Review: The Myth of the Garage

The Myth of the Garage (Amazon) is Chip Heath and Dan Heath's latest book. And it's free on Amazon for your Kindle or Kindle App or the web-based Amazon Kindle Cloud Reader. And that's just awesome.

Chip and Dan (brothers) have written two other amazing books with long titles:

• Switch:How to Change when Change is Hard (My Review)
• Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Last and Others Die (Amazon)

If you've been craving more of the brothers Heath or you've been wondering what the fuss is, The Myth of the Garage is a great book to get. Myth is both original new content and past Fast Company columns. As a former FC reader (part of my "Simplify" goal for this year is allowing magazines to lapse until I can get all the past ones on my nightstand read) I have read quite a few of these, but it's been long enough that the book still felt fresh.

In typical Heath fashion, each chapter is short, self-contained, easy to read, has some great ideas, and is encouraging or challenging, depending on how that particular topic affects you - be it practically, directly, or maybe just from the thought-leadership or work-related perspective.

A few of the chapters I really liked included:

• Get Back in the Box - why thinking outside the box isn't always the right approach and could be hurting you
• Anchor & Twist: How to Explain an Innovation
• Watch the Game Film - why looking back is as important as looking ahead
• Is Talent Portable? - a huge problem with "getting the right people on the bus"

I read this book from my perspective as a line manager and there was some great stuff in there that challenged my thinking. This book is easy to consume, and at free, I can't think of anyone I wouldn't recommend it to.

It's also available as a PDF on their website heathbrothers.com