In Pursuit of Elegance was a very interesting book, full of information that are very interesting to share with others who seek out knowledge and interesting facts. The examples the author uses throughout the work are fascinating, starting from Jackson Pollock's masterpieces to a crowded intersection with no lights, no lanes, and no accidents, and then you start thinking, is it really true?
May can be quite repetitive at times. In his efforts to stress the importance of elegance, and the mantra of "less is more", author uses far more words than necessary, even when talking about the importance of brevity. Also attempts to connect with the readers by striking a casual tone and delving into his personal life. Additionally, we are able to see also some anecdotes that brings in from his own life sometimes even seems a bit of different. As an example, if your child asks you for four pieces of french toast, cutting one piece into four isn't an elegant solution or it's a lie.
Furthermore, Matt Ray never quite finishes his argument, in that he stops just short of telling us how we can be more elegant people, or make more elegant decisions, or implement elegance in any form in our lives. The author leaves us with some definite sentences like "think outside the box" and "less is more", and doesn’t provide an answer. He provides us with a lot of examples of elegance, but never lets us implement it ourselves. He never even lets us know how to learn how to be more elegant.
And like in the book of Changing Minds of Howard Gardner we have to come up with our own theory how to make it work smoothly.
To close, I wanted to share a phrase from Daniel H. Pink author of A Whole New Mind and The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: “In Pursuit of Elegance is a fascinating intellectual romp that will change the way you look at your surroundings. As he takes readers from Jackson Pollock paintings to Dutch intersections to the secret menu at In-N-Out Burger, Matt May reveals the hidden elements beneath genuine innovation. This book is surprising, compelling, and, yes, extremely elegant.”
And maybe he is right...
Br, Anri
According to me,he is absolutely right,but just as a theorist like most of the authors.Theories show us the ways that we should follow to do the things better,but their usage in the real life remains limited.Otherwise, the life would be very easy:read the books,learn what to do and then apply them word by word! In my opinion, insuffiency and limited appliciability of theories in real life is mostly related with unlimited and diverse demands of human being.In other words, people always find a reason to feel themsleves uncomfotable, to look for lack in systems, to seek better thinhs or more correctly always something different,strange.That is why, the author says many things regarding elegance,but can't show us something concrete,i.e. the ways to follow up to be elegant.
YanıtlaSilYes also in our daily life we can see positive results of it:so letting it simple, with few words is better, nicer and more elegant, it will let us express ourselves better.
YanıtlaSilHi Anri
YanıtlaSilI'm totaly agree with you,this book is surprising, compelling, and, extremely elegant.there are meny teories that shows different ways that we should follow in order to realise our goals.