Well - explained, easily adaptable ideas, very amusing, authors practice what they preach
Disadvantages:
Focuses on business and 'big' ideas
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
Have you ever wished you could be more like those people who seem to solve problems in the blink of an eye and come up with easier, more effective solutions even when there didn’t seem to be a problem in the first place? Those people aren’t that different to you and me – they’ve just learnt how to think in a way that allows them to see problems and solutions that the rest of us miss. So how can you learn to think more like the world’s innovators? An excellent first step would be to buy or borrow ‘Why Not?’
As the tagline says, ‘Why Not?’ is a guide to using “everyday ingenuity to solve problems big and small”. It’s relevant to everybody, whether you’re the CEO of a major international company or a housewife in Milton Keynes. Most of the examples used feature large businesses and ideas that probably won’t apply to the average person, but that isn’t the point: the point is that ‘Why Not?’ alters your way of thinking so that you can solve virtually any problem. In fact, some of the examples are deceptively simple, such as the idea of peeling a banana from the bottom up, which is simpler and has other benefits, like reducing the amount of stringy bits. It sounded a bit odd to me at first, but it makes sense when you realise that this is how monkeys peel bananas – if anyone’s an expert at banana peeling, it’s bound to be a monkey, right?
The authors, Barry Nalebuff and Ian Ayres, are professors at the Yale schools of Management and Law respectively. They’ve both written several books prior to this one and have a bunch of boring credentials that are supposed to add to their respectability and qualify them to write this book (yawn). I don’t find any of that stuff important – what is important is that both Nalebuff and Ayres use the techniques in this book to solve problems in their own lives. That’s more relevant than where they earnt their degrees.
In addition, Barry Nalebuff is the co-founder of Honest Tea, a company that has achieved success in the notoriously difficult soft drinks market by selling pure, natural bottled iced tea which has been sweetened only slightly. For more information, see Chapter 8: it initially sounds like Nalebuff’s plugging his product, but I found it very interesting and it demonstrates a lot of the points that ‘Why Not?’ makes. Unlike the other examples, Nalebuff’s personal involvement with Honest Tea allows us to look at the problems he encountered, along with co-founder Seth Goldman, from the inside and covers aspects that we wouldn’t otherwise have access to.
‘Why Not?’ focuses on problem-solving through asking four crucial questions that force you to think in different ways. The first question is: What Would Croesus Do? Croesus was the King of Lydia from 560/1BC to 547BC and was renowned for his wealth. How does this help you? The point is to think as if you had all the wealth and resources in the world – you could employ as many people as you want, use all materials known to man, create anything you like... Once you’ve done that, you narrow down your answer until you can apply it in the real world. Example: What would Croesus do if he tended to forget important things? This is something close to the authors’ hearts, as one of them forgot to give a final exam in their course at Princeton! Whoever it was, they now work for Yale.
Obviously, Croesus would employ a personal assistant – perhaps even a team of them. But most people can’t afford an assistant’s wages, so what can they do? How about being your own personal assistant, as Nalebuff and Ayres say? Gadgets like the Palm handheld can help, but not everyone has one and (apparently) it’s harder to leave a detailed message. So how about voicemail? Most people own a mobile phone now and it’s perfectly possible to leave a voicemail message for yourself. But how about going one step further?
You could use a service where you could send yourself a voicemail, but programme the delivery for a certain time. That way you don’t have to rely on your memory to check the message at the appropriate time – you could receive the message on the day you need to remember it. There is a similar service to this called iPing, created by Darryl Shepherd. Of course, this is a ‘big’ idea, but you can follow the chain of thought to come up for easily-workable solutions to your own problems. Who knows? You might even found a multi-million pound company with your own big idea!
The second question is: Why Don’t You Feel My Pain? This is basically looking at problems that aren’t ‘your’ problems (i.e. problems that your customers or colleagues are having) and finding solutions that also help you. Or, as the authors put it, “Internalizing the external effects of decision making”. For example, a lot of airlines decided to tack on 20 minutes to their flights’ estimated arrival times when airlines were first rated on punctuality. This makes them look good, as on the face of it they are meeting their targets, but how does it help the customer whose flight is now 20 minutes longer than it used to be? And these statistics only record what time the plane arrives – what about other factors, like the time it takes for one’s luggage to arrive?
