (The time necessary to think through Heraclitus can be measured in years.) Von Oech then explores each of the 30 sayings individually in brief chapters. It is wonderful that he gives the Heraclitus texts in ancient Greek as well as in English for the reader to see, even readers who know no Greek. He offers a commentary on each text, together with questions, printed in red, for the reader to consider in responding to the text. In a short concluding chapter, Von Oech summarizes the lessons he has taken from Heraclitus.

In his interpretations, Von Oech uses many riddles, puzzles, and stories to help readers see things in a new way. What he says is short, but much of it is useful, and Von Oech ties his message in to the sayings of the Riddling Philosopher. Besides jokes and riddles, Von Oech illustrates his interpretations of Heraclitus from figures as diverse as Thomas Edison and Christopher Columbus to Herman Hesse and the Buddha. He stresses ambiguity, the ever-presence of change, thought, open-mindedness, and the elimination of arrogance. The difficulty of the sayings of Heraclitus mirrors the need of thinking closely to discover meaning.

I have some residual qualms about this book. Von Oech uses Heraclitus largely as a way to help managers and employees become more efficient and creative in performing their chosen tasks. His firm, Creative Think, is workplace oriented. Heraclitus's teachings are broader than this, in that they seem to be directed to challenging the fundamental and unexamined assumptions that people make about things such as the workplace, its values, and the importance of material success. Von Oech for the most part accepts these assumptions and uses Heraclitus within them. (He does make some exceptions. For example he tells the story of a coach of a rowing team who taught his crew to meditate to increase their coordination with each other. The team members did so, but they also lost their competitive streak as a result of their meditation experience.) Von Oech does not expressly ask his readers, as Heraclitus did, to reconsider their lives and goals. Thus he deemphasizes an important theme in Heraclitus.

Von Oech still has written a fine book. It fulfills his goal of awakening his readers to the thought of Heraclitus and of encouraging his readers to think about this great philosopher for themselves. There is a great deal of wisdom in what Von Oech says. In this book as in, I suspect, his lectures and seminars, Von Oech meets his task of improving workplace creativity but he opens the door to wider questions as well. One of the sayings of Heraclitus included in this book is "Lovers of wisdom must open their minds to very many things." So it is. I began with a skepticism of Von Oech and his enterprise, but found myself learning from him.

Robin Friedman