Book Review - One+One=Three

brundidier
Apr 12, 2022
9 min read

One+One=Three

A Masterclass in Creative Thinking

Dave Trott, 2015

> Suggested applied business exercise

Book synopsis

How do you make something out of nothing?

Up your game with this masterclass in creative thinking.

Written in Dave Trott's disctinctive, almost Zen-like style, One Plus One Equals Three is a collection of provocative anecdotes and thought experiments designed to light a fire under your own creative ambitions.

From the First World War sailor who survived being sunk three times in one day to one-time 'merchant of death'who made his name a byword of peace, and the gypsy who lost two fingers and then reinvented jazz. From boardroom to battlefield, these stories of unconventional wisdom from one of the world's true advertising greats are a rallying cry for anyone who wants to think differently, stand out and truly innovate.

Buy on Amazon

Impressions

One of those easy reads full of great life and business lessons that I love

An easy and enriching read that will widen your perspectives on what creative thinking is and how people expressed it in various situations.
Because this book is a collection of anecdotes, you can basically start anywhere and still enjoy it. Each anecdote ends on a sort of morale that sums up a way somebody showed creativity.

Full of memorable anecdotes that find inspiration from

There are so many good stories that can really make a difference in your daily life. From learning to deal with embarrassment of having an idea to reframing a problem, there’s a lot of take-aways that I think can benefit us, as people first and then as business owners, in such a modern and complex world.
It’s not a book that is designed to have direct business applications, instead, it’s inviting the reader to think differently about creative thinking and by doing so, I believe it gets us to take a step back and think twice when face adversity.

My analysis

Not what I expected

Well, I did set some expectations about this book when I bought it.

I thought I’d dive into a book teaching me what creative thinking is and what it is not and eventually learn about ways people had turn creativity into action to then come up with some sort of rules to improve creativity in my life.

After all, it’s sold as a “masterclass in creative thinking”. So, I kind of expected something a little bit academic, probably, trivial in style as well.

It clearly didn’t meet my expectations. Also, I had set the wrong expectations.

I feel like in today’s world, it’s so much of a paradox that we are overly exposed to creativity (think about all the social media content we feed on, the ads, the tv shows and so on) and yet, it feels like being creative is out of our reach. I did think of somebody: “He is so creative, but how? Why do I struggle so much to even come up with a cool idea?”

Like you, I’ve read the classic stories of people who persisted in fighting for their ”creative” sometimes unorthodox ideas and then finding success yet is it creativity but in the end, those stories taught me more about abnegation and commitment that understanding how to be more creative like they were.

There’s a lot we think we know about creativity until we realise that we don’t know much.

I mean, how do you even define creativity? Is it just about coming up with some sort of new idea or new process? If I do something differently, I am creative? Is it about the end result or the way to get there? Can you call yourself creative or should others be the ones recognising your creativity? Is creativity only subjective?

Well, bunch of questions, and not much of answers to any of these in the book.

No, instead, you’ll learn what creativity looks like from how others expressed it. You’ll find out that creativity is almost never the objective but always an outcome. Eventually, you’ll agree that creativity involves deeper reflections triggered by a certain situation that required a new approach.

In today’s world, we’re invaded by data and knowledge from everywhere. Our attention moves from one topic to another at the rhythm of a click or as we scroll through our mobile phones. Our attention span is decreasing and our information retention has never been so low.

These may be the first signs that you’re missing out of so many other things that can help you boost your creativity.

A creative mind is a curious mind

As I started reading through the anecdotes, I understood what the author wanted to do and how by reading all this succession of anecdotes, it would help me better understand what creativity looks like in the mind of others.

This book is basically a collection of anecdotes and the first one basically explains why it’s worth reading through the next 200 pages. In this story, Steve Jobs is giving an interview and talks about ideas:

“Any new idea is nothing more than a new combination of old elements. The ability to make those combinations depends on your ability to see relationships. That’s what makes some people more creative. They are better at spotting those connections, better at recognizing possible relationships. They are able to do this because they’ve had more experiences, or thoughts about those experience than other people” Steve Jobs

Creativity is basically about how you connect the dots, and with what. The more you know, the more you’ve experienced, the more you’ll have something to reflect on, the more chances you’ll be able to think about something unusual, different, trivial.

This is where all the following anecdotes come into play. They all depict different stories, talk about different problems or challenges people have faced and how they reacted and managed to work around their situations.

Each story is disconnected from each other and yet they all have a sense of purpose in. By showing us ways people developed creative thinking, you can gain an understanding on how to apply some of their ideas to your situations in your environment.

If creativity is about learning, then this book is step one in the process: learn from others and then challenge your own curiosity. Go out, explore, read, like, dislike, but forge your opinions, be critical towards them and eventually, you’ll have an opinion on everything, out of experiences you’ve faced, out of things you’ve done, out of mistakes you’ve made, out of things you’ve seen people do.

There’s a lot we can learn from everything when we start paying attention to it.

So, if you want to improve creative thinking, start by giving yourself time to do something you wouldn’t usually do and enjoy!

Key take-aways

#1 On creative thinking

The more varied the inputs, the more unexpected the combinations, the more creative the ideas.

The more broader our understanding of human the experience, the more dots we will have to connect, the more creative our ideas will be.

For real growth, we need to identify the areas we’re not naturally interested in to allow for no longer predictable connections, but original and surprising ones.

