Roger von Oech - The Creative Contrarian: 20 Wise Fool Strategies to Boost Creativity and Curb Groupthink

By Roger von Oech

A Whack on the Side of the Head

A Kick in the Seat of the Pants

Expect the Unexpected

(or You Won't Find It)

The Creative Contrarian

Creative Whack Pack

Innovative Whack Pack

Ball of Whacks

X-Ball

Y-Ball

Star-Ball

Rhombi

Roger von Oech

Illustrations by Bingo Barnes

Copyright 2022 by Roger von Oech. All rights reserved.

Wise Fool and Creative Contrarian are registered trademarks of Roger von Oech.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

Book design by Roger von Oech. Illustrated by Bingo Barnes.
Drawings on pages 103, 173, 177, and 191 by George Willett.
Drawings on pages 7980 by Roger von Oech.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Names: Von Oech, Roger, author.

Title: The creative contrarian : 20 wise fool strategies to boost your creativity and curb groupthink / Roger von Oech.

Description: First edition. | Hoboken, New Jersey : Wiley, 2021. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021036604 (print) | LCCN 2021036605 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119843269 (hardback) | ISBN 9781119844716 (adobe pdf) | ISBN 9781119844709 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Creative ability.

Classification: LCC BF408 .V577 2021 (print) | LCC BF408 (ebook) | DDC 153.3/5--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021036604

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021036605

Cover design: Paul McCarthy.

Cover image: Getty Images | Miragec.

For:

Max, Axel, Vivian, and Lucy

May your Wise Fools shine now

and well into the future!

If anyone among you thinks he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.

St. Paul, I Corinthians 3:18

Discovery consists in looking at the same thing as everyone else and thinking something different.

Albert Szent-Gyrgyi, Hungarian Biochemist

I've been a lifelong student of the creative process. From my college days on through to my professional career as an author, business consultant, speaker, conference producer, product developer, and more recently as a toy designer, I've been interested in how and when the mind does its best work.

When does my mind feel most alive? Truth be told, it's when I allow myself to take on the role of the Wise Fool. Indeed, I've had an enduring fascination with this character: his free-spirited energy, his unexpected observations, and most importantly, his ability to shake people out of their habitual responses to problems so that they might conjure up more imaginative solutions.

The Wise Fool is an archetypal figure such as the Sage, the Magician, and the Healer who resides deep within the human psyche and fulfills a purposeful role in society. The Wise Fool is the one who looks at life in different and often non-traditional ways and pushes back against the status quo. We might recognize this character today as the creative contrarian.

Historically, Wise Fools were hired by the powerful (kings, emperors, pharaohs) to be a kind of thought pattern disrupter. Their job was to take a whack at the assumptions that kept their clients mired in conventional thinking. They did this so the rulers might see the issues before them in a fresh light.

When I don my Wise Fool's cap, I feel like I am in my best thinking self. This means that I am a little less dogmatic and a lot more playful; less afraid to be the guy who asks the stupid questions and more skeptical of received truths; less convinced that I've got the right answer and more likely to see the humor in ambiguous situations. I'm also more amused at the unexpected and unintended things that come my way.

Decades ago, right after I completed my doctoral studies, I interviewed for a job with IBM (still the world's greatest company back then). To prepare myself, I read a history of IBM, and one particular passage jumped out at me. At a board meeting in the early 1960s, IBM chairman Tom Watson Jr. was discussing the company's culture, and he lamented that far too many IBMers thought alike, dressed alike, and behaved alike. What we need here, he said, are a few wild ducks. At my interview, I quoted this story (which delighted my interviewers), and told them that I wanted to be one of those wild ducks Watson desired. I got the job, but I soon realized that:

It's okay to be a wild duck just as long as you fly in formation.