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Essentialism by Greg McKeown

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Essentialism Summary

The Five Big Ideas

Only once you give yourself permission to stop trying to do it all, to stop saying yes to everyone, can you make your highest contribution towards the things that really matter.

Essentialism is about deliberately distinguishing the vital few from the trivial many, eliminating the non-essentials, and then removing obstacles so the essential things have clear, smooth passage.

If you don’t prioritize your life, someone else will.

The Paradox of Success: the more options we have, the more we feel distracted from what would otherwise be our highest level of contribution.

To embrace the essence of Essentialism requires we replace these false assumptions with three core truths: “I choose to,” “Only a few things really matter,” and “I can do anything but not everything.”

What is Essentialism?

Essentialism is a disciplined, systematic approach for determining where our highest point of contribution lies, then making execution of those things almost effortless.

Essentialism Summary

Chapter 1: The Essentialist              

“Only once you give yourself permission to stop trying to do it all, to stop saying yes to everyone, can you make your highest contribution towards the things that really matter.”               

The English translation of “weniger aber besser” is “less is better.”

The way of the Essentialist is the relentless pursuit of less but better.

Essentialism is about pausing constantly to ask, “Am I investing in the right activities?”

“Essentialism is not about how to get more things done; it’s about how to get the right things done. It doesn’t mean just doing less for the sake of less either. It is about making the wisest possible investment of your time and energy in order to operate at your highest point of contribution by doing only what is essential.”

“The way of the Essentialist rejects the idea that we can fit it all in. Instead, it requires us to grapple with real trade-offs and make tough decisions.”         

“The way of the Essentialist means living by design, not by default. Instead of making choices reactively, the Essentialist deliberately distinguishes the vital few from the trivial many, eliminates the non-essentials, and then removes obstacles so the essential things have clear, smooth passage.”               

“The way of the Essentialist is the path to being in control of our own choices. It is a path to new levels of success and meaning. It is the path on which we enjoy the journey, not just the destination.”

“If you don’t prioritize your life, someone else will.”

The Paradox of Success:

When we really have clarity of purpose, it enables us to succeed at our endeavor.

When we have success, we gain a reputation as a “go to” person. We become “good old

[insert name]

,” who is always there when you need him, and we are presented with increased options and opportunities.

When we have increased options and opportunities, which is actually code for demands upon our time and energies, it leads to diffused efforts. We get spread thinner and thinner.

We become distracted from what would otherwise be our highest level of contribution. The effect of our success has been to undermine the very clarity that led to our success in the first place.

“The word priority came into the English language in the 1400s. It was singular. It meant the very first or prior thing. It stayed singular for the next five hundred years. Only in the 1900s did we pluralize the term and start talking about priorities.”               

“When we don’t purposefully and deliberately choose where to focus our energies and time, other people – our bosses, our colleagues, our clients, and even our families – will choose for us, and before long we’ll have lost sight of everything that is meaningful and important.”

“Once an Australian nurse named Bronnie Ware, who cared for people in the last twelve weeks of their lives, recorded their most often discussed regrets. At the top of the list: ‘I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.’”                

Before saying yes to anything, ask yourself, “Will this activity or effort make the highest possible contribution towards my goal?”               

The three realities without which Essentialist thinking would be neither relevant nor possible.                

Individual choice: We can choose how to spend our energy and time.

The prevalence of noise: Almost everything is noise, and a very few things are exceptionally valuable.

The reality of trade-offs: We can’t have it all or do it all.

“Once we accept the reality of trade-offs we stop asking, ‘How can I make it all work?’ and start asking the more honest question ‘Which problem do I want to solve?’”               

Essentialists ask, “What do I feel deeply inspired by?” and “What am I particularly talented at?” and “What meets a significant need in the world?”

“Essentialists invest the time they have saved into creating a system for removing obstacles and making execution as easy as possible.”

“Essentialism is not a way to do one more thing; it is a different way of doing everything. It is a way of thinking.”               

“There are three deeply entrenched assumptions we must conquer to live the way of the Essentialist: ‘I have to,’ ‘It’s all important,’ and ‘I can do both.’”

To embrace the essence of Essentialism requires we replace these false assumptions with three core truths: “I choose to,” “Only a few things really matter,” and “I can do anything but not everything.”

Chapter 2: Choose—The Invincible Power of Choice               

Ask yourself, “If you could do only one thing with your life right now, what would you do?”               

“While we may not always have control over our options, we always have control over how we choose among them.”               

“The ability to choose cannot be taken away or even given away—it can only be forgotten.”               

