Book Review – Jack’s Notebook – Gregg Fraley
This is a book review of Jack’s Notebook, a business novel/parable by Gregg Fraley.
How I got the book:
Review copy (which I’m keeping) sent to me by the author
Background:
Gregg Fraley (@greggfraley on Twitter) has a diverse background which ranges from founding and managing high-flying technology companies to working as a television producer. In addition to writing this book and work with the Creative Problem Solving Institute, he describes himself as a thought leader in how corporate ideation and new product development should be done.
Jack’s Notebook is a business novel written in a style similar to The Goal and The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, whereby the novel structure is used to teach concepts related to business, work, idea development, etc. This book focuses on creative problem solving techniques by telling the story of Jack Huber, a self-doubting underachiever who is helped by a mentor (Manny Gibran) to use creative problem solving techniques to get out of a rut, quit his unfulfilling day jobs, and start his own business. Jack gains another friend, creative partner, and lover in Molly, a coffee shop worker with a mysterious past.
The strengths:
Jack’s Notebook uses fiction to help illustrate the concepts of creative problem solving (CPS) as conceived by. Between:
- the narrative, which describes the process of starting a new business in terms of problem solving, as well as some personal issues that the protagonist faces
- notes at the beginning of each chapter
- a great appendix that explains CPS while reviewing the key events of the novel in that context
In short, this kind of novel is much more fun than a college textbook and does a good job of explaining some abstract concepts in concrete terms. Now I want to contrast this book’s techniques with Advantage Play and see if there’s a good hybrid that helps develop even better ideas.
The areas for improvement:
Any criticisms that I have of this book stem from the novel format it uses.
The subplot with Jack’s romance with Molly, his creative and business partner, and the dramas of her life, didn’t work so well with me. We did get to see some application of CPS in the resolution of those dramas, but I didn’t feel that it worked as well as the main plot of Jack finding ways to improve his life situation by starting his own business. Jack Huber himself starts off as, well, an annoying down-on-his-luck wuss who redeems himself by getting smarter, better skilled, and more confident through Manny’s help. The road was a little rocky at first, but it was gratifying to Jack evolve through the course of reading the book.
Other points of interest:
In addition to his own Twitter account, there are three other Twitter accounts for Jack’s Notebook characters: @MannyGibran @JackHuber @VictorJoyce (Victor Joyce didn’t appear in the novel, but appears to be part of an ongoing storyline that occurs after the events of Jack’s Notebook.)
Verdict (out of 10): 8 (recommended; a valuable resource for creativity and problem solving)
My methodology for book reviews and affiliate links: I’ll provide an Amazon.com affiliate link (or other related affiliate link) for content if I think it’s worth buying and reading. If I don’t, I won’t provide an affiliate link. The affiliate link helps fund my content creation activities.
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Looking for a new challenge? | Broadcasting Brain:
[...] Gregg Fraley, whose book Jack’s Notebook has been reviewed here at Broadcasting Brain, is organizing a very interesting project called the Peregrine Panel. [...]
3 February 2009, 8:16 am