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In his new book, Ben duPont challenges traditional ways of thinking. An engineer by training, he’s a co-founder and general partner at Chartline Capital Partners as well as the co-founder of yet2, an open innovation company. He also serves on the boards of other businesses and nonprofits.
“I would probably have been the last person in school to have been voted most likely to write a book,” the Rockland resident and Tufts University alumnus says with a laugh. But duPont has just co-authored a book, “Non-Obvious Thinking,” along with partner Rohit Bhargava, the founder of the “Non-Obvious” series. Here, we ask duPont the obvious questions.
What is non-obvious thinking?
[It’s] seeing what others don’t. I like to think of its consequences as well—making the world a better place.
You cite in the book high jumper Dick Fosbury, who decided to jump over the bar backward, revolutionizing the sport. How do you get into such a non-obvious mindset?
It’s human nature to stay in comfortable cubicles. For business, I recently went to a plumbing convention, which I knew nothing about, and I was blown away by the amazing technology and the possibilities it opens up.
Can this way of thinking be easily applied to business situations?
Absolutely! The founders of Airbnb were not from the hospitality industry. Jeff Bezos at Amazon was not a bookseller. The Uber people weren’t in transportation. All of them were non-obvious thinkers.
Did you do anything non-obvious in writing your book?
[Bhargava] and I wanted to know as we wrote how readers might react to each chapter—what had we left out, what did we get wrong. We went to ChatGPT, an AI chatbot, and it gave us amazing feedback as to what we were missing.
“Non-Obvious Thinking” is available locally at Huxley & Hiro and Barnes & Noble.
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