“To become an Essentialist requires a heightened awareness of our ability to choose.”               

“When we forget our ability to choose, we learn to be helpless. Drip by drip we allow our power to be taken away until we end up becoming a function of other people’s choices—or even a function of our own past choices.”               

Chapter 3: Discern—The Unimportance of Practically Everything               

“We live in a world where almost everything is worthless and a very few things are exceptionally valuable.”               

A non-Essentialist thinks almost everything is essential. An Essentialist thinks almost everything is non-essential.               

“Many capable people are kept from getting to the next level of contribution because they can’t let go of the belief that everything is important.”

Chapter 4: Trade-Off—Which Problem Do I Want?

Rather than try to fly to every destination, Southwest Airlines deliberately chose to offer only point-to-point flights. Instead of jacking up prices to cover the cost of meals, they decided they would serve none. Instead of assigning seats in advance, they let people choose them as they got on the plane. Instead of upselling their passengers on glitzy first-class service, they offered only economy.

“We can try to avoid the reality of trade-offs, but we can’t escape them.”               

“A non-Essentialist approaches every trade-off by asking, ‘How can I do both?’ Essentialists ask the tougher but ultimately more liberating question, ‘Which problem do I want?’”

Instead of asking, ‘What do I have to give up?’ Essentialists ask, ‘What do I want to go big on?’”

Imagine a four-burner stove. One burner represents your family, one is your friends, the third is your health, and the fourth is your work. In order to be successful, you have to cut off one of your burners. And in order to be really successful, you have to cut off two.               

“To discern what is truly essential we need space to think, time to look and listen, permission to play, wisdom to sleep, and the discipline to apply highly selective criteria to the choices we make.”

Chapter 5: Escape—The Perks of Being Unavailable

“We need space to escape in order to discern the essential few from the trivial many.”               

“In order to have focus, we need to escape to focus.”               

Chapter 6: Look—See What Really Matters

“Being a journalist of your own life will force you to stop hyper-focusing on all the minor details and see the bigger picture.”

“One of the most obvious and yet powerful ways to become a journalist of our own lives is simply to keep a journal.”               

Chapter 7: Play—Embrace the Wisdom of Your Inner Child                

“Play doesn’t just help us to explore what is essential. It is essential in and of itself.”

Chapter 8 Sleep—Protect the Asset              

“The best asset we have for making a contribution to the world is ourselves.”               

Essentialists see sleep as necessary for operating at high levels of contribution more of the time.

Our highest priority is to protect our ability to prioritise.

Chapter 9: Select—The Power of Extreme Criteria

The 90 Percent Rule:

“As you evaluate an option, think about the single most important criterion for that decision, and then simply give the option a score between 0 and 100. If you rate it any lower than 90 percent, then automatically change the rating to 0 and simply reject it.”              

“If it isn’t a clear yes, then it’s a clear no.”

How to Evaluate Opportunities That Come Your Way

First, write down the opportunity.

Second, write down a list of three “minimum criteria” the options would need to “pass” in order to be considered.

Third, write down a list of three ideal or “extreme criteria” the options would need to “pass” in order to be considered. By definition, if the opportunity doesn’t pass the first set of criteria, the answer is obviously no. But if it also doesn’t pass two of your three extreme criteria, the answer is still no.

“It’s not enough to simply determine which activities and efforts don’t make the best possible contribution; you still have to actively eliminate those that do not.”

The killer question when deciding what activities to eliminate is: “If I didn’t have this opportunity, what would I be willing to do to acquire it?”

To uncover your true priorities, ask yourself, “What will I say no to?”

Chapter 10: Clarify—One Decision That Makes a Thousand               

“When there is a serious lack of clarity about what the team stands for and what their goals and roles are, people experience confusion, stress, and frustration.”               

An essential intent is both inspirational and concrete, both meaningful and measurable.                

Chapter 11: Dare—The Power of a Graceful “No”

“Only once we separate the decision from the relationship can we make a clear decision and then separately find the courage and compassion to communicate it.”               

“The more we think about what we are giving up when we say yes to someone, the easier it is to say no.”               

“Essentialists accept they cannot be popular with everyone all of the time.”               

“If your manager comes to you and asks you to do X, you can respond with ‘Yes, I’m happy to make this the priority. Which of these other projects should I deprioritise to pay attention to this new project?’               

Chapter 12: Uncommit—Win Big by Cutting Your Losses               

“Sunk-cost bias is the tendency to continue to invest time, money, or energy into something we know is a losing proposition simply because we have already incurred, or sunk, a cost that cannot be recouped.”               

