The Slow Fix: Solve Problems, Work Smarter, and Live Better in a World Addicted to Speed

by Carl Honore

Overview

In The Slow Fix, bestselling author Carl Honoré delivers an exhilarating model for effective problem-solving, and provides brilliant insights on how you can solve problems, work smarter, and live better. Honoré decodes how we approach problems and paves the way to better decision-making and generating long-term solutions to life’s inevitable challenges. Engaging and thought-provoking, The Slow Fix revolutionizes the way we live, work, consume, and think, ultimately increasing our wins and enhancing personal success.

With The Slow Fix, Honoré details a new paradigm for efficient, sustainable problem solving, teaching us how to use time to build expertise, take advantage of teamwork, find the right messenger to deliver our message, and much more.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780061128820
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	01/29/2013
Pages:	262
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Carl Honore is an award-winning journalist and author whose revolutionary first book, In Praise of Slowness, was an international bestseller and has been published in more than thirty languages. Honoré is a highly sought after lecturer who speaks around the world on slow living and the Slow Movement, and his work has appeared in publications including The Economist, Observer, The Guardian, The Miami Herald, Houston Chronicle, TIME magazine, and National Post. Honore lives in London with his wife and their two children.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Pulling the Andon Rope 1

1 Why the Quick Fix? 15

2 Confess The Magic of Mistakes and the Mea Culpa 27

3 Think Hard Reculer Pour Mieux Sauter 45

4 Think Holistic Joining the Dots 57

5 Think Long Tackling Tomorrow Today 71

6 Think Small Devil in the Details 89

7 Prepare Ready for Anything 105

8 Collaborate Two Heads Are Better than One 115

9 Crowdsource The Wisdom of the Masses 133

10 Catalyze First Among Equals 151

11 Devolve Self-Help (in a Good Way) 169

12 Feel Twiddling the Emotional Thermostat 189

13 Play Solving Problems One Game at a Time 205

14 Evolve Are We There Yet? 223

Conclusion: Slow Fixing the Future 237

Acknowledgments 247

Notes 249

Resources 261

Editorial Reviews

No more shortcuts, argues this scattershot primer on taking the hard way out. Journalist Honoré (In Praise of Slowness) deplores society’s addiction to the cheap, facile, shortsighted, clichéd “quick fix,” and insists that solving our knottiest problems requires long horizons, focused effort, complex strategizing, and deep thought. He applies this perspective to a slew of business and public policy case studies, including corporate turnarounds, the rehabilitation of chaotic ghetto schools, and Bogotá, Colombia’s celebrated bus system. Honoré’s readable but sketchy summaries glean useful insights from these examples, but no coherent approach gels from his contradictory mishmash of managerial buzz-concepts; readers are enjoined to both think holistically and fixate on details, to simultaneously embrace egoless collaborative teams, solitary introspection, and charismatic leaders. Disconcertingly, many of the nostrums he touts sound very much like cursory quick fixes: companies seeking technical breakthroughs can crowdsource them on a Web site instead of funding R&D programs; an online game called Chore Wars magically convinces kids and husbands to do their share of housekeeping; and “research suggests that just two minutes of reasoned reflection can help us look beyond our biases.” Honoré’s slowness paradigm feels like just another glib, split-second substitute for serious analysis. Agent: Patrick Walsh, Conville & Walsh (U.K.). (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

Accessible, lucid and wise, this book should sit in every government and managerial office.

The Independent

Honore has a winning style and an infectious curiosity about the minutiae of other people’s lives.

Wall Street Journal

A practical and entertaining guide…a sound, thought-provoking book.

Booklist