THE NET AND THE BUTTERFLY

There’s a hidden pattern to all seemingly random breakthrough ideas. From Achimedes’ iconic moment in the bathtub to designer Adam Cheyer’s idea for Siri, accidental breakthroughs throughout history share a common origin story. In this book, you will learn to master the skills that will transform your brain into a consistent generator of insights.

In The Charisma Myth, Olivia Fox Cabane offered a groundbreaking approach to becoming more charismatic. Now she teams up with Judah Pollack to reveal how anyone can train their brain to have more eureka insights.

The creative mode in your brain is like a butterfly. It’s beautiful and erratic, hard to catch and highly valued as a result. If you want to capture it, you need a net. Enter the executive mode: the task-oriented network in your brain that help you tie your shoes, run a meeting, or pitch a client. To succeed, you need both modes to work together: your inner butterfly to be active and free, AND your inner net to be ready to spring at the right time and create that “aha!” moment. But is there any way to trigger these insights, beyond dumb luck?

Thanks to recent neuroscience discoveries, we can now explain these breakthrough moments and also induce them through a series of specific practices. It turns out there’s a hidden pattern to all these seemingly random breakthrough ideas. From Achimedes’ iconic moment in the bathtub to designer Adam Cheyer’s idea for Siri, accidental breakthroughs throughout history share a common origin story. In this book, you will learn to master the skills that will transform your brain into a consistent generator of insights.

Drawing on their extensive coaching and training practice with top Silicon Valley firms, Cabane and Pollack provide a step-by-step process for accessing the part of the brain that produces breakthroughs and systematically removing internal blocks. Their tactics range from simple to zany, such as:

· Imagine an alternate universe where gravity doesn’t exist, and the social and legal rules thatgovern it.
· Map Disney’s Pocahontas story onto James Cameron’sAvatar.
· Rid yourself of imposter syndrome through mental exercises.
· Literally change your perspective by climbing a tree.
· Stimulate your butterfly mode by watching a foreign film without subtitles.

By trying the exercises in this book, readers will emerge with a powerful new capacity for breakthrough thinking.

Olivia Fox Cabane is the author of The Charisma Myth (more than 150,000 copies sold in the US!). She has lectured at Stanford, Yale, Harvard, and MIT. As an executive coach to Fortune 500 leaders, her many clients have included Google, Deloitte, and Citigroup. She contributes regularly to Forbes and has been featured in many other publications.

Judah Pollackis an author, speaker, and strategic advisor in the art of leadership. He works regularly with the US Army's Special Forces and Red Team University as well civilian clients such as Airbnb, Genentech and IDEO.org. He has lectured at Stanford and Berkeley.