If this two-titled book doesn’t win the Cute As Shit Award then its judges are condemned monsters.

Wait

By Frank Partnoy

Dave Thackeray
Jul 24, 2017 · 2 min read

There are many ways this review could go. Because in Wait: The Art and Science of Delay (which also goes by the moniker Wait: The Useful Art of Procrastination), Frank’s advocating against peaking too soon.

It doesn’t matter if your mind works as mine. Or whether you just get worked up about waiting at the railway crossing.

Either way, we both agree that Christmas Day is so much more special because it’s not right here, right now. Our childish angst at having to sleep on Christmas Eve to get to the good stuff, and those opening moments of lucidity the following morning, are cast-iron proof that delay can yield spectacular happiness.

The only time I ever caught my mum and dad pretending to be Santa was waking prematurely to the sound of an expletive-riddled exchange between the pair as they let slip to the ground my wrapped monster of a bedroom TV.

To say we were all royally hacked off would be an understatement. The perils of entitlement magnified a thousand-fold through being an only child. But unlike a vintage wine, I haven’t improved with age.

Delay in a business or professional context is amassing all the knowledge you need to make the most prudent decision. In Wait: The Art and Science of Delay, Frank has dozens of examples of how pro athletes use delay to their best advantage. How firefighters use delay to quell flames with minimal impact on the wider environment. How gut instincts can fail us in the face of logical decisions made with precision when the executioner takes just the right of time to get her house in order.

Wait: The Art and Science of Delay is a great read, whether read to or by you (the Audible version is narrated by Sean Runnette who, if you ask me, has leveraged to the max his right to consonants).

Book reviews

Mostly business, sometimes fiction, almost always both

Dave Thackeray

Written by

Founder of Word And Mouth | Host of #Thacknology

Book reviews

Mostly business, sometimes fiction, almost always both

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