WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THAT? Think the Unthinkable and Achieve Creative Greatness

McCoy, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge and professor at Pepperdine, isn't afraid to admit his mistakes. He opens this book by discussing one of his first cases: the plaintiff had what appeared to be significant brain damage following an accident. It seemed that he would get a sizable judgment until opposing counsel produced a videotape of the man exercising. He had fooled his attorneys as well as McCoy, who learned a valuable lesson: no one—judge, attorney or businessperson—can afford to make haphazard and lazy judgments without examining all the facts. In this guide to achieving professional success via creative methods, McCoy prescribes various exercises, including some in hypothetical situations, to show how readers can enhance their powers of observation and perception. For example, McCoy suggests that readers "[o]btain a clear view of reality," "[d]oublecheck observations" and "[s]tudy both the forest and the trees." While McCoy's advice is solid, the book is so busy that readers will probably have difficulty absorbing its practical content. He intersperses mental exercises between straight text and chapter summaries. Adding to the confusion is McCoy's overly energetic use of business, historical and political case studies, which end up obscuring the useful content. (Jan.)