Category: Psychology
BR 168: Mastery by Robert Greene
Category: 1 – Read ASAP! (All Categories are 1 – Read ASAP!, 2 – BUY it!, 3 – SHELF it, 4 – SOMEDAY it)
Comments: A Robert Greene masterclass. Lovely mix of biographical stories wrapped within a compelling framework. A lot of the stuff isn’t new. But, the combination is potent.
Top 3 Learnings:
1. Mastery is a culmination of years of intense deep work. There is no easy way.
2. Apprenticeship is both awesome and dangerous. On the one hand, your learning curve speeds up with great mentors. However, very few mentors turn out to be large minded enough to “let go” – it is the typical bad parent problem all over again
3. Developing emotional intelligence is a useful tool to make sure your mastery gets the credit it deserves. This section spoke to me. I assumed I had high EI but had learnt from a relationship that that wasn’t the case. This chapter taught me one simple but critical lesson – stop listening to what people say. Instead, listen to what they do.
Book notes here
BR 166: Essentialism by Greg McKeown
Category: 2 – BUY it! (All Categories are 1 – Read ASAP!, 2 – BUY it!, 3 – SHELF it, 4 – SOMEDAY it)
Comments: Good book overall. Greg’s concepts and thoughts definitely resonated and felt consistent. However, I felt that the book repeatedly prescribed ways to do things and hardly ever spoke about the psychology or the “why” behind things. In that sense, I felt it lacked the depth I’d have liked and often skated over the difficult stuff. And, I felt it was often a collection of lists without structure. (as a good illustration, I had to go back to the book notes to write my 3 top learnings..)
Top 3 Learnings:
1. A lovely story about Stephen Covey prioritizing his daughter above a friend who he ran into. The learning here was that we need to learn to say no to stuff we don’t prioritize so we can say yes to the stuff we do prioritize
2. Mission statements need to be concrete and inspirational (think of them as a 2×2)
3. Less is more. :)
Book notes here
BR 161: The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman
Category: 3 – SHELF it (All Categories are 1 – Read ASAP!, 2 – BUY it!, 3 – SHELF it, 4 – SOMEDAY it)
Comments and Learning:
1. This is a very important book – designers all over have probably read this book. I think of it as a must read if you are interested in anything to do with design. I read this as I was thinking of product design.
2. If a user keeps making an error when using your product, the problem is with your product.
3. Learnings here
BR 144: Decisive by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
Category: 1 – Read ASAP! (All Categories are 1 – Read ASAP!, 2 – BUY it!, 3 – SHELF it, 4 – SOMEDAY it)
Comments: I think the Heath brothers are the best business book authors out there. Made to Stick was brilliant. They managed to surpass it with “Switch.” And, against the odds, they’ve delivered another great book.
As always, a perfect blend of stories, research “wrapped” in an easy-to-remember and apply framework. I’ve begun implementing the learnings from this book already and I’m sure it will go on to be a very important part of my decision making.
(Add on Mar 16 2016: Quick add more than a year after writing this post: This book did impact my decision making and I carry the WRAP framework card in my wallet. )
Top 3 learnings:
Instead of 3 learnings, I’ll share a somewhat long overall synthesis. Please ignore the formatting – this is just a copy paste. You’ll see a better formatted learnographic on http://www.learnographics.com soon. :)
The first step to decision making is understanding the difference between kind environments and wicked environments.
Kind environments – where feedback is clear, immediate, and unbiased by the act of prediction. e.g. the weather.
Wicked environments – where feedback is unclear, delayed and biased by the act of prediction. e.g. stock markets, new products introductions.
“Gut” works well in kind environments e.g. if you are well trained in chess/football, you know there are only so many different possibilities. So, your gut is an important data point.
In the stock markets, however, the gut might be a data point but doesn’t suffice. Life is also a wicked environment. As a result, we tend to make decisions with narrow frames and overweight the short term.
We need a good decision making process to make good long term decisions. Hence, the WRAP framework –
W – Widen your options (avoid narrow frames and “whether or not” decisions)
R – Reality test your assumptions (fight confirmation bias)
A – Attain distance before deciding (resist short term influences, make decisions aligned to core priorities)
P – Prepare to be wrong (don’t get cocky about your decisions)
W – Widen your options (avoid narrow frames and “whether or not” decisions)
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Make sure you have at least 3 options before making a decision – and think AND not OR – can you follow multiple options at once?
Whenever you hear a decision being prefaced by “whether or not,” it is time to reconsider.
