Acknowledgments

My gratitude goes, first and foremost, to the two young women whose imagination and intelligence energized this edition: Natalie Sofia Jamison Tiret, who I’m proud to say is my daughter, inspired a brand new point of view while maintaining the integrity of the original concepts in the first two editions; and Sarah Elisabeth Becton, who is not only the Program Manager of Suasive, but a human search engine so effective, I’ve taken to calling her Siri. Natalie and Sarah, who, among their many other sterling achievements, have made OCD into an art form, were ably assisted along the way by Amanda Stiles and Grace Armstrong.

Speaking of inspiration, Benji Rosen, my Stanford University graduate school buddy, who was studying electrical engineering while I was learning about Aristotle, saw the opportunity to merge the two disciplines in the fertile garden that had sprouted in Stanford’s backyard, Silicon Valley. Ben’s inspiration was the impetus that gave rise to my company and to the more than three decades of programs that gave rise to the disruptive methodology in this book.

To Kim Spenceley, my latest bright editor at Pearson; and to Lori Lyons, who has managed eight editions of my books through to publication.

Thanks, too, to the people who granted permission to reference my work with them (in the order of appearance): Helene Poirier, David Bellet, Leslie Pfrang, Reed Hastings, Colin Powell, Uri Lopatin, Greg McDowell, Mike Tuchen, Aaron Skonnard, Girish Mathrubootham, Jayne Gonzalez, and Mike Salameh.

For their individual contributions: Sue Bostrom, William Chu, Roger Gould, Jim LeValley, Robert Totman.

For their inspiration: Mortimer Adler, Rose Bisciotti Stowell, Ormond J. Drake, Daniel Kahneman, William Safire, Mike Wallace, Melvin Van Peebles, and the original source, Harry Miles Muheim.