Obliquity: Why our goals are best achieved indirectly ,(John Kay)

The world abounds in obliquity, citing specifically how success in finding happiness and profits (in a business setting) does not come from direct pursuits, and how the rich people are not the most materialistic.

Why problems cannot be solved directly?. . the obliquity is a better term for Charles Lindblom's coinage,"muddling through", as an explanation of political decision making. Further he makes the case that the more one participates in or studies something, the better one understands and abstracts its complexity, its essence. , comprising shorter chapters, explains problem-solving in a complex world using stories from the real world.

Stories from several unconnected walks of life are great for anecdotes and dinner party conversation,

There are many such examples. The natural evolution is a good example of an indirect approach, that `Tigers are good at being tigers because adaptation has honed them to be well adapted to the daily life of tigerdom. neither the period of time required for that adaptation to take place, nor the many creatures that proved to be evolutionary blind alleys: those that were not fortunate enough to develop the necessary genetic mutations; and which are now, as a consequence, extinct. It is hardly worth remarking that every remaining species of tiger is now considered to be endangered. Tigerdom changed more rapidly than tigers could adapt, and now features threats to which tigers could never adapt through evolution.

the main ideas, that goals are best achieved indirectly, to be interesting - and some of the examples are almost persuasive. But I can equally come up with many examples of people who have relentlessly and directly pursued their goals and achieved them quickly. However, that is not to say the thinking is without merit - it is the sort of thing to ponder for some time. It is one of those - well isn't the world more complex that simplistic theories suggest sort of books - and that is an idea I generally support.

There are many such examples.

An intriguing and insightful concept: that serendipity matters, in business and in life

With the recent financial crisis behind us, we all now seem to know that the pursuit of money is not the direct route to happiness but we forget the naked pursuit of profit does not lead to greater profits in the long run, in fact quite the opposite.

The oblique approach often starts with redefining a problem, focusing on the end goal and not getting tangled in steps and targets along the way. In fact, with each different iteration of the process of solving a problem, the issue at stake becomes better and better defined. Thus obliquity often works in a loop and reaches a solution to a problem that could only have been loosely defined at the outset. In this way great businesses often prosper by meeting needs that customers did not know they had until the products that satisfied these needs had been created.

Many businesses have become very successful by pursuing unquantifiable but meaningful objectives that resulted in good returns and excellent careers for their employees. It is not true to say that they were, in fact, just trying to maximise profits. .

And to conclude i'd like to say that no short review can do justice the important ideas in "Obliquity".