A review by boprawira
Powers of Two: Finding the Essence of Innovation in Creative Pairs by Joshua Wolf Shenk

2.0

This book started out very promisingly; however, I feel that the way the author presents his arguments in this book is extremely confusing, disjointed and very anecdotal. I do agree with the main premise of the book: that creativity is a result of collaboration between two strong and creative individuals who can complement each other. Unfortunately, in many instances, the author jumps from one example of a creative pair into another, which makes int extremely confusing to follow. The use of more than one pair as an example to support his argument also makes the book feels choppy, especially because the author has to insert some background stories of each creative pair (some of which, I'm not familiar, unfortunately). Furthermore, a lot of the examples cited in the book as an argument for the author are very anecdotal nature. I also find a lot of examples where the author kind of puts his own interpretation to support his main arguments. Overall, it's a disappointing read on an interesting idea. I would have liked to learn more about how creative couple can build a long-lasting relationship.