Books by Barry Evans

Is free will deterministic, can you motivate an old dog to learn new tricks and where does creativity flow from? The Ingenious Engine of Reality is a voyage of discovery into the meaning and application of consciousness. It starts by exploring recent advances in neuroscience to ask why and how we do things. It provides a cornucopia of useful links to management theory, philosophy, science and more. We are living through a pivotal point in human social evolution at which many stubborn and counter-productive dogmas are being successfully challenged. These include erroneous assumptions and beliefs about the brain and consciousness. The Ingenious Engine of Reality highlights the work and courage of amazing scientists and thinkers who have used the tools of deep mathematics, rigorous science, tireless research and often startlingly obvious psychology to defy the limitations of these beliefs. They are discovering how we interpret reality to learn and adapt. They explain how we sometimes avoid reality altogether, making things harder for ourselves with our habits and beliefs. You do not have to be a scientist, mathematician or medical professional to understand the knowledge that is being unlocked. It is knowledge that can transform daily life, work and learning. Everything that every person does will benefit from implementing its lessons. The Ingenious Engine of Reality explores neuroscience, epigenetics, brain plasticity, creativity and human nature. It presents philosophical and practical implications in an accessible and entertaining way. It suggests how NLP, Agile and similar approaches can make use of this knowledge - even in something as practical as project management.

Agile is becoming a dirty word because of the way it is being marketed, implemented, over-simplified and misrepresented. Step by step guides and quick fix recipes are of limited use. It is better to free yourself and your projects by learning how to connect the underlying principles to what you want to achieve. Knowing what projects need and why Agile works will help you understand where and how to apply these principles and what to expect. This book explains why Agile was introduced and how the underlying principles and ideas are still relevant. It reviews Agile methods and advises how to take a pragmatic approach to them as a programmer, a project manager and a business stakeholder. If you want to know what Agile really is and how to understand its capabilities - from someone who has implemented and used Agile successfully as a programmer, manager and coach in both small and very large companies - then read this book.