by Barry Nalebuff; Ian Ayres
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Product Description
Why Not? is a primer for fresh thinking, for problem-solving with a purpose, for bringing the world a few steps closer to the way it should be. Idealistic? Yes. Unrealistic? According to Why Not? authors Barry Nalebuff and Ian Ayres, no. Illustrated with examples from every aspect of life, Why Not? offers techniques which will help you take the things we all see, every day, and think about them in a new way. Great ideas are waiting. Why not be the one to discover them?
Amazon.com Review
Yale professors Barry Nalebuff and Ian Ayres engage readers in an intriguing oxymoron. They believe invention can be automated. Why Not? outlines a populist high-octane approach to creative problem solving. "We aspire for this book to change the way people think about their own ability to change the world." The authors' ideas and examples--from adopting British water conserving toilets to having telemarketers pay you to listen--bristle with energy, conviction, and occasional loopiness. Their approach upends cliched problem solving models by asking, "What would Croseus (the ancient rich king) do?" They take Edward de Bono's lateral thinking out for a spin, suggesting pay for view television might include a fee for eliminating commercials. Nalebuff and Ayres are at their best in exploring "Idea Arbitrage," a tool for applying one solution to a host of other problems and yielding day care at IKEA, corporate vanity stamps, and library coffee houses. Some promising concepts, such as the technique of leveraging mistakes to create new solutions, are not as clear as others. Overall, the authors make an entertaining case for the idea that innovators are made and not born. --Barbara Mackoff
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Why not write slightly better?, 2008-12-27
This book is worth buying if the subject interests you, but manage your expectations, The paperback version of this book is probably fairly priced. The authors are highly regarded academics with impressive academic credentials and extensive exposure to government and commercial clients. From reading this book, it seems a safe bet that neither has much experience of executive responsibility, i.e. managing large numbers of people, and without detracting at all from what they have to say in the realm of neat conceptual models, a lacuna in the book is solving the big and small problems of managing or simply dealing with real people.
STRENGTHS OF THIS BOOK
1. Covers many ideas for problem solving.
2. Easy to read.
3. Real life examples.
WEAKNESSES OF THE BOOK
1. Little on implementing ideas, nothing practical on creativity in people problems ("How to get things done.")
2. Overly folksy writing style. Is this really how Yale professors express their ideas these days?
3. No index. (Why not? - is it meant to be a practical book or not?)
OPPORTUNITIES FOR A READER TO USE THE BOOK
1. Read it in one long bath, and you will emerge with a few new ideas to try in your work or elsewhere in life.
2. Use to check your thinking before pitching an idea or when evaluating someone else's proposal.
3. Good bibliography and further reading guide. (Which makes it even odder to have no idex.)
OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE AUTHORS TO IMPROVE THE NEXT EDITION
1. Add one page summaries of key points and techniques from each chapter.
2. Add an index. Pay for it yourselves if the publisher won't.
Overall, worth buying, reading and using.
"EPICTETUS" (London, Hong Kong and San Francisco).
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
 The book that kickstarted my passion for reading, 2008-08-31
Why Not? called out to me from the bookshelf. This was odd because I'd not enjoyed reading in years. In the end I picked it up. This was three years ago. Why Not? ignited a passion that still fuels my love for books. Right now I am reading Super Crunchers by Ian Ayers.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Excellent book, 2008-03-25
Interesting book. It makes me wish I had grown up to be an economist.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Master your creativity , 2007-09-16
A recommended read for those who need structure in conjuring up the creative forces of their intellect. The book is punctuated with tons of relevant examples to illustrate each method. A great resource for existing and would be entrepreneurs.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Invention is the Mother of Necessity? Why not?!, 2007-07-18
A couple of ingenious and creative Yale professors started ideating in good humor and out came this hidden gem. Everyday situations that might frustrate most people are actually opportunities for discovering new ideas - if only one can condition the mind to respond to situations in a restorative fashion. If you simply take away this one concept from this book, life will become way more rewarding all of a sudden.
Besides making that one powerful switch in the brain, this book has helped me in a few other ways from time to time. It provided a stimulant to the brain to find new business ideas and fired up my neurons to find investment opportunities out of everyday situations. It provided contrarian tips and techniques for first-principles based problem solving.
I especially love this book for supplying a bag of interview questions that helped me get into the head of my interviewees. They are simple enough to solve within minutes and have enough tracks to the right answer that you can understand how they go about solving them. This book has helped me make hiring decisions!
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