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Recommended IL LU ST RA TI ON : E M IL IA N O PO N ZI Brains to Spare Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age by Clay Shirky (Penguin Press, 2010) What would you do if you had 100 million hours of brain time to devote to a task? Would you create another Wikipedia? (That’s roughly how many hours the volunteer army of encyclopedists have contributed to it so far.) Would you debate every line of the U.S. health care overhaul? Or would you blow it all solving crossword puzzles and thinking up new lolcats.com captions? Shirky raises such questions as he reveals just how large our natural resource is. Some of us have brains to spare— that’s always been true. But Shirky’s point is that, collectively, we have an enormous amount of brains to spare. It’s the result of the leisure time we’ve gained thanks to the constant advance of technology and civilization. “Imagine,” he urges, “treating the free time of the world’s educated citizenry as...a kind of cognitive surplus. How big would that surplus be?” Too big, he thinks, to waste by watching television. The advent of social media has given us a chance to deploy our cognitive power very diff erently: actively participating in the creation of content rather than passively receiving it, and doing so in concert with others, not individually. Shirky is convincing, and entertaining, when he argues that we now have the means, the motive, and the opportunity to rally around shared concerns. Colorful examples, from the charitable fundraising of singer Josh Groban’s fans to the street-violence monitoring of Ushahidi’s citizen journalists, begin to show what’s possible. But the book’s real strength is in its call to arms—or call to brains— to solve problems on a scale not yet imagined. Julia Kirby Open Leadership by Charlene Li (Jossey-Bass, 2010) Li convincingly shows leaders that there’s an upside to ceding control. That’s just as well, since she also says they have no choice. The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working by Tony Schwartz, with Jean Gomes and Catherine McCarthy (Free Press, 2010) To be your most productive, work in short spurts (90 min- utes at the most) of intense concentration with plenty of breaks in between—the very method Schwartz used while writing this book. Leisure by Josef Pieper (Faber and Faber, 1952) This classic tome reminds us that not all our free time should be considered cognitive surplus and turned over to eff orts for good. Contemplation also has its perks. MORE ON PRODUCTIVITY TOP SHELF EXPERIENCE 166 Harvard Business Review July–August 2010 1252 JulAug10 Recommended.indd 1661252 JulAug10 Recommended.indd 166 6/8/10 1:34:01 PM6/8/10 1:34:01 PM Harvard Business Review Notice of Use Restrictions, May 2009 Harvard Business Review and Harvard Business Publishing Newsletter content on EBSCOhost is licensed for the private individual use of authorized EBSCOhost users. It is not intended for use as assigned course material in academic institutions nor as corporate learning or training materials in businesses. Academic licensees may not use this content in electronic reserves, electronic course packs, persistent linking from syllabi or by any other means of incorporating the content into course resources. Business licensees may not host this content on learning management systems or use persistent linking or other means to incorporate the content into learning management systems. Harvard Business Publishing will be pleased to grant permission to make this content available through such means. For rates and permission, contact permissions@harvardbusiness.org.