“An Essentialist has the courage and confidence to admit his or her mistakes and uncommit, no matter the sunk costs.”               

“Tom Stafford describes a simple antidote to the endowment effect. Instead of asking, ‘How much do I value this item?’ we should ask, ‘If I did not own this item, how much would I pay to obtain it?’”

Don’t ask, “How will I feel if I miss out on this opportunity?” but rather, “If I did not have this opportunity, how much would I be willing to sacrifice in order to obtain it?” Similarly, we can ask, “If I wasn’t already involved in this project, how hard would I work to get on it?”               

Chapter 13: Edit—The Invisible Art               

The next stage in the Essentialist process, eliminating the non-essentials, means taking on the role of an editor in your life and leadership.               

The Latin root of the word decision—cis or cid—literally means “to cut” or “to kill.”               

Joke: “I must apologize: if I had more time I would have written a shorter letter.”               

“Alan D. Williams observed in the essay ‘What Is an Editor?’ there are ‘two basic questions the editor should be addressing to the author: Are you saying what you want to say? and, Are you saying it as clearly and concisely as possible?’”               

Chapter 14: Limit—The Freedom of Setting Boundaries               

“Think of one person who frequently pulls you off your most essential path. Make a list of your dealbreakers—the types of requests or activities from that person that you simply refuse to say yes to unless they somehow overlap with your own priorities or agenda.”      

A quick test for finding your deal breakers is to write down any time you feel violated or put upon by someone’s request. It doesn’t have to be in some extreme way for you to notice it.                

Chapter 15: Buffer—The Unfair Advantage               

“Essentialists accept the reality that we can never fully anticipate or prepare for every scenario or eventuality; the future is simply too unpredictable. Instead, they build in buffers to reduce the friction caused by the unexpected.”               

Chapter 16: Subtract—Bring Forth More by Removing Obstacles               

“To attain knowledge, add things every day. To attain wisdom, subtract things every day.”—Lao-Tzu             

“Instead of looking for the most obvious or immediate obstacles, they look for the ones slowing down progress. They ask, ‘What is getting in the way of achieving what is essential?’”               

“Aristotle talked about three kinds of work, whereas in our modern world we tend to emphasize only two. The first is theoretical work, for which the end goal is truth. The second is practical work, where the objective is action. But there is a third: it is poietical work. The philosopher Martin Heidegger described poiesis as a “bringing-forth.” This third type of work is the Essentialist way of approaching execution.”

“An Essentialist produces more—brings forth more—by removing more instead of doing more.”               

“Instead of focusing on the efforts and resources we need to add, the Essentialist focuses on the constraints or obstacles we need to remove.”               

Instead of just jumping into a project, take a few minutes to think. Ask yourself, “What are all the obstacles standing between me and getting this done?” and “What is keeping me from completing this?” Make a list of these obstacles. They might include: not having the information you need, your energy level, your desire for perfection. Prioritise the list using the question, “What is the obstacle that, if removed, would make the majority of other obstacles disappear?”

Chapter 17: Progress—The Power of Small Wins

“Instead of trying to accomplish it all—and all at once—and flaring out, the Essentialist starts small and celebrates progress. Instead of going for the big, flashy wins that don’t really matter, the Essentialist pursues small and simple wins in areas that are essential.”               

“In his 1968 Harvard Business Review article entitled ‘One More Time: How Do You Motivate Employees?’ among the most popular Harvard Business Review articles of all time, Frederick Herzberg reveals research showing that the two primary internal motivators for people are achievement and recognition for achievement.”               

“Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer gathered anonymous diary entries from hundreds of people and covering thousands of workdays. On the basis of these hundreds of thousands of reflections, Amabile and Kramer concluded that ‘everyday progress—even a small win’ can make all the difference in how people feel and perform. ‘Of all the things that can boost emotions, motivation, and perceptions during a workday, the single most important is making progress in meaningful work,’ they said.”               

Adopt a method of “minimal viable progress.” Ask yourself, “What is the smallest amount of progress that will be useful and valuable to the essential task we are trying to get done?”               

Take a goal or deadline you have coming up and ask yourself, “What is the minimal amount I could do right now to prepare?”               

Chapter 18: Flow—The Genius of Routine

“The Essentialist designs a routine that makes achieving what you have identified as essential to the default position.”

Chapter 19: Focus—What’s Important Now?

To operate at your highest level of contribution requires that you deliberately tune in to what is important in the here and now.

