Diaminds: Decoding the Mental Habits of Successful Thinkers [Hardcover]

Roger Martin's Diaminds is a very insightful book which draws from some aspects of philosophy, psicology and heuristics to try to get us to improve our way of thinking. While he does provide some incredible insights and methods to arrive at such a feat, and his insight of the opposing models and how that leads to a "third" way of proceeding better towards reality is brilliant, the book leaves you with a tremendous feeling of emptyness, that the authors must themselves feel and it shows.

As with any book who seeks to get you to change your chore belifs and ways of thinking, it cannot help but have an implicit stance on the author's own view of reality. And, needless to say, that view comes from where they are standing: the commercial world and the (sometimes) vanity competition of the business school academic world.

This results in the book having an extremely empty utilitarian pursit, without providing much direction or respect to other conscious beings, let a alone showing respect for anyone else other than themselves and their "hooked" accomplices.

Mr. Martin and his co-author have an implied sense of the world as a rat race type of competition in which the paramount thing is to succeed and to become "the high value decision maker of the future". If this is the point of anyone's life, it is an empty point indeed for no amount of success is going to rid them of their feeling of emptyness.

This book should be read being careful to note this extremely egocentrical undertone and know that, while their tools are useful, they must be used to the good of humanity with respect for other human beings who are not as priviledged as they are (or who had better things to do) to study the best ways to approximate complex problems or realities, yet who still have tremendous value as humans beings simply for being that. And this romantic stance takes nothing away from the fact that business people should train to be better thinkers, only that they should train not only out of vanity or self empowerment, but do so to make the world better for us all (even if they too get rewarded in the process). And so the book lacks a healthy way to kill one's own ego (which should be included for such a deep book) and coexist in a more peaceful and value adding way with society, even if one does not "succeed" according to their implied and necessarily narrow definition of success.

I would recommend reading Saint-Exupery's The Little Prince to them, or perhaps even Jesus Christ. If they are serious about "opening their mind's window's" as much as possible, and about the impossibility as good epistemologists in confirming any sort of belif they hold, then they would do well in paying some heed to the philsophies of love (thereby seeking to falsify their own deepest assumptions), for even in the apparently harsh and demanding world of business (yes, we need cold minded ex Strategy Consultants to make things more efficient, but by any means to desing an equally cold hearted mind!), when you get so deep into someone's mindset, they should hold.

And it is not OK to play with your friends in the way they suggest. You do not need to do this in order to have the capacity to think in such a powerful way as a "Diamind" would imply. So beware! And read at your own peril...

› Go to Amazon.com to see the review  3.0 out of 5 stars