Expect the Unexpected or You Won't Find It A Creativity Tool Based on the Ancient Wisdom of Heraclitus

"You can't step in the same river twice." "Dogs bark at what they don't understand," The doctor inflicts pain to cure suffering." The ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus was famous for his brilliant and provocative sayings. Today, more than 2500 years after they were written, his ideas about life, nature, and the cosmos remain as startlingly original as ever. In Expect the Unexpected Or You Won't Find It, von Oech uses thirty of Heraclitus' epigrams as springboards to dazzling creativity. Treating each saying as an inexhaustible source of inspiration, he supplies amusing anecdotes, mind-bending riddles, hidden jokes, and intriguing questions designed to topple old habits of thought and fire the imagination. Von Oech shows you how to reverse your expectations, turn change to your advantage, and create powerful metaphors, to find novel solutions to even the most intractable problems. Anyone searching for new approaches to problem solving will find in this book an invaluable tool for jolting the imagination.

Roger von Oech is the president of Creative Think, a California-based consulting firm. He is an internationally recognized leader in stimulating creativity and his seminars and presentations have enriched the creativity of many millions around the world. He has worked with such organizations as: AT&T, Apple, CBS, Coca-Cola, GE, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, MTV, Mattell, Microsoft, NASA, National Geographic, Nestle, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, SONY, and the United States Olympic Swimming Team. He is the author of the best-selling creativity books A Whack on the Side of the Head and A Kick in the Seat of the Pants, and the Creative Whack Pack card deck.

Part I: Your Mind with Heraclitus
1. The First Creativity Teacher
2. Heraclitus' Goal: Awaken Our Minds
3. Heraclitus' Life and Times
4. Heraclitus' Method: Search Within
5. Solve Heraclitus' Creative Enigmas
6. How to Use Heraclitus as an Oracle
7. Put on Your Creativity Hat

Part II: The Creative Enigmas of Heraclitus
8. The Cosmos Speaks in Patterns
9. Expect the Unexpected, or You Won't Find It
10. Everything Flows
11. You Can't Step Into the Same River Twice
12. That Which Opposes Produces a Benefit
13. A Wonderful Harmony Is Created When We Join
14. If All Things Turned to Smoke, the Nose Would Become the Discerning Organ
15. The Sun Will not Exceed its Limits, Because the Avenging Furies, Ministers of Justice, Would Find Out
16. Lovers of Wisdom Must Open their Minds to Very Many Things
17. I Searched into Myself
18. Knowing Many Things Doesn't Teach Insight
19. Many Fail to Grasp What's Right in the Palm of their Hand