“The ancient Greeks had two words for time. The first was chronos. The second was kairos. The Greek god Chronos was imagined as an elderly, grey-haired man, and his name connotes the literal ticking clock, the chronological time, the kind we measure (and race about trying to use efficiently). Kairos is different. While it is difficult to translate precisely, it refers to time that is opportune, right, different. Chronos is quantitative; kairos is qualitative. The latter is experienced only when we are fully in the moment—when we exist in the now.”

“Multi-tasking itself is not the enemy of Essentialism; pretending we can ‘multi-focus’ is.”               

“When faced with so many tasks and obligations that you can’t figure out which to tackle first, stop. Take a deep breath. Get present in the moment and ask yourself what is most important this very second—not what’s most important tomorrow or even an hour from now. If you’re not sure, make a list of everything vying for your attention and cross off anything that is not important right now.”               

Chapter 20: Be—The Essentialist Life               

“If you allow yourself to fully embrace Essentialism—to really live it, in everything you do, whether at home or at work—it can become a part of the way you see and understand the world.”               

“As these ideas become emotionally true, they take on the power to change you.”               

“The Greeks had a word, metanoia, that refers to a transformation of the heart.”               

“In many ways, to live as an Essentialist in our too-many-things-all-the-time society is an act of quiet revolution.”               

“Whatever decision or challenge or crossroads you face in your life, simply ask yourself, “What is essential?” Eliminate everything else.”

Recommended Reading

If you like Essentialism, you may also enjoy the following books:

Deep Work by Cal Newport

The Obstacle Is the Way by Ryan Holiday

The ONE Thing by Gary Keller

Buy this book–https://amzn.to/2SHBJ5U

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Create or Hate by Dan Norris

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Create or Hate Summary

The Book in Three Sentences

Most of us want to make something, but for any number of reasons haven’t

Hate works against our creativity and stops us from making things

Hate can be controlled and overpowered

The Five Big Ideas

Successful people make things.

The world will be a better place if we create what we want to create.

Hate stops us from making things (this is similar to what Steven Pressfield calls ‘Resistance’ in The War of Art).

Hate can be controlled, managed, and overpowered.

To conquer Hate, accept its presence and recognize it every time it rears its hideous head.

Create or Hate Summary

“Most of us have always wanted to make something, but for any number of reasons haven’t.”

Dan believes that the world will be a better place if we create what we want to create. He believes we will be happier, more fulfilled, and maybe even more successful if we create something.

Timing is a huge factor that is rarely acknowledged when it comes to success and can often be the difference between complete failure and monumental success.

“What a person starts with, who their friends are, and what they have access to are all factors that determine success.”

“I can’t tell you how to be successful. But I can tell you that if you don’t make anything, you won’t be successful.”

“Successful people make things.”

According to Robert Sutton, author and Professor of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford School of Engineering, “Creativity isn’t about wild talent as much as it’s about productivity. To find a few ideas that work, you need to try a lot that don’t. It’s a pure numbers game.”

“Being creative isn’t magic. It’s just a person deciding to create.”

“Don’t write yourself off just because your creations aren’t immediately successful, or aren’t considered great by the people who surround you.”

“If you are creating things, then you are creative.”

“Hate stops you from making things. Hate wasn’t there at the start. It’s been given power over the years and is now equipped with an arsenal of weapons designed to stop your creative self from making things. Hate doesn’t get joy from stopping your creative efforts, it just does its job.”

“Hate wins when you choose not to make things.”

“[Hate] doesn’t happen all of a sudden; it happens gradually, starting out with simple, innocent negativity, which slowly escalates.”

“People don’t want to admit that someone else made something, while they made nothing.”

“Haters don’t create anything, and instead get caught up in a never-ending cycle of Hate feeding Hate and criticism triumphing over creation.”

“Excuses are essentially lies.”

“Hate’s strongest weapon is to convince you of things that aren’t true, in order to stop you from making things.”

“Hate can be controlled, managed, and overpowered if you know how.”

“The first step in conquering Hate is to accept its presence and recognize it every time it rears its hideous head.”

“Listen for that little voice in your head, telling you—in quite reasonable and measured tones—why you can’t do something.”

The Excuses That Hate Comes Up With

1. “I don’t have enough time”

“Research has shown that elite performers don’t necessarily spend more time practicing. They are just more productive when they do practice. Learn how to use your time more productively to free up time for making things.”

“Things like single-tasking, smaller projects, tracking your progress, setting goals, doing timed work sessions free of interruption, and adding accountability are all proven methods for maximizing your productivity in a short amount of time.”

