One Sentence Summary: Our freedom in life, like our freedom of movement in a building, is partly defined by its structure, thus to be able to create our life, and move towards our ideal, it is better to change its structure rather than change our behavior within the same framework, this book teaches us to do so by showing how we can create a structure in our life, which draws us inexorably, and almost effortlessly, along the path of least resistance- and pushes us to create what we really want for ourselves.
By Robert Fritz, 285 pages, 1984 (first edition), 1989 (current revised edition).
Note: Because this book is extremely heavy and interesting, and somewhat dry (translation: difficult to summarize 
), I am posting it in two parts. Here is the first:
Summary and Book Report:
Robert Fritz is an American composer, director and screenwriter, and creator of the Technologies for Creating concept that he teaches in the company he created, and that he shares with us in this book.
He begins by telling us that the roads from downtown Boston appear to have no precise structure. Yet they are built on former cow trails that existed in the 17th century. The cows were content to put one leg in front of the other, but once they had been to a place, it was easier to return, because the path was increasingly more useable and defined. The cows followed the nearest path that was easiest for them – that of least resistance. Thus, the structure of the plains and the path of least resistance for seventeenth century cows still determines the organization and construction of urban Boston today.
Note: Although it seems that downtown Boston is effectively a shambles, and a source of numerous outcries by its inhabitants, the history of the cows is an urban legend. The image is none-the-less valuable for explaining that unsuspected structures – created by forgotten paths of least resistance – influence our behavior every day.
Therefore, energy goes where it is easiest for it to go. It is a fundamental point on which the whole book is built, and from which flow the three following ideas and insights:
1. We move through life by taking the path of least resistance.
2. The underlying structure of our lives determines the path of least resistance.
3. We can change the underlying fundamental structures of our lives.
Out of these three insights comes this guiding principle: We can learn to recognize the structures that play a role in our lives and change them in order to create what we really want to create.
In a very structural and systemic manner, Robert Fritz explains that structure refers to both its elementary components, as well as how those components interact with each other and with the global framework that they form, the whole being more than the sum of its parts.
This may seem complicated, but let’s take an example: the human body. The human body is made up of many very different elements, and each has a specific function: the brain, heart, lungs, red blood cells, nerves, muscles, etc., all interacting with each other on different scales to create a whole which is much more than the simple sum of its parts. Anything that affects one element can affect other elements at the same time, and the whole system, all the components, are in related to one another, and doctors and surgeons learn to think of the body as a system and structure.
Thus, a surgeon who operates on one organ is not only concerned with the state of the organ itself, but also the whole body of which it forms a part, and he takes factors into account which may be completely external to this organ – such as blood pressure, brain waves, the presence of bacteria, allergic reactions …
Everything has an underlying structure, whether physical, as with bridges or skyscrapers, or intangible, as with the plot of a novel or the form of a symphony. Our life has a structure, it consists of multiple factors interacting with each other and with the structure itself.
So the structure determines the movements and behavior of the objects that it consists of, and certain structures are more useful than others for getting the desired results.
How can you change the structure? By creating it. Often we think in terms of solving problems, but this approach only allows us to change some elements here and there without changing the structure, and the structure could then return the elements to their initial state. By creating we are changing the structure.
When we try to solve a problem we are acting to remove something: the problem. When we create, we are acting to produce something: the creation. Therefore, by thinking structurally, rather than saying to ourselves "How can I make this undesirable situation go away?” we say to ourselves “What structure do I need to adopt to create the results that I want to create?”
It is a radically different approach. The author explains it to us throughout his book, after having shown us the fundamental problems with the problem-solving approach. Let’s learn about it.
(more…)
. The part one is here.
