Whack On the Side of the Head

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…short/quick summaries or brief reviews. I'm sure with some of the books it would suffice to just read the review in "100 best," but I've really enjoyed a good handful of them so far. The actual book is a great supplement to reading them. So far I've only hit one that bored me to death (Innovator's Dilemma) For example - Chasing The Light - Amazing Book. A Whack on the Side of the Head - Loved it. Purple Cow - Classic. http://noahfleming.com/blog/100-business-books

I second the war of art.. excellent book. The classic book on creativity is "A Whack on the Side of the Head" by Roger Von Oech ( http://www.amazon.com/Whack-Side-Head-More-Creative/dp/04464... ). It is the book to read on creativity, along with his other book "A Kick in the Seat of the Pants" His card decks (Creative Whack Pack, Innovative Whack Pack and Ancient Whacks of Heraclitus) are also very useful for breaking bad habits, generating ideas, divergent thinking etc. somewhat like Brian Eno's Oblique Strategies cards,which I recommend ( http://www.rtqe.net/ObliqueStrategies/ ) For more practical examples, exercises and inspiration, I like Creative Sparks ( http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Sparks-Concepts-Exercises-Ing... ) and Caffeine for the Creative Mind ( http://www.amazon.com/Caffeine-Creative-Mind-Exercises-Brain... ) EDIT: I'd al…

Enjoy this phase! Idea generation can be a lot of fun. Get some books to stimulate. I've gotten a lot of mileage from "A Whack On The Side Of The Head" and "Creativity" (Csikszentmihalyi). Watch some TED talks. Go to your local unconferences and meet people and see what they're working on. Team up on those connections. Share your ideas as they come. Record everything that comes to mind. Get feedback. Iterate. Meanwhile, you can be educating yourself on the business side of things: starting a business, people/listening skills, presenting, marketing, etc. You're already here; that's a pretty good start. But books like "The Art Of The Start", "Founders At Work", and the Seth Godin variety are worth their weight in gold.

There's probably considerable overlap with books on creativity and making your thinking more flexible. Roger von Oech's _A Whack on the Side of the Head_ and _ Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!_ may be helpful. Also, look at some of the books about home schooling, targeted to both parents and the teenagers themselves. I remember Grace Lewellyn's _ The Teenage Liberation Handbook_ having sections along the line of, "How do I go about really learning history/math/foreign languages/etc." Many things with meta-learning advice will have it as a secondary topic, albeit an important one. Try your public library -- this is an excellent question for a librarian.