Predatory Thinking: a book review

Just read a good book.

Predatory Thinking: A Masterclass in Out-Thinking the Competition.

By a guy called Dave Trott.

Famous ad guy.

When Dave Trott writes an ad, people buy stuff.

We’re all buying brands like Toshiba and Ariston and Cadbury Flake because sometime, somewhere, some smart clients paid Dave Trott to tell us about them.

It’s a good book.

Written in short, staccato sentences.

One per paragraph.

And short stories that teach us about marketing, business, people, life, whatever.

One story per chapter.

Sounds funny but it works.

When you pick up a book by Dave Trott, you finish the book.

I finished it in a few hours.

Didn’t put it down much.

Had to eat.

Had to pee. (Twice).

Had to get back and read that book.

Not because I wanted to know how it ended: it’s not that kind of book.

But because I enjoyed it. That’s all. People want to do things they enjoy.

Most people who write books don’t know that.

Last book I read before the Dave Trott book was a book called The Better Angels of Our Nature.

Absolutely brilliant. Wonderful sentences. Huge ideas. Fantastic arguments. Book of the year.

But it took me three months to finish. I’d read a few pages and fall asleep.

Next night: read a few more. Boom. Sleep.

Trott’s book: two, maybe three hours. No sleeping.

I enjoyed it. I learned stuff. That’s what I bought it for.

You may not like the book at all.

I liked it a lot.

And that’s why I wrote this.

Everyone talks about ‘new this, new that’. One thing hasn’t changed:

If people like stuff, they’ll tell other people about it.

If they don’t, they won’t.