“When you have less time, you become more productive. It’s often then that you really start to see where your priorities lie.”

2. “What if I fail?”

“Failure is just course correction. “If you can fail quickly and without worry, you can correct course quicker, improve quicker, learn more, and achieve more.”

“If you aren’t regularly failing, you aren’t seeking a new destination.”

“Aim to fail at 97% or better, and you will be on par with the world’s smartest and most successful people.”

3. “What if I suck?”

“If you are telling yourself you suck, then what you are really saying is that you suck compared to someone else.”

“Comparison is a major creativity killer.”

“If Hate is telling you that you suck, just take a step back and think: do you actually suck? Probably not, so let’s just move on. If you do, then we can fix that too.”

4. “I should be doing X”

“Hate will try to convince you that you should be doing something other than creating.”

“One of the ways Hate presents this is via guilt.”

“Do more of what you love and you will be more successful.”

5. “It’s too hard”

“Feeling overwhelmed is another effective tactic that Hate uses to stop you from making things.”

“The thing you need to remember about achieving anything significant is that the biggest reason for failure is not starting.”

“Once you start, you are OK.”

6. “It’s probably been done”

“When entrepreneurs think up new ideas, Hate convinces them that someone else has probably done it before.”

“The biggest challenge in business isn’t having the best idea, it’s commanding the most attention. If you can get more attention for your idea than your competitors, you will win.”

“Doing things that have already been done might just be a smart way to go. If it’s already been done, good. Do it again, and do it better.”

7. “I need permission”

“You don’t need approval. You don’t need permission. You aren’t a child anymore.”

Zero Tolerance for Negativity

“Negativity is Hate’s currency.”

How to Avoid Negativity in Other People

Stop being friends with negative people

Spend less time with negative family members

Leave any groups that are dominated by negative people

Avoid friending negative people on social media.

How to Avoid Negativity in Yourself

Completely eliminate negative self-talk

Realize that negativity is boring and people don’t actually care

Listen to yourself next time you are communicating online or in person. Are you being negative about what is going on? Are you listening to what the other person has to say? Or are you only talking about yourself and your so-called ‘problems’?

Practice self-awareness, gratitude, and empathy on a regular basis.

Cultivate Self-Awareness

“Self-awareness is the key to recognizing and managing Hate.”

How to Cultivate a Healthy Level of Self-Awareness

Personality quizzes such as a DiSC Profile, Myers-Briggs types, or the Yohari Window are a good place to start

Avoid assumptions wherever possible, and look for the data

Fail a lot

Get better at reading between the lines

Be More Grateful, Be More Creative

“A lot of Hate stems from a lack of gratitude. Having a lack of gratitude will lead directly to negativity, which is the currency of Hate. If you can become more grateful, you will become less hateful and, therefore, more creative.”

How to Become More Grateful

Practice gratitude daily

Notice when others aren’t being grateful, so you can get constant reminders of the importance of gratitude

Attack a ‘Difficult Gratitude Problem,’ (or DGP). Let difficult circumstances trigger gratitude

Build variety into your life through your routine or with travel or become more observant to variety around you

Change, ‘I have to do x,’ to, ‘I get to do x.’

Helping out people who are less fortunate

Take a week off complaining, or at least a day

Don’t watch the news

Empathy Breeds Creativity

“Empathy is another way to kill negativity.”

“Becoming a more empathic person makes you more understanding, more grateful, less negative, and therefore more creative.”

“The secret to empathy is not imagining what it’s like to be in someone else’s shoes. Because all that does is put you in their shoes. It’s them in their shoes we need to understand, not you in their shoes.”

“When you prescribe simple solutions to people’s problems, that’s mistakenly putting yourself in someone else’s shoes.”

How to Be More Empathetic

Admit that: “I actually don’t understand anyone unless I make an attempt to understand them.”

Don’t rush into responses and don’t rush to judgment.

Don’t be so quick to assume you know everything about that person and why they are doing it. If you can judge people less, you can understand people better.

Notice empathy in others. If you can notice it when you see it, you are more likely to improve your own skills. Notice people who are curious, who don’t just talk about themselves but eagerly want to hear about others.

Spend more time in person with friends, customers, and business colleagues. Spending more time in person cuts through it all and helps you to remember and really understand the individual.

Don’t talk as much. During a conversation, listen more and ask open questions.

Create more things. The more you create, the more you will understand what people go through while putting their ideas out into the world.

Realize that empathy and sympathy are not the same thing. Take your time and really try to understand how it might feel to be that person. Avoid amplifying the grief of others by dwelling on their suffering.

