A free illustrated fable for grown-ups

The Blind
Squirrel Method

A woodland fable about success
and the stories we sell

An acorn. An accident.
A very convincing method.

Pip finds an acorn. Before long, the wood is paying to learn his secrets. There’s just one question nobody thought to ask: which part actually worked?

27 illustrated pages · PDF · 4.6 MB
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The Blind Squirrel Method by James Burchill. Pip holds an acorn aloft while the animals of Bracken Wood look on.

Welcome to Bracken Wood

Success makes a good story.
Does it make a good method?

Pip has sharp eyes and a wandering attention span. When a lucky landing turns up a magnificent acorn, Mallow the magpie spots something even more promising: an audience.

What follows is a woodland business fable about luck, skill, missing evidence, hidden advantages and the appeal of advice from someone with a very full basket.

Across nine illustrated chapters, Pip and his friend Hazel learn to ask better questions. The book ends with a practical checklist and a worksheet for examining the next success claim that comes your way.

“If you put up the basket,” she said, “put up the bill.”

— The owl, The Blind Squirrel Method

James Burchill

About the author

James Burchill

James is an author, systems architect and CTO whose work spans business, software and technology. His career includes entrepreneurship, publishing and teaching at Sheridan College and McMaster University.

He enjoys understanding how things work, making them better and sharing what he learns.

More about James Explore The Vault

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An easy address to share: BlindSquirrelMethod.com