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Connections

Author John Pollack, a former White House speechwriter and the author of The Pun Also Rises, explains how people intuitively and necessarily make connections between disparate concepts. In this intelligent history and how-to manual, he deconstructs analogies, a basic tool for making those connections. In a breezy, intelligent style, he presents the analogy as a linguistic comparison that implies a relationship or similarity – explicit or implicit – between two different things or ideas.

Pollack cites the many forms of analogy: metaphor, simile, allegory, idiom, parable, aphorism, cliché, euphemism and proverb. He explains how well-crafted analogies enable you to process and convey huge amounts of information. They provide inspiring, cognitive “shortcuts.” Analogies influence your thinking and help you draw intuitive, non-linear conclusions.