Smarter Faster Better

It took me a long time to finish, partly because of the holidays and because I was reading other books. Overall it is more chaotic than the one on habits, slower to read; it is more a collection of interesting anecdotes (especially the last one on data) with some somewhat predictable maxims. As usual, the appendix is excellent; read just that if needed.

Notes

• Motivation: by turning a task into a challenge, into a CHOICE, you find the right motivation (Marine training). Email example: he quickly wrote one line in each reply, so he had to come back and choose to complete the message properly. He felt in control.
• For tougher challenges: you are more motivated when you see the choice as an affirmation of your values (this is why you always ask “why?”). Connect the choice to something you care about.
• Goal setting: stretch (ambitious) and SMART goals (sub-goals, mini objectives). There is a good example.
• Focus: pilots’ mental models to maintain concentration. Always imagine the scenarios of the coming days, creating mental models for contingencies. Build stories.
• Decision making: Bayesian thinking from poker. Imagine many futures, think about how probable they are, then use the trick “if I do this 100 times, is it worth it?”. Pros and cons of each future plus an estimate of probabilities. He gives an example about his TV series: he calculated the various futures, and in the low-effort scenario it still made sense.
• The Big Idea: manage the how, not the who. Great teams have everyone speaking up without fear. Watch for brokers, people who think “out of the box” by connecting different domains. Absorb data and process it on your own. Agile/Lean. Many ideas packed into this final section.