Got my hands on this book- aptly called The Idea Book . Probably my first book review on ChasingTheStorm and an apt way to start a category considering this blog is also about Ideas and memes. Also, I am pleasantly surprised at the fact that I already practice a lot that is there in the book. Starting with documenting my ideas in a notebook- which has been a habit since childhood.

I do read a lot of books- albeit with my fragmented attention span- I usually take more time than others to finish them. And sometimes I read more than one book at a time. Will soon start listening to ebooks heavily- is what my guess is- they are more portable and handy while traveling. That is after I decide on which portable device to buy for that purpose.

The Idea Book is exactly that- a book on inspiring ideas and anecdotal evidences. You can visit the official page here.

Written by Fredrik Haren of Interesting.org and generously sent to me by Bastian Doehling- the book’s tagline says it all-

150 pages about ideas and 150 empty pages to write your own ideas.

The book is about being inspired and encourages you to write down your ideas. Inside the book.

Now one thing that is great about this book is – you don’t need to start it and finish it at one go. It works even if continuity is not maintained. Because it does not read like a story.

Read it, get inspired- jot down thoughts and do it all over again.

If you want to have a flavor of the book, a preview is available here.

Some of my favorite quotes/anecdotes from the book:

• Eat this: Edison had an Idea quota. A minor invention every 10 days and a major invention every 6 months!
• Have the courage to invent new words in order to invent new ideas. Now this is something that comes intrinsically to me. Read more of this blog to know what words have I invented
• High technology obeys the iron law of revolution. The more you change. you have to be willing to accept the fact that in this game the rules keep changing. (Bill Joy): So true of the industry I represent.
• Philosophers have only interpreted the world. The point however, is to change it. (Marx): ChasingTheStorm?
• I’m sure you have ‘intelligent’ people in your companies. The kinds that shoot down ideas and enthusiasm effectively by pointing what would not work. 2 quotes:
  • Every Fool can see what is wrong. See what is good in it (Churchill)
  • Imagination is more important than knowledge. (Einstein)
• There is a natural opposition to anything they havent thought of themselves (Barnes Walles; Page 97; The Idea book)
• If you don’t tell me how tall your house is, I’ll beat you to death with my barometer… (Ask me about this story)
• Everything that can be invented- has been invented (1899); Heavier than air flying machines are impossible (1895)
• Nothing is done. Everything in the world remains to be done or done over…(1931, Lincoln Steffens): In contrast to the previous quote, this is so true of the new world order that beckons us post the downturn
  

And many many more such gems. Already spent enough time and hopefully inspired you a bit in the process.

Now my part on suggestions for the book. Some thoughts on how could the book be more innovative:

• The book has inspiration and pages to jot down ideas. But what is missing- is a writing instrument. What would be really cool is -an innovative pen with the book- maybe one hanging with the bookmark thread. People end up reading books while traveling and- in case you get inspired, you need to have that pen around.

• Another more innovative way could be- have a carbon paper over each empty page- so you don’t even need a pen or pencil- any object (including finger tips!) would do for a quick jot down of ideas in that moment of inspiration. Very useful for those who get ideas in the bathroom

• Also, from a user experience perspective- I think the empty pages could be clubbed together. Helps in better continuity of ideas if they overflow from one page to the other and dives into the reader psychology. As of now each article is followed by a few empty pages- which makes it looks like there is an ‘exercise’ to do after each chapter in a text book (though it is not so)

They have a contest on the site- where people could submit photos with the book- and there are prizes to be won every week .

Meanwhile, I leave you with this TED talk as an apt way to end this post. Enjoy!

And let me know if you need some inspiring quotations. I am armed.

Cheers

Shalabh (twitter.com/shalabhpandey)

Note: The link to buy from Amazon has my Associates ID