Steven
Key takeaways:
- Challenge every assumption you have. Look for reasons you might be wrong, and learn to find joy in being wrong.
- Think like a scientist. Avoid Preacher, Prosecutor, and Politician modes.
- Ask, “What evidence would change your mind?” and, “What would need to be true for me to rethink this?”
- Grey areas are important. People are more inclined to rethink their views if they are shown issues as ‘gray' rather than just seeing the other side.
- One of the most effective ways to help people rethink: Help them consider what they would believe if they were born into a different circumstance. “How do you think you would feel about the issue of police violence if you lived in a marginalized community?”
- Effective leaders normalize vulnerability by admitting their own mistakes and times they have received feedback.
- There are too many ‘takeaways' in this book to try to narrow it down to just a small handful. I'll reread this book often.
Key takeaways:
- Every hire should raise the bar. Every hire should raise the average of the department.
- Relentlessly lower costs for customers. What changes can we make to consistently have the lowest rates?
- Our customers are smart and informed.
- Jeff focuses predominantly on two things: The customer experience and offering the lowest prices.
- Just in time innovation misses the mark. We need to anticipate customer needs and build solutions before they know they need it. Use this to look for ways to save your customers money. It delights and wows them. For example, if we have a member with a large amount of money in their chequing account, or a member who is paying more fees on their accounts than necessary, or a member who signs a loan and the rate drops before we advance, and we call them to tell them about ways to save money, it will build loyalty. Yes, it will cost us some money, but enough experiences like this will build a loyalty that will be hard to shake. If we lose $250 per year in service fees, but gain a 25 year mortgage that won't leave, we are ahead. If we pay a little more in interest on deposits, but we get a lifetime member, and their family's business, we are ahead.
- If you take a long view, shareholder and customer values align. What's good for the customer is good for business.
- Operations must serve the purpose, they are not the purpose themselves.
- Keep fixed problems fixed. It's not enough to fix a problem, it needs to stay fixed.
- As a leader, your job is to make a few good, high quality decisions each day, not thousands.
- Good failure: Trying something new they has big potential to work, then failing. Bad failure: Doing something you've done before with poor execution. That's sloppy.
- What will still be true in 10 years? Focus on these things. Effort spent in these areas will continue to pay dividends. Customers will still want lower costs, faster shipping, and better service.
- Type 1 vs type 2 decisions. Type one decisions are one way doors. Once you have made this decision, you are stuck. It's not easily reversed. You need to live with the consequences. Type 2 decisions are two way doors. If things don't go the way you expect, you don't need to live with the consequences for long. These can be reversed without too much difficulty or damage. You can make type 2 decisions quite quickly. You want to make type 1 decisions differently.
- Slow decision making is bad for morale.
Maybe it happened, maybe not. