What’s this about?
from the book “Useful Not True”:
This book is about reframing — changing how you think about something — and choosing a perspective that’s useful to you right now, whether or not it’s universally true.
Before we begin, I need to sharpen that word: “true”. In this book, when I say “true”, I mean absolutely, necessarily, objectively true. It’s not only in the mind. Any creature
or machine could observe it and agree. It’s a concrete fact — always, everywhere, and for everyone. There’s no other way to see it. That’s what I mean by “true”.
This narrow definition is important because whatever you consider true is closed. No questioning. But when you say “not necessarily true”, it opens it up for reconsideration.
Notice that “not true” does not mean false! It just means not necessarily, objectively, absolutely true for everyone, everywhere, always. It doesn’t mean you’re wrong. It means there could be another possibility or perspective.
Let’s look at “Useful Not True” in five steps:
Almost nothing people say is true.
Your thoughts aren’t true.
Ideas can be useful, not true.
Reframe: Find better perspectives.
Adopt what works for you now.
This was the best book I read last year (I read A LOT). I bought a stack of extra copies and gave it out my kids and a few friends for Christmas. I got beautiful hardback copies, plus the audiobook and epub/pdf versions with it too, all in the same price. Derek has just dropped the whole book again as a video book - free to me because I bought it already.
I love his writing, I love the succinct clarity of the short chapters, I love his rejection of the publishing norms in favour of me, the reader.
Such inspiring stuff, I’m aiming my book project to follow in his footsteps. If I get even halfway close, I’ll be very proud.
If you like this article, go and buy the book. There is so much that is good about it, not just the excellent content.
All I can say is what an incredible reframe this book provides. This book flipped so many things inside of me. I really appreciate you putting this out into the world. Oh. Your version 2 was so good. I know that took a lot of effort.