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Product Details
Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: Crown; First Edition edition (March 4, 2014)
When I discovered Mihaly Csikszentmihaly's book Flow, about 10 years ago, I recognized that he was talking about a concept that I had experienced many times, that was important in my life, and that I craved. Learning about flow has helped me, but has also provided frustrations, both because of difficulties and because of a lack of greater meaning. Slingerland's Trying Not To Try offers the solution to these problems. Slingerland compares the Western concept of flow to the Eastern concepts of wu-wei and de. Wu-wei is "the dynamic, effortless, and unselfconscious state of mind of a person who is optimally active and effective"; de is a charismatic power "that others can detect, and it serves as an outward signal that one is in wu-wei."
Slingerland looks at early Eastern philosophy and at modern science and sees how the connections between the two explain the how and why of wu-wei and de. As Slingerland says, "A growing literature in psychology and neuroscience suggests that these (early Eastern) thinkers had a much more accurate picture of how people really think and behave than we find in recent Western philosophy or religious thought and that early Chinese debates about how to attain wu-wei reflect real tensions built into the human brain. Scientists are beginning to better appreciate the role that "fast and frugal" unconscious thinking plays in everyday human life and now have a clearer sense of why spontaneity and effectiveness hang together." Evolutionary psychology is very helpful in explaining the "why", which was very helpful in solving the problems that the concept of flow presented to me. Slingerland explains that, it "gives us insight into why wu-wei is so pleasant for the individual and attractive to others...Read more ›
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42 of 43 people found the following review helpful
I enjoyed `Trying Not To Try' a great deal for what it is, but found the blurb description somewhat misleading and the self-help category a less-than perfect fit. The book leans far more towards the philosophical than the practical. This is not some overly self-conscious, hands-on tutorial about applying meditative practices and self-analysis to sleep better and perform at maximum potential.
While there's nothing preventing such a takeaway, Slingerland's argument extends outward from the personal to the societal as he makes the case for the continued relevance of early Chinese thought - primarily that of Confucius and Lao-tzu - to the modern world and how ancient ideas rightly complement, and in many ways parallel, the latest developments in cognitive science.
I found the format very effective and cohesive: Several fairly long chapters open with an exposition of one or more Chinese schools of thought illustrated and contrasted by colorful tales and excerpts of ancient texts. Then, almost without realizing it, Slingerland effortlessly segues into some contemporary reference to a study or publication in cognitive science that confirms or elaborates on the earlier ideas.
I found it a much more pleasant reading experience than the alternate approach of more, shorter chapters expressly alternating Chinese Thought/Cognitive Science/Chinese Thought/etc.
The core of the book is the age-old dichotomy out of which both Confucianism and the ideas of Lao-tzu grew: Must human beings be trained to be virtuous or is it in their essential nature? Are conscious effort and striving to be virtuous admirable goals or are they in fact the source of individual (and by extension, societal) ills?Read more ›
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55 of 58 people found the following review helpful
I assume that this author wanted to write a popular book about his area of academic expertise, pitched it to a publisher, and then the publisher decided to cash in on the popularity of "Flow" and related trends -- without a whole lot of regard to how much this book is actually likely to appeal to fans of "Flow".
Certainly "Trying Not to Try" deals with a related topic, and he offers some critiques of "Flow" (I'm unwilling to try to spell that guy's name), but really, at its heart and for most of its pages, this an overview of two and a half ancient Chinese religions, and it relates to spontaneity only in that both Confucianism and Taoism believe that truly moral behavior must arise spontaneously within the doer, and so strove to cultivate (or not cultivate) spontaneity for that end. Of course there's a paradox here, and that's what fascinates the author, and what provides the line of thought that makes this -- in the author's mind -- relevant to conversations about flow, etc. It boils down to, "Why can't we be relaxed and charming on a first date?"
Slingerland does incorporate some modern science, and it helps elucidate the Chinese religious stuff, but in no way does this book offer any real pointers on how to live your life so that you can relax on a first date. The book is fundamentally an examination of paradox, not a resolution of any sort.
All that said, although it took me a while to get through it, I enjoyed "Trying Not to Try". I told my husband about interesting points, and I have continued to think about different ways some of the concepts play out in my life.Read more ›
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This item: Trying Not to Try: The Art and Science of Spontaneity
