Earlier in my career I approached self-help books with unbridled enthusiasm and expectation which invariably led to disappointment. The search for subject mastery proved elusive. With the benefit of experience expectation levels now tend to be lower, and cynicism regrettably and perhaps inevitably much higher. Yet each new experience adds to that personal knowledge bank, and feeds into the unending curiosity that drives marketers to believe that maybe there is a much better way of approaching & doing this work after all.
So I dived into BrainHack initially encouraged by realising that while I only use 5% of my brain power that’s not a bad thing because it’s focussed on conscious decision making while the balance is working away in the background making sure that unconsciously I am walking, breathing and generally functioning as person. How then to improve the all-important 5%?
Well Brainhack’s chunked up nicely into being more productive, eliminating negatives, cracking problems and setting yourself free to do what I’m sure we would all love to achieve which is to be more creative. There’s a mixture of science, academic and real life evidence and anecdotes all focused on unleashing this thinking potential, and interestingly ways where you can also harness the vast unconscious capability to add power to tackle creative challenges differently.
It’s very digestible and while there were lots of instances where I felt I’d heard or used one of the tips or tools before there were certainly sufficient new ones that work for me to kick-start to my thinking. So when you are slogging over a strategy document or stumped for a metaphor to bring that presentation to life this book could be a quick and stimulating way of making you think differently to help release your natural creativity. Just don’t expect it to give you all the answers.