The one-sentence summary

We will not survive unless we actively respond to the radical way our world is changing.

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WHAT THE BOOK SAYSAGE OF UNREASON

  • The world is changing fast, and we need to change with it. The numbers prove it, and companies and governments need to acknowledge this and think differently.
  • Words are heralds of social change –by watching the way language changes, we can spot the linguistic signposts of change.
  • We work for 100,000 hours in our lives, but there are many different ways to divide this up.
  • Negative capability is the ability to make mistakes and learn from them.
  • Upside down thinking can make you view work as the best of the four-letter words. It doesn’t have to be as it currently is.
  • Portfolio man has five types of work:
    1. Wage work: money paid for time given
    2. Fee work: money paid for results delivered
    3. Homework: all the tasks that make a home function
    4. Gift work: work done for free outside home, such as charity work
    5. Study work: training and reading

WHAT’S GOOD ABOUT IT

  • “Work is much more fun than fun.” Noel Coward
  • Upside down thinking forces the reader to look at things differently.
  • There are many different types of intelligence, and all have value:
    • Analytical: the sort we measure in IQ tests
    • Pattern: musicians, mathematicians and computer programmers see these
    • Musical: can earn more money than conventional office skills
    • Physical: sportsmen
    • Practical: able to dismantle a television without naming the parts
    • Intra-personal: people who are in tune with others’ feelings
    • Inter-personal: the ability to get on with others
  • He pushes hard against “endemic group-think”, where everyone agrees with each other without thinking properly.

WHAT YOU HAVE TO WATCH

  • The book is now 20 years old so certain ideas have been overtaken by events.