"Wait" by Frank Partnoy

Sorry for all the short book reviews, but sitting in a hospital room for 14 hours a day gives lots of time for reading. Last week, Ang and I stopped by Chapters and I am dangerous in there… I could walkout with thirty books in less than five minutes. The danger in my excitement is that I sometimes pick-up books that are a waste of time. This book was one of them.

The book is called, Wait: The Art and Science of Delay, by Frank Partnoy. Its attractive cover and glitzy byline sold me. The nature of the book falls into the same category as Malcolm Gladwell and Seth Godin books… quirky observations of human behavior and cultural/corporate success.

The basic premise of the book is set out to combat the time-oriented cultural value of our tireless pursuit of efficiency. Our culture looks down on procrastination, but Partnoy argues that in certain contexts procrastination is a great thing. He uses elite athletes, fighter pilot techniques, and Sun Tzu’s The Art of War approach to defend his observation. His premise is that more successful decisions are reached when one delays a decision to the last possible moment. This delay allows one to observe, adjust, and then act/decide. Successful people are able to determine how long acting on the decision will take and then subtract that time from the deadline, allowing them the beginning/remaining time to observe and adjust. This process of delaying a decision can be done in milliseconds or years (depending on the context/deadline).

In another part he discusses the importance of latency or slack in complex systems. From a Biblical perspective this sounds like “Sabbath”. He then responds to Gladwell’s observation of “thin slicing” and noting the danger of basing our perspective of others solely on first impressions. When it comes to public speaking he addresses the use of delay in powerful speeches and comedy. He also reflects other nuances of waiting as it relates to stock investments, relational success, and other areas of application.

Overall the book is a waste of time and could have been a tenth of the length. The majority of the book is an overuse of storytelling and social experiments… fluff. Even the physical size of the book is awkward as it’s a touch too big.

I find it funny how so many of these kinds of books back up God’s truth and wisdom as revealed in Scripture, but because the world doesn’t see the Bible as Truth, it finds the need to spend millions of dollars and hours on social research only to discover what God has already told us.

"since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened." Romans 1:19-21 (NIV)