The solution would be to rate airlines’ performances on a number of factors that determine punctuality/time-wasting. That way, customers could decide what flight to take with all the information at hand, instead of being fooled by a changed arrival time. After all, it makes no difference (time-wise) to the customer whether their two-hour flight is 20 minutes late or whether their two-hour and 20 minute flight is on time. They still take 2 hours and 20 minutes to get from A to B. So what advantage is there to the airlines if you rated their performances on a larger range of factors? Obviously, those who offer the best service will attract more custom and thus profit more. You could elaborate on this and talk about happier customers leading to less incidents of staff abuse, leading to higher staff morale and better performance...blah, blah, blah. The point is that there are advantages in solving other people’s problems.
The third question uses a different tack and looks at “solutions in search of problems”: Where Else Would It Work? This does exactly what it says on the tin – how can you use the solution to one problem to solve other problems? For example, some shops have crèches so that parents can shop in peace while their kids play under expert supervision. Great idea for hassled parents who don’t want to drag their kids around the supermarket (and for child-free customers who don’t want to have to step over kicking and screaming children every other aisle), but where else could it be used?
One problem that most parents encounter is that you have to plan ahead – you can’t just decide to go out to the pub on the spur of the moment, because you have to find a reliable babysitter and that’s hard to do at short notice. So where would parents like to go at the spur of the moment that’s difficult to do with kids in tow? The obvious answer that Nalebuff and Ayres put forward is the cinema. You could drop your kids off at an inbuilt crèche and, for a small fee, they could play or even watch a screening of a kids’ film while you watch the latest slasher horror.
You could be given a device like a vibrating beeper that alerts you if you need to be contacted, without disturbing the other viewers much. This idea could also work in restaurants, bowling alleys (though older kids would obviously prefer to bowl), gyms, beauty salons, department stores... Virtually anywhere, since the idea is so easily adaptable. This is a simple example – there are many instances of technology being applied to different areas too, many of which most people wouldn’t have connected in their mind.
The fourth and final question is: Would Flipping It Work? This idea sounds a little odd, but once you think it through it can make a lot of sense in certain situations. It is essentially “Can You Do It The Other Way Round?” For example, video rental stores had a lot of problems with inconsiderate customers not rewinding the films after they watched them. Certain businesses spent a lot of money on posters and such (yes, really) reminding customers to rewind after use and even imposed penalties on those who didn’t rewind. This is a lot of hassle for both the firm and the customers – firms have to rewind videos themselves or face the next customer’s annoyance, and some people genuinely forget to rewind or think they have rewound when they haven’t. The deceptively simple solution? Enforce a ‘rewind before viewing’ policy. That way no one can shirk because you have to rewind in order to watch the film.
After teaching you to think differently and consider infinite possibilities, Nalebuff and Ayres reel you in with Chapter 7: Principled Problem Solving. This is about acknowledging that there are boundaries, whether through universal, scientific or national laws or simply codes of conduct. Some boundaries are artificial and can be broken through or removed, but others are permanent and you must be restrained by them. Most of us realise this – it’s simply common sense – but this chapter does raise some interesting points. It also includes a few puzzles to demonstrate the point that you can innovate within boundaries and that many people give up before exhausting the possibilities, allowing themselves to be over-constricted by these boundaries.
Chapter 9 deals with some ideas in terms of law and government, which is interesting but largely unhelpful to most people – other than lobbying your MP, there’s not much you can do. The main case study is the Virtual Strike (which has been used in countires such as Italy), which is an intriguing principle and demonstrates a lot of the ‘Why Not?’ principles. Finally, there is a short chapter on ‘Implementing Why-Not’. This advises you on how to pitch your ideas and persuade people – more appropriate if you have a brilliant ‘big’ idea rather than if you’re simply using this book to solve the annoying-but-ever-present problems in your life.
This is a fantastic book that gives you a lot of food for thought. It is ceaselessly entertaining and interesting, even during the parts that will probably never apply to me. Nalebuff and Ayres present the problems, methods and solutions clearly and simply, but without being patronizing. Despite using some relatively complex examples, I felt that everything was extremely well-explained and thus easy to understand. You won’t feel out of your depth. It’s very useful and I have even started to apply the principles to the problems I encounter in my day-to-day life. It’s definitely worth at least one read.
The hardcover version is available on Amazon for £16.14 and the paperback is £7.99 plus a £1.99 sourcing fee, though there are cheaper copies available from the Marketplace. This may seem pricey, but it’s well worth it – I borrowed a copy from the library and found myself taking copious notes. I’d definitely buy it if I saw it in a shop. Check out www.whynot.net for more ideas and tips and a whole community of people using the techniques outlined in the book to solve their own problems.
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