The next time you are in a conversation, stop yourself from talking unless you absolutely have to. Just ask the occasional question if the silence is unbearable.

Learn to become a better listener and communicator.

Practice reading other people’s emotions. The more you can understand how people express emotions, the more you will understand other people.

“If you are an entrepreneur, empathy is your business.”

Am I Good Enough?

“One of the biggest reasons people don’t make things is because they let Hate convince them that they aren’t good enough.”

“Perfectionism is another trick Hate will use to stop you from making things. If Hate can convince you that everything has to be perfect, it knows you won’t begin, or at least that you won’t finish the task you are striving to complete.”

“If you feel like you aren’t good enough, the first thing to think about is whether or not you have to be good.”

“No matter what you do, it always helps to be as good as you can be. But you don’t always have to be the best in the world to do something successfully.”

“If you really feel like you can’t be good at something, and you are really honest with yourself, you can do something else.”

“There is no magic bullet that will kill Hate off for good. Instead, you need to constantly practice creating more. You can’t just become creative or be creative indefinitely.”

Create More Than You Consume

“Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.” —Henry David Thoreau

“Understand that you have two choices: to create something or consume something.”

“If you want to be an actively creative person, you have to create more than you consume.”

“Create so much they can’t ignore you.”

“Make your creative projects simpler, and you’ll be more likely to start.”

“In order for your creativity to thrive, you need to feed it.”

“There’s something about a change of scenery that puts you in the mood to create.”

“The first 12,000 words of my second book, Content Machine, were written on a six-hour flight. I wrote 6,000 words for my third book, Operation Brewery, when we flew to China to inspect our brewing equipment. The last 10,000 words were written on a flight to the U.S., where I also wrote the first 5,000 words of this book.” (Norris refers to Peter Shankman who we learned about in Deep Work)

“Make sure that whether you are in your work space or out and about, you have a creativity toolkit that allows you to spring into action and embrace your creative impulses when they surface.”

“Create with others, help others, and creativity will flourish.”

Other Books by Dan Norris

The 7-Day Startup

Recommended Reading

If you like Create or Hate, you may also like the following books:

The Art of Work by Jeff Goins

Deep Work by Cal Newport

The War of Art by Steven Pressfield

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Virality isn’t born, it’s made.

When we care, we share.

Virality is most valuable when the brand or product benefit is integral to the story. When it’s woven so deeply into the narrative that people can’t tell the story without mentioning it.

The Five Big Ideas

“One reason some products and ideas become popular is that they are just plain better”.

“We need to design products and ideas that are frequently triggered by the environment and create new triggers by linking our products and ideas to prevalent cues in that environment”.

“Naturally contagious content usually evokes some sort of emotion”.

“We need to design products and initiatives that advertise themselves and create behavioral residue that sticks around even after people have bought the product or espoused the idea”.

“People don’t just share information, they tell stories”.

Principles of Virality

Social Currency

Triggers

Emotion

Public

Practical Value

Stories

Contagious Summary

“Wein didn’t create just another cheesesteak, he created a conversation piece”.

“One reason some products and ideas become popular is that they are just plain better”.

“Research by the Keller Fay Group finds that only 7 percent of word of mouth happens online”.

“Virality isn’t born, it’s made”.

“How does it make people look to talk about a product or idea?”

“Triggers are stimuli that prompt people to think about related things”.

“People often talk about whatever comes to mind, so the more often people think about a product or idea, the more it will be talked about”.

“We need to design products and ideas that are frequently triggered by the environment and create new triggers by linking our products and ideas to prevalent cues in that environment”.

“When we care, we share”.

“Naturally contagious content usually evokes some sort of emotion”.

“Can people see when others are using our product or engaging in our desired behavior?”

“We need to design products and initiatives that advertise themselves and create behavioral residue that sticks around even after people have bought the product or espoused the idea”.

“People like to help others, so if we can show them how our products or ideas will save time, improve health, or save money, they’ll spread the word”.

“What broader narrative can we wrap our idea in?”

“People don’t just share information, they tell stories”.

“We need to make our message so integral to the narrative that people can’t tell the story without it”.

“People share things that make them look good to others”.

“Just as people use money to buy products or services, they use social currency to achieve desired positive impressions among their families, friends, and colleagues”.

“Give people a way to make themselves look good while promoting their products and ideas along the way. There are three ways to do that: (1) find inner remarkability; (2) leverage game mechanics; and (3) make people feel like insiders”.

