Pow! Right Between The Eyes! Andy Nulman's Blog About Surprise: A Quarter-Century of Whacking

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Books Beside My Bed

Chip Heath and Dan Heath: Made To Stick
Roger Von Oech called this one months ago; "The next 'Tipping Point'," he enthused. While I don't think the Brothers Heath will make as much of a social dent as Malcolm Gladwell, their book is much more relevant as a "hands-on" tool for any marketer (and makes a compelling case for the infusion of Surprise. Thanks guys!). Taking their own advice, Chip and Dan make a handful of powerful points, and do so simply, interestingly and eloquently. Along with the Sernovitz book, this is my bible for many of my new business endeavors, as well as for the fundraising campaign my wife and I are leading for our son's school. A real find! (*****)
Andy Sernovitz: Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking
Andy is smart. He's getting people like me, and hundreds of others I suspect, to talk about his book. How? By being simple, to-the-point, no-nonsense, but most importantly, pertinent. Fewer anecdotes than "Citizen Marketers," but more of a practical How To manual. He's the reason every one of my posts have an "Email This" link. (****)
Daniel Gilbert: Stumbling on Happiness
More than I bargained for here. Thought it would be another treatise on "How To Be Happy," but this is more of a "Why" and "How Come." Incredibly well-documented and a breezy, whimsical writing style that almost speaks out loud. His Harvard students must have a blast. (****)
Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba: Citizen Marketers
A lot of common sense and stuff I aready knew, but I love the way they neatly package the User-Generated Comment movement. McLuhan would be proud--we have become the message. (****)
Paul Allen Smethers & Alastair France: Five Myths of Consumer Behavior: Create Technology Products that Consumer Will Love
Read this? I devoured it in two days (interrupted only be the need to sleep). Very specific, but incredibly relevant to anyone creating tech products, like we do at Airborne. Written in a breezy, accessible style (despite its subject matter), the authors' melding of the standard product S-curve and a broken-up consumer adoption funnel is pure genius. What a find!
John Perkins: Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
Just started, but needed a tale of international greed, corruption and badness to get over Mitch Albom.
Mitch Albom: For One More Day
Give it up, Mitch. You had a good run with Morrie, but this is lame. I read this on the seventh anniversary of my mom's untimely death, and couldn't even force half a tear through my ducts. One's gotta know when the cow's out of milk, and your moo factory has run dry. (*)
Tom Standage: A History of the World in Six Glasses
Not as eye-opening as The Victorian Internet (his previous), this is still a wild romp through history, showing the progress of man via six vital liquids. Blood would've been an interesting #7... (****)
Gavin Weightman: The Frozen Water Trade
Brilliant and unsung. The story of Frederic Tudor, who chopped up the frozen lakes of Massachusetts and sold the result to the West Indies. Ridiculed, committed to an asylum and bankrupted, he eventually saw his dream come true, introduced the concept of refrigeration and changed the world. Thanks to him, I can play hockey indoors. (*****)
Seth Godin: Small is the New Big
I am a Seth Godin junkie. I buy just about everything he puts out. While I get off on a lot of his ideas, I get off even more on the way he has built himself into a cottage industry. At this point, he could get lazy, but I'm amazed at his consistency in coming up with gems and staying poppin' fresh. (****)

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May 05, 2008

A Quarter-Century of Whacking

Big day, and very special day, around Surprise Central, as the book that changed everything is being re-released in a revised and updated version...25 years later.

Faithful FOPs know my admiration for Roger von Oech and his groundbreaking creativity primer "A Whack on the Side of the Head." As I've mentioned here before, when I was in University, my buddy Sheldon Davis and I were disciples of Roger's. He was a Surprise marketer's dream (yes, I was a budding one even back then) and as students, we eschewed the boring texts our profs assigned us and read Roger's stuff instead. I've been influenced by the man ever since.

I've read 'em all since, folks, and I've re-read this one over the weekend and a quarter-century later (!!!), it doesn't just stand the test of time, it is even MORE relevant today.

What's more, I passed along a copy to my son Aidan who, at 20, is about the same age as I was when I first picked this up. And guess what...even that Gen-Y-er digs it big-time.

This is like the Bible of Business Books...well, at least the "How To Win Friends and Influence People." A Whack has already sold over a million copies around the world in 17 languages. If you haven't read it yet, do yourself the favor. Rarely is such profound advice this much fun.

Congrats, Roger. What an accomplishment. Let's meet up here 25 years from now for your golden anni...and Pow!'s silver.

Posted by Andy Nulman on May 05, 2008 in Smart Friends | Permalink

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Comments

Hey Andy,

wouldn't your chip-off-the-old-block Aidan be more of a Generation Y?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Y

Cheers,

Adam
X/Y...

Posted by: Adam Lawrence | May 05, 2008 at 09:51 AM

How right you are! A quick chromosome change coming up. This Gen-X-er is getting old, I guess...

Posted by: Andy Nulman | May 05, 2008 at 09:55 AM

Hi Andy,

Thanks for the very kind words. Much appreciated!

I think our titles — "Pow! Right Between the Eyes" and "A Whack on the Side of the Head" — show that we must be from the same school of creative thinking.

Good luck to you and all your readers.

Posted by: Roger von Oech | May 05, 2008 at 11:15 AM

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