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Find someone who has solved your problem.
Sam Walton who made many Walmart decisions by copying competitors. -
Toggle between “Promotion” and “Prevention” mindsets.
Circuit City’s actions in the aftermath of the 2001 stock market crash was a perfect example – they cut down underperforming stores (prevention) and also invested in new product lines (promotion)
R – Reality test your assumptions (fight confirmation bias)
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Tripadvisor it! Zoom out (consider base rates) and zoom in (take a close up)
Pick a job like you would a sushi bar on tripadvisor. Speak to lots of people and get an overall rating. Then, take a close up at negative feedback.
Similarly, when engaging with experts, don’t ask them for predictions. Ask them historical trends and understand them to really understand your probabilities of success. -
Fight confirmation bias – spark constructive disagreement by considering the opposite point of view
Alfred Sloan, legendary CEO of General Motors, refused to make decisions if there wasn’t at least one opposing point of view. -
Ooch before you leap
An “ooch” is a small experiment to test a hypothesis. Approach a decision like a designer approaches a design – put together a prototype first and gather feedback.
A – Attain distance before deciding (resist short term influences, make decisions aligned to core priorities)
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Identify and refer to your 3 core priorities
Take stock of what matters to you. You might decide against that expensive car if your long term priorities are to save and invest wisely. -
What would you advise your best friend to do? / What would a new person do?
Intel took one of it’s biggest decisions after years of debate – getting out of memory and focusing entirely on processors – by asking the question “What would a new person do?” -
Try the 10/10/10 rule
How would you feel 10 minutes from now? What about 10 months from now? And 10 years from now?
P – Prepare to be wrong (don’t get cocky about your decisions)
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Bookend the future – view it as a full spectrum of possibilities
A top fund manager creates a whole range of potential future stock prices and a list of criteria that would make the upper end of the range more of a possibility. Predicting the future is impossible – viewing it as a spectrum of possibilities is realistic and guards against over confidence. -
Set a tripwire/trigger to review your decision
What if Kodak, who religiously followed their 1980 report that said digital cameras would not get mainstream in the next decade, had a set a “tripwire” saying that they would review their decision not to enter digital cameras if adoption was greater than 10%? Would it have filed for bankruptcy in 2010? -
Create a realistic job preview
Call centers did a much better job of retaining employees when they gave them a one day job preview taking them through the worst situations they might face. This triggered all sorts of coping mechanisms and also increased determination among the future employees.
If you were to make a quick spur-of-the-moment decision, I’d suggest a quick version of the WRAP process
W – Make sure you have at least 3 options or find someone who has solved your problem
R – Tripadvisor it!
A – Identify and refer to your 3 core priorities
P – View the future as a spectrum of possibilities and set a tripwire
The key principle – Follow and trust the process. You might fail on individual decisions. That’s okay.
BR 141: Give and Take by Adam Grant
Category: 2 – BUY it! (All Categories are 1 – Read ASAP!, 2 – BUY it!, 3 – SHELF it, 4 – SOMEDAY it)
Comments: A very good book. It does really make you think about how you lead your life and establishes giving to be the best long term strategy.
Top 3 Learnings
1. There are 3 kinds of people – givers, takers and matchers. Takers never do well in the short term, matchers do consistently well whereever they go and the givers are either at the top or the very bottom of their fields. The givers at the top of their fields are what Grant calls “Other”-ish givers. They have a self interest in giving but don’t give at the expense of their performance. The givers at the bottom are those who give even if it is not in their long term interest to do so. Give a lot.. but be a bit selfish (not self centered) about it.
2. It is best to “chunk” your giving rather than do little bits every day. People who volunteer 3 hours on a weekend are happier than those who do 30 mins every day. 100 hours was found to be the golden number for volunteering that gave maximum happiness returns.
3. It is in our interest to give a lot more than we get. In the old economy, takers weren’t as easily found out as today. Our track record follows us everywhere and being short term focused isn’t a good strategy.. and definitely isn’t a path to happiness.
Book notes here
BR 140: Improv Wisdom by Patricia Ryan Madson
Category: 2 – BUY it! (All Categories are 1 – Read ASAP!, 2 – BUY it!, 3 – SHELF it, 4 – SOMEDAY it)
Comments: This is a really fast paced, fun book with many simple but actionable insights on how to live a happier life. Improv acting sounds very fun and Patricia Ryan Madson distils 12 principles for us to follow and incorporate into our lives.
I enjoyed the book and interviewed Patricia too – she was everything I’d imagined her to be after reading her book.