Creativity is related to how many connections we are able to make which is directly related to how much new and unusual stuff we expose our minds to.

#2 Ask yourself: “Why aren’t they doing?”

This question invites you to reflect on not just what others are doing but how they’re doing it. Sometimes we don’t realise that we all tend to follow the same approach just because it’s the way it should be done. What if there was another way?

#3 “Regret is worse than embarrassment”

You can’t be a successful entrepreneur or marketer if you don’t express confidence and authority in your communication. Yet, sometimes, what stops us is how others will react to our ideas so instead of speaking out, we keep quiet to preserve ourselves. Embarrassment can be tough to handle, but at least, it’ll have you speak your mind and it is by far a better outcome that filling a life of regrets.

#4 Take advantage of choice architecture

Don’t try to force or nag people into doing what you want. Accept they are free to choose. But you help them choose what you want.

#5 Strategic advertising creativity

3 key questions to consider:

What do I want?
Who do I want it from?
Why should they do it? (What’s in it for them?)

#6 Predatory opportunities

Be active when your competitors are passive

Get the jump on your competitors by making life easier for your customers

#7 Framing and reframing

We live our lives in a constant state of comparison. But compared to what?

Control the context and you control the choice

What is the context we are speaking into?

What is the context we want to create?

The glass is half-empty if the person next to you has a full glass

The glass is half-full if the person next to you has an empty glass

#8 Allow for the unforeseen

Acting in the moment is great but remember that your objective is to grow your business and therefore you should leave some room for growth in your ideas, your processes and your structures.

Don’t try to get away with the bare minimum the way most people do.

#9 On herd mentality

Herd mentality refers to a group of people who copy each other without thinking. It’s a strong force that overrides logic, questioning, debate, reasoning and common sense. It’s well known that herd mentality leads to bad decisions because we’re afraid to be different, afraid of others, afraid to be left out and rejected.

Go with conventional wisdom and resist by finding yourself in your true opinions and values even though that means you won’t fit into the group anymore. If you don’t have the confidence to be different, to stand out, you’ll want to be part of the herd and follow blindly seeking the reassurance of looking in the same places as everyone else but theyn, who are you really.

#10 Overthinking vs doing

Overthinking can stop us from doing great things because we think about consequences of our action before we even think about our actions. Just go ahead and do what you want. Sometimes, not asking permission will grant you want you want. It may not be the right way but if it gets you closer to your objective, then it still “a way”.

#11 Innovation fear

“When people come along with a good idea, in the beginning, it is completely ignored. If they go on about it, they are considered mad and possibly even dangerous. Then, when it is eventually recognized as good idea, nobody can be found who does not claim to have thought about it in the first place”.

We tend to like the comfort of our existence, the way life works for us and around us so when we’re faced with something that disrupts this bubble, our primal instinct is to be cautious, have risk-averse approach which is why ideas that we don’t understand or feel too different are the ones that we tend to oppose the most unless we see a proper and direct benefit.

#12 “You can have what you want, or you can have your reasons for not having it”

Should you have a reason to do what you want? Some people want to have good reasons to legitimate their actions but others may not have any and still want to participate. What you do is up to what you want. In the end, we find reason for not doing something right away, sometimes because we feel we’re not ready or because we lack resources. But is it really the end of it? Is it enough to stop you wanting it?

#13 “Talk to people in their language”

#14 Thoughts on strategy:

Strategy is just about being right. Getting noticed and remembered is the creative’s job. Strategy makes the advertising right. Execution make it great.

#15 Opinions are just that, opinions, not facts. It’s not because some people are more eloquent, louder, plausible, and confident that we should start doubting our own judgement. Sometimes, confidence is misplaces, sometimes confidence comes from ignorance.

#16 On setting targets

Reduce your target to one simple, powerful, unarguable objective you will increase your chance of achieving it because all your energy will be focused on that one thing instead of being split across other targets.

It’s better to succeed at one thing than fail at several.

#17 Selling lesson

No one wants anything until they know why they need it.

So before you can sell the answer, you have to sell the need.

It’s not good providing an answer if you haven’t established a need.

In any sell, appeal to your customers emotion: desire must precede permission. Sometimes, rationality can be an obstacle (remember about system 1 and system 2 thinking)

#18 Logic isn’t truth

We tend to apply logical reasoning to validate certain of our claims. Yet, being logic may not mean being right, or being truthful. There are several examples or very logical reasoning that lead to completely irrelevant outcomes (think syllogisms for instance).

In marketing (and advertising), the product creates the experience. The experience creates the reputation. The reputation creates the brand. And the brand acquires validity and credibility through its reputation.

#19 Look at thing from their angle

We wrongly tend to think everyone’s head is where our head is. We sometimes are so much into our own bubble that when we speak out, we assume it’s obvious what we mean or that they will understand it right away. Yet, unless people are aware of the context, they may interpret things differently and create different associations in their understanding. Ensure to contextualise your talks and provide they keys to understand your reasoning.

Top 3 anecdotes

Alcoa is a

Applied business case

If you think this exercise will make you more creative, well, yes, it will!

I’ve had this as a test back when I was a kid. I never understood why I had to take it and easily forgot about it until I found it again and realise it was connected to finding out how your brain creates associations. So yeah, in some ways, I guess science used me..

Super simple, yet quite insightful:

Time required:

15mins if you do it seriously

1min if you just hover over my questions but then..

Rules: be honest, and if you don’t know, just say not sure/I don’t know.