Talking To Strangers
Malcolm Gladwell
Summary
Gladwell does a great job explaining how we really have no idea what other people are thinking, even those we think we know really well
Rating: 4/5
Notes
We believe info gathered from meeting a person is uniquely valuable but it’s not always true
Strangers are not easy to understand
When we listen to strangers, we operate under the assumption they are telling the truth
We need a trigger to snap out of the default to truth but threshold for triggers is high
Alcohol is not an agent of disinhibition but an agent of myopia where it creates a feeling of short sightedness where everything in the short term becomes much more important. When you’re drunk, the understanding of yourself changes
The right way to talk to strangers is with caution and humility
Coupling is a concept where one thing is directly associated with something else (suicide off the golden gate bridge)
- You need to understand context in which the stranger is operating
Like suicide, crime is connected to places and context
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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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