Essentialism
Greg Mckeown
Summary
Focusing on the small essential things and forgetting about everything else
Rating: 4/5
Notes
‘The wisdom of life exists in the elimination of non-essential things’ - Lin Yutang
Less but better
If you don’t prioritize your life, someone else will
The pursuit of success can be a catalyst for failure
Have the courage to live the life true to yourself, not the lives others expect of you
Almost everything is noise and very few things are exceptionally valuable
3 core truths: I chose too, only a few things really matter, I can do anything but not everything
We may not have control over our options but we always have control over how we choose them
An essentialist thinks almost everything is non-essential
Ignoring the reality of trade-offs is terrible for people and organizations
We can try to avoid the reality of trade-offs but we cannot escape them
Essentialists spend as much time as possible exploring, listening, debating, questioning and thinking
‘Without great solitude, no serious work is possible’ - Picasso
Create space to escape and explore life
To have focus, you must escape to focus
Set email to bounce within specific times to create space
If you can, take a week off and read
The best listeners listen to what others do not hear
‘A little nonsense now and then is cherish by the wisest men’ - Roald Dahl
Play: anything we do simply for the joy of doing rather than a means to an end
Play doesn’t just help us to explore what is essential. It is essential in and of itself
Protect the asset - yourself
Encourage sleep in those around you
Our highest priority is to protect our ability to prioritize
If something is just or almost good enough, the answer should be no
When deciding on a vision, keep it concrete and inspirational - an essential intent
‘The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing’ - Stephen Corey
Saying ‘no’ often requires trading popularity with respect
Get comfortable with cutting losses. Don’t fall into sunk cost bias
Get over the fear of missing out
Making things better means subtracting something. Eliminate distracting words, images and details
Set boundaries for your time because if you don’t, other people won’t respect them
Build in a buffer for unexpected events
People underestimate how long a task will take, even if they done it before
Produce more by removing more instead of doing more
Start small and get big results. Celebrate small acts of progress
Creare new triggers to create new habits
Figure out what’s most important right now and do that
‘In work do what you enjoy. In family life, be completely present’ - lao Taxu
When facing a decision or challenge, ask ‘what’s essential?’ Eliminate everything else
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Make Something Wonderful
Steve Jobs
Summary
The life of Steve Jobs in his own words
Rating: 5/5
Notes
Make something wonderful and put it out there
‘You appear, have a chance to blaze in the sky, then you disappear’
When you’re a stranger in a place, you notice thing you don’t otherwise (Jobs after India trip)
Whenever you start with nothing, always shoot for the moon. You have nothing to lose.
You never achieve what you want without falling on your face a few times
Never be afraid to fail. You never achieve what you want without falling flat on your face a few times
We are never taught to listen to our intuitions, to develop and nurture them. But if you do pay attention to these subtle insights, you can make them come true
Creativity equals connecting previously unrelated experiences and insights others don’t see
Believe that some of what you follow with your heart will come back and make your life richer. And it will. And you will gain even firmer trust on your instincts and intuitions
Make your avocation your vocation. Make what you love your work.
The journey is the reward. The reward isn’t in the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, it’s in crossing the rainbow
To find A+ talent, if experienced, look at their track record and results
The world we know is a human creation and we can push it forward
The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do (read whole ad ‘here’s to the crazy ones)
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act but a habit - Aristotle
Hire people better than you are
You can’t plan to meet the people who will change your life
It’s impossible to connect the dots looking forward, but they make sense looking backwards so you have to trust the dots will somehow connect in your future
Everything around you that you call life was made up by people no smarter than you
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