Long Fuse, Big Bang

Achieving Long-Term Success Through Daily Victories

By: Eric Haseltine

Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne

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.

©2010 Eric Haseltine (P)2010 Tantor

Average and a little pretentious

AVERAGE - There wasn't a lot of "aha" moments in the book where I felt like the author was giving any new insight. In general, the book described some very good examples of how long term thinking will result in new, bigger, and better innovation. It also explained how someone should think in order to overcome short term thinking. The perspective of a neuroscientist explaining the reason why long term thinking was different. Anyone with sufficient experience working with people and setting objectives will already know everything talked about in the book. Understanding the evolutionary reasons why groups behave that way was interesting, but not necessarily useful. From a content perspective I give 3-4 stars.


PRETENTIIOUS - I think my perspective might have been totally different if I read this instead of listened to it. The author of the book is a man with 30 years experience in a vast array of industry after recieving a doctorate. The reader sounds 18 at most. Unfortunately, when an 18 year talks with what might be called prestige in a middle age man, I automatically think: "prick". So the tone of the book starts off bad. In general I felt like the book was a little pompous. The author told many stories of success where the main characters always "intuitively" understood what only the could understand scientifically. It always seemed like everyone else was just lucky in their ventures for long term improvement while Haseltine was making his own luck. 2-3 stars for tone.

Overall 3 stars at best.

filled with democratic bias

not n hour into the book and grating fingernails on a chalkboard, talking about womans rights, gender and everything the libbys love

OK if you like the military

I was overwhelmed with military stories, much of which I didn't care about. I thought this was a business book, but it's more of a book about the military. Narrator was very boring - no charisma. Had to fight hard to finish it.