Long Fuse, Big Bang: Achieving Long-Term Success Through Daily Victories

by Eric Haseltine Narrated by Kirby Heyborne

Overview

Eric Haseltine has applied discoveries about the human brain to his work in fields as diverse as aerospace, entertainment, and national defense. And all too often he has come up against short-term thinking that focuses on putting out fires instead of long-term thinking that can create explosive opportunities and open up new markets.



Our brains have let the tyranny of the urgent stifle the pursuit of the important for too long, Haseltine says. It's time to find a way to work around our hard-wired short-term orientation in order to light that long fuse. And in Long Fuse, Big Bang, he shows how to do just that. From learning how to see through blind spots to looking to the future for revolutionary ideas, long-term thinking is the key to success-and survival-in an era of accelerating change.



The essence of Long Fuse thinking is to imagine where the arc of history is going, then figure out how to take short-term steps in that direction. Long Fuse, Big Bang shows listeners how to apply enduring strategies in a quick-fix world, to translate long-term Big Bang opportunities into short-term projects that are in harmony, not in conflict, with our "got to have it now" nature.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

Haseltine's studies of the brain have aided him in senior positions with the NSA, Disney Imagineering, and Hughes Aircraft and make this a scholarly, packed analysis. Relying on his own experiences and case studies of pioneering companies like IBM, Disney, and Wal-Mart, Haseltine makes a convincing case that our short-term, put-out-the-fire mentality makes us miss opportunities that come from long-term thinking. In compelling, well-researched examples from a number of fields, Haseltine demonstrates how the successes of today were once the dream projects of visionary leaders who broke their ideas down and organized them into daily increments that allowed them to be approached methodically. Walt Disney, Haseltine points out, understood that "speaking to the heart works much better than speaking to the mind," because our conscious mind is "a Post-it note" compared to the unconscious, which he likens to the "Library of Congress." It's not what we do on a daily basis, he argues, but how we do it.

From the Publisher

"Narrator Kirby Heyborne reads with a sophisticated maturity that sneaks up on listeners.…It's a perfect vehicle for the gravitas of the writing." ---AudioFile

FEBRUARY 2012 - AudioFile

More than an achievement lesson, this outstanding book is a sweeping overview of how the brain’s ancient preferences for simple short-term payoffs can co-opt people’s efforts when they’re working toward large-scale change. The fascinating case studies cover a range from small ad hoc groups to whole nations and show that this type of change requires patience, creativity, and social finesse. The examples reflect a rich historical perspective as well as the author’s high-level assignments with the U.S. intelligence community and Disney Imagineering. Sounding fresh and youthful at first, narrator Kirby Heyborne reads with a sophisticated maturity that sneaks up on listeners. His tone is sober but never alarming or overwrought. It’s a perfect vehicle for the gravitas of the writing, especially when he’s delivering the slow-building narratives from business, medicine, international politics, and the author’s own experiences in the trenches. T.W. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170720286
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	07/20/2010
Edition description:	Unabridged

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