As I sit outside a toilet on a packed train to London, a random lady sitting next to me, her husband standing over me willing me to be polite enough to give up my chair while he stares at my wife’s handbag that I am carrying even though Jean is not on the train, I think to myself:
‘This is absolutely the perfect time to start reading this book.’
Awkward Situations For Men - by Danny Wallace.
Who is Danny Wallace?
Don’t feel bad for asking, he’s been mistaken for a lot of people: The Man U player who ran a five-day marathon, the son of William Wallace and the black actor from the Lethal Weapon films.
Having now read his book, I’m led to believe all of these are incorrect.
Danny Wallace is the man behind the book behind the film “Yes Man” starring Jim Carrey. Having not read “Yes Man,” I shouldn’t really comment on it, but having read ASFM, I’m going to guess the book is significantly better than the film. He’s also the genius who started Dave Gorman on the right track.
But getting back to the point: ASFM is a great book.
It’s an auto-biography of a year of Danny’s life. According to Wiki, Danny will be 35 in November. I am very much looking forward to reading the other 34 volumes in the series.
This book, however, is so much more than just an auto-biography. It is, as Jonathan Ross points out on the cover, “very funny, very clever, very charming” and having read it I am now very much in love with Danny.
So much so, that I really, really hope that I NEVER meet him.
There’s no way he could live up to the fantasies going on in my head.
I will, however, consider buying “Yes Man” and his other books.
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Flipnosis
“’Flipnosis’ is a special kind of persuasion. It has an incubation period of just seconds, and can disarm even the most discerning mind… it is black-belt mind control”
That’s what the back cover of this glorious book states. It’s a bold claim. In fact, they originally thought of calling the book:
“Jedi Mind Tricks for Dummies.”
Does it deliver?
Why are you asking me that? Do you really think if I had mastered Jedi mind tricks I would be wasting time writing pointless blogs?
It does, in fact, fall very disappointingly far from delivering.
It starts slow. It introduces persuasion techniques in nature. How certain features make a person appear more trustworthy etc. All well and good, but I’m stuck with the face I have, so this does not aid me in my quest for world domination.
It then goes on to introduce example after example of how other people have used Flipnosis. OK, better, but all these examples are very specific, and the techniques used would almost certainly not work elsewhere. Even in a similar situation. Here’s an example of an example:
“A flight runs into turbulence. Word that passengers are nervous reaches the cockpit. A few moments later, the pilot’s voice is heard.
‘Jesus, we’re all going to die!’ he screams. ‘Oh, shit! That was the intercom light not the engine light...’
The plane erupts with laughter and calm is restored.”
... huh? So if someone is nervous, the correct thing to do is try to freak them out and hope they find it funny? I could be wrong, but I’m fairly certain that could backfire.
The book then kind of tails of, as if it’s done its job and now just needs to wrap up.
But I’m not a bloody Jedi Knight yet!! Get back here!
The real disappointment, however, is that Dr Dutton felt the need to make such silly claims in the first place. There are actually a lot of interesting little facts and experiments in the book, but they’re spoilt by Dutton’s desire to try, and fail, to weave them all together into some elusive “Flipnosis” techniques.
Particularly as the final summary at the end basically says:
“Sometimes you’ll fudge things up, sometimes you won’t. Good luck with that.”
Then again... perhaps the book works perfectly, but I’ve just used its tricks to persuade you all not to read it.
The world is mine.
That’s what the back cover of this glorious book states. It’s a bold claim. In fact, they originally thought of calling the book:
“Jedi Mind Tricks for Dummies.”
Does it deliver?
Why are you asking me that? Do you really think if I had mastered Jedi mind tricks I would be wasting time writing pointless blogs?
It does, in fact, fall very disappointingly far from delivering.
It starts slow. It introduces persuasion techniques in nature. How certain features make a person appear more trustworthy etc. All well and good, but I’m stuck with the face I have, so this does not aid me in my quest for world domination.
It then goes on to introduce example after example of how other people have used Flipnosis. OK, better, but all these examples are very specific, and the techniques used would almost certainly not work elsewhere. Even in a similar situation. Here’s an example of an example:
“A flight runs into turbulence. Word that passengers are nervous reaches the cockpit. A few moments later, the pilot’s voice is heard.
‘Jesus, we’re all going to die!’ he screams. ‘Oh, shit! That was the intercom light not the engine light...’
The plane erupts with laughter and calm is restored.”
... huh? So if someone is nervous, the correct thing to do is try to freak them out and hope they find it funny? I could be wrong, but I’m fairly certain that could backfire.
The book then kind of tails of, as if it’s done its job and now just needs to wrap up.
But I’m not a bloody Jedi Knight yet!! Get back here!
The real disappointment, however, is that Dr Dutton felt the need to make such silly claims in the first place. There are actually a lot of interesting little facts and experiments in the book, but they’re spoilt by Dutton’s desire to try, and fail, to weave them all together into some elusive “Flipnosis” techniques.
Particularly as the final summary at the end basically says:
“Sometimes you’ll fudge things up, sometimes you won’t. Good luck with that.”
Then again... perhaps the book works perfectly, but I’ve just used its tricks to persuade you all not to read it.
The world is mine.
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