“Remarkable things provide social currency because they make the people who talk about them seem, well, more remarkable”.

“One way to generate surprise is by breaking a pattern people have come to expect”.

“Emphasize what’s remarkable about a product or idea and people will talk”.

“People don’t just care about how they are doing, they care about their performance in relation to others”.

“Game mechanics help generate social currency because doing well makes us look good”.

“People are talking because they want to show off their achievements, but along the way they talk about the brands (Delta or Twitter) or domains (golf or the SAT) where they achieved”.

“Both used scarcity and exclusivity to make customers feel like insiders”.

“People don’t need to be paid to be motivated”.

“People are happy to talk about companies and products they like, and millions of people do it for free every day, without prompting. But as soon as you offer to pay people to refer other customers, any interest they had in doing it for free will disappear”.

“Give people a product they enjoy, and they’ll be happy to spread the word”.

“Interesting products didn’t get any more ongoing word of mouth than boring ones”.

“Triggers are like little environmental reminders for related concepts and ideas”.

“Why does it matter if particular thoughts or ideas are top of mind? Because accessible thoughts and ideas lead to action”.

“Different locations contain different triggers”.

“Could voting in a church lead people to think more negatively about abortion or gay marriage? Could voting in a school lead people to support education funding?”

“Top of mind means tip of tongue”.

“But as we saw in our fruits and vegetable study, a strong trigger can be much more effective than a catchy slogan. Even though they hated the slogan, college students ate more fruits and vegetables when cafeteria trays triggered reminders of the health benefits. Just being exposed to a clever slogan didn’t change behavior at all”.

“Products and ideas also have habitats or sets of triggers that cause people to think about them”.

“Triggers and cues lead people to talk, choose, and use. Social currency gets people talking, but Triggers keep them talking. Top of mind means tip of tongue”.

“Two reasons people might share things are that they are interesting and that they are useful”.

“It turns out that science articles frequently chronicle innovations and discoveries that evoke a particular emotion in readers. That emotion? Awe”.

“Awe is the sense of wonder and amazement that occurs when someone is inspired by great knowledge, beauty, sublimity, or might”.

“Articles that evoked anger or anxiety were more likely to make the Most E-Mailed list”.

“Rather than harping on features or facts, we need to focus on feelings; the underlying emotions that motivate people to action”.

“If situational factors end up making us physiologically aroused, we may end up sharing more than we planned”.

“Observability has a huge impact on whether products and ideas catch on”.

“Designing products that advertise themselves is a particularly powerful strategy for small companies or organizations that don’t have a lot of resources”.

“Behavioral residue is the physical traces or remnants that most actions or behaviors leave in their wake”.

“If something is built to show, it’s built to grow”.

“People like to pass along practical, useful information. News others can use”.

“Offering practical value helps make things contagious”.

“One of the biggest drivers of whether people share promotional offers is whether the offer seems like a good deal”.

“Not surprisingly, the size of the discount influences how good a deal seems.More people said they would purchase the grill in scenario A, even though they would have had to pay a higher price ($250 rather than $240) to get it”.

“The way people actually make decisions often violates standard economic assumptions about how they should make decisions”.

“Judgments and decisions are not always rational or optimal. Instead, they are based on psychological principles of how people perceive and process information”.

“One of the main tenets of prospect theory is that people don’t evaluate things in absolute terms. They evaluate them relative to a comparison standard, or ‘reference point’”.

“Diminishing sensitivity reflects the idea that the same change has a smaller impact the farther it is from the reference point”.

“If the product’s price is less than $100, the Rule of 100 says that percentage discounts will seem larger”.

“Stories, then, can act as vessels, carriers that help transmit information to others”.

“Information travels under the guise of what seems like idle chatter”.

“Virality is most valuable when the brand or product benefit is integral to the story. When it’s woven so deeply into the narrative that people can’t tell the story without mentioning it”.

“Certain characteristics make products and ideas more likely to be talked about and shared”.

Recommended Reading

If you like Contagious, you may also enjoy the following books:

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink

Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces that Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely

Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin

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How Not To Be Wrong shows you that math is really just the science of common sense and that studying a few key mathematical ideas can help you assess risks better, make the right decisions, navigate the world effortlessly and be wrong a lot less.

Over the past few weeks, all roads have led towards math and statistics for me. One of my favorite writers, Nat Eliason, has been dealing a lot with fighting the biases that damage our decision-making, by cataloging mental models on his blog. A lot of the books I’ve read through Blinkist recently were on how to use statistics and math to make your life easier. Finally, three of the classes I attended last week were also about statistics, for example one on Friday explained Bayes’ Theorem.

