Book review: Practical Wisdom by Barry Schwartz & Kenneth Sharpe

Posted In: Goals | Me April 5th, 2013 divider 1 Comment »

On my way down to North Carolina and around Pinehurst I listened to the great book, Practical Wisdom. I picked it up on a whim at the library the day before I left and I’m glad I did.

Here are some good nuggets I got from the book:

• Practical wisdom is basically combining will with skill. Wisdom comes from experience, but not just any experience
• Decisions ares not just good and bad. There are varying degrees of good, better and best
• Practical wisdom is about combining empathy with detachment. You do need both though to provide perspective
• Rules and incentives aren’t enough. Sticks and carrots only get you so far and it’s usually not on the path you want to go
• Rules are an easy way to provide direction but rules without wisdom are blind, and at best guarantee mediocrity

It also gives a lot of examples in the fields of law, teaching and medicine so it’s extra worth it for folks in those fields, or if you’re aspiring to be.

One of them that stuck with me was about a hospital janitor that cleans a room for the second time because the father of a patient didn’t see him do it the first time. He put himself in the place of the father who had been a daily visitor to the hospital for months with his ailing son. You can regulate that kind of behaviour and it definitely wasn’t in his job description but in retrospect, it was the best decision for everyone involved.

Halfway through the book, I had a quick email exchange with a colleague who teaches emotional intelligence and it seems the principles are very similar. Now I’m very looking forward to checking out her workshop!

It’s not earth-shattering news, as it makes a lot of sense. Like ChiRunning though, it does define the key elements to achieve such a state and what you should concentrate on. A bit of a roadmap.

I love these books as it puts some science behind the everyday dilemmas we face, similar in style and tone to Malcolm Gladwell.

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A great article in this month’s Runner’s World on building the mind-body connection in running. They call it “Find Zen Through Running”.

Some great reminders to be present while you’re out there!