Top 3 Learnings
1. Life is no different from an improv act. You can make all the plans you want.. but you just have to learn to improvise to be happy.
2. Patricia cautions us against over preparation. Often, we overdo the amount of preparation and forget to be human and fallible.
3. Notice your gifts. Every day, we use and consume things that have been made with a lot of effort by others. It is only when we learn to notice these gifts and become more aware of our blessings do we get better at improv and thus, life.
Book notes here
BR 139: The Art of Possibility by Benjamin Zander and Rosamund Zander
Category: 1 – Read ASAP! (All Categories are 1 – Read ASAP!, 2 – BUY it!, 3 – SHELF it, 4 – SOMEDAY it)
Comments: The reason this book is in the top rung is not because it unearths some revolutionary or novel concept. It is because it advocates a way of thinking that has the power to revolutionize our life. Stephen Covey brought to light our ability to respond to situations (instead of just reacting to them) in his chapter “Be Proactive” but Ben and Roz take it to the next level by imploring us to make finding “possibility” a habit.
Top 3 learnings:
1. Remember rule no.6. Don’t take yourself so damn seriously. I need this on a plaque. :)
2. Seeing possibility is a way of life. It’s the learning approach to life – possibility has this magical ring to it. And rightly so.. viewing everything we do from the lens of possibility may be hard work but adds so much in terms of happiness, creativity, fun, and joy.
3. When you make a mistake, say “HOW fascinating.” Again, this isn’t just a cosmetic change. It involves a fundamental change in the way we view mistakes. Hard to do.. but I’m hopeful I will be able to implement it.
Book notes here
BR 125: Willpower by Roy Baumeister
Category: 1 – Read ASAP! (All Categories are 1 – Read ASAP!, 2 – BUY it!, 3 – SHELF it, 4 – SOMEDAY it)
Comments: Brilliant book by one of the pioneers of Willpower research.
Top 3 learnings:
1. Will power is like a muscle. There is only so much reserve we have until we recharge. That reserve is what we tap into for various activities in a day – primarily in the categories of resisting temptations and doing things that we don’t want to do that are generally good for us.
For example, we extract will power out of this reserve to resist a delicious chocolate snack as well as to keep patience while interacting with a frustrating co-worker.
2. Ego depletion is a serious issue. The depletion of this will power reserve results in ego depletion. Ego depletion is interesting – all of a sudden we lose self control and hit the “what the hell” effect. As a result, we suddenly irrationally indulge. So, if we hit ego depletion while on a diet, we suddenly go on a crazy binge.
Ego depletion explains why important people often make really stupid decisions in their personal life – sex scandals, etc. Decision making plays havoc with will power and ego depletion results in indulgence.
So, how do we prevent ego depletion? a) Food at regular intervals as glucose is critical to will power b) Sleep – the only long term recharge available!
(Ego depletion is what is referred to in the quote “things will look better in the morning”)
3. The best use of will power is to form habits.
Let’s take an example – I want to exercise every morning before I get to work. It’s not sustainable to keep using will power every day as I’ll start the day with very little in reserve. Instead, I ought to use the will power to create a cue, habit and reward to create a sustainable exercise habit. Once this is done, I won’t have to worry about exercise since it becomes an automatic process.
This explains what successful people do well. They use their will power reserves wisely to create great habits!
(See our learnographic for a summary)
BR 122: Stumbling on Happiness by Dan Gilbert
Category: 3 – SHELF it (All Categories are 1 – Read ASAP!, 2 – BUY it!, 3 – SHELF it, 4 – SOMEDAY it)
Comments: This is a very good book and almost makes it to the “Buy it!” list. The trouble I had with it is that there is no structure and this makes it rather difficult to absorb in the audio version. Some really really good insights, though.
Top 3 learnings:
1. The best way to sustain happiness is to do something in intervals. So, if you have access to something amazing, do it in intervals e.g. a fancy meal every few weeks vs every day.
2. We greatly underestimate 2 big factors in our judging of our experience – the strength of our personal immune system and our ability to project our current feelings into the future.
As a result, we underestimate how well we will cope with most kinds of adversity/loss. And, we make very poor predictions of how we will feel after an experience
3. Surrogation (i.e. making a judgment based on someone else’s experience) is a very interesting technique to gauge happiness. We like thinking we are unique but in reality, we are not. So, the best way to judge if you will be happy after a decision to ask others who’ve been through the experience. There is a certain wisdom in the crowd.
Marler's Observatory 