Because you can never learn enough about navigating the world in a better way, I feel the positive changes from studying these mental biases keep compounding, which is why I’m happy to announce that today’s book “How Not To Be Wrong” falls into the same category.

Renowned mathematician Jordan Ellenberg has been writing about his mathematical research for the general public for over 15 years, which surely helped in making this book a bestseller (and one of Bill Gates’s favorites).

Here are 3 lessons from it to help you be wrong less often:

• Mathematics is mostly based on common sense, and we use it more than we think.
• Probability and risk are two different things.
• The findings of scientific research are often wrong, for three reasons.

I hope you’re ready for yet another software upgrade for your mind, because numbers don’t lie! Let’s go!

Lesson 1: You use mathematics more than you think, because it’s mostly just common sense.

The most beautiful thing about math is that it allows you to determine with 100% certainty whether something is true or not. Of course, the occasions where you apply Pythagoras’s Theorem in daily life are few, but that doesn’t mean you don’t use the underlying principles of math.

Jordan thinks of math as “the science of not being wrong.” This makes solving even common problems by intuitively using logic and reason “math” problems, though you’d never call them that.

For example, in WWII, military advisors looked at all the American planes that returned from Europe, covered in bullet holes. Because the fuselage often had a lot more holes in it than the engine, they suggested better protecting that part of the plane.

However, one mathematician pointed out that those planes were only the ones that survived and returned home, suggesting that the ones who did take lots of shots to the engines were probably those that never made it back.

This is called survivorship bias, which is the mistake of focusing on only the positive results or data points, when analyzing things. It’s the same force at play when you hear about another huge startup exit, because the media always neglect the thousands of companies that fail.

Note: I recently found a great video that explains survivorship bias in even more detail, which you can watch here.

Lesson 2: We often use probability to assess risk, but they’re not the same.

Here’s another mistake we often make: Confusing probability and risk. Because we use probability to assess how risky a bet, an investment, or an action we want to take is, we think that’s all there is to it – but it’s not.

For example, if you went to play roulette at a casino, you could simply calculate the probability of winning vs. losing money in the long run by computing what’s called your expected value. On a French roulette wheel, there are 37 numbers, ranging from 0 to 36.

Half are red, half are black, with the 0 being green, a neutral color, which you can’t bet on. If you bet $1 on red, you have an 18/37 chance of doubling your money (because 18 of the 37 numbers are red) and an 18/37 chance of losing that dollar. However, because there’s an extra 1/37 chance of losing your dollar (because you’ll also lose if the wheel lands on 0), your expected value becomes: 18/37 * 1 (you win) – 19/37 * 1 (you lose) = -$0.027

Knowing that in the long run, you’ll lose money, you can then decide not to take this risk.

But that’s not all the risk a bet entails. Now consider this example. Would you rather…

Get $50,000.

Have a 50:50 chance of losing $100,000 or getting $200,000?

The expected value is the same, $50,000, but because the negative result in the second scenario would be really bad, the risk is a lot higher, even though it’s not reflected in the probability at all.

You can’t use just probability to assess risk, you also have to think about how bad potential negative outcomes really are, if they do occur, and take that into account.

Lesson 3: You should always question the findings of scientific research, because there are several problems with them.

“New study shows milk is related to Alzheimer’s.” “This study reveals how much work you really do while at the office.”

New headlines like these pop up every day, but Jordan says we should always take these with a grain of salt, because of three reasons:

Sometimes even insignificant results can pass statistic tests. For example with a standard significance level of 95%, 5,000 out of 100,000 genes tested for causing schizophrenia will show up as positive by chance – but imagine only 10 really cause schizophrenia, then that result is useless.

Unsuccessful studies are rarely published. This is the exact survivorship bias described above. If 19 studies testing chocolate for causing constipation fail, but one finds a significant correlation, that last, 20th one is usually published, changing your perception of the issue completely.

Researchers fake results. Even though they have great intentions, researchers are humans too, so if they need just one more percentage point in the results to be positive, in order to comply with scientific standards, they might slightly tweak the data, because they’re convinced what they found is true.

As you can see, statistical errors sneak their way all the way up into even the highest circles of scientific research, so it’s normal that they have a tremendous impact on you too. But by becoming aware of them, you’re taking the first step towards avoiding mistakes caused by biases – like a true mathematician.

My personal take-aways

I could’ve cited a every lesson, this book is awesome, it’s an unequivocal YES from me!