Loonshots
Safi Bahcall
Summary
A great look into how ideas that change the world often are rejected using multiple real world examples.
Rating: 4/5
Notes
You need to separate the early innovators from the soldiers who grow it
Love your artists and soldiers equally
In order for any loonshot to be successful, it must go through at least 3 deaths (possible more)
Learn to investigate a false fail from a true fail
The best project champions are fluent in artist-speak and soldier-speak who need to bring both sides together
Listen to the suck with curiosity (LSC) which means no matter how much someone attacks your failure, learn to investigate it with an open mind
Continuously ask yourself why didn’t something work with curiosity
Nurturing the s-type (small-type) loonshots is more important than the P-loonshots (which are more glitzy/glamorous)
- Small changes in strategy are what makes huge differences
Don’t fall into the trap when ideas advance based on a leader, not the feedback b/w soldiers and creatives (always ask the people doing it)
Manage the transfer rather than the technology and always evolve with other people’s feedback
The richer stories in history are down to genius and serendipity
Change from an outcome mindset to a system mindset where instead of asking why you made a decision, analyze how
Separate the phases, create dynamic equilibrium and spread a system mindset
In finance, terrorism, etc. the power of 2.5x is a significant pattern
Dunbar’s number of 150 is integral and the threshold to get people together
Give people autonomy and soft equity so that there incentive isn’t just money
Open innovation is the key to the future because everyone wins
Creative talent responds best to feedback from their peers
Use ‘disruptive innovation’ to analyze history, nurture loonshots to test beliefs
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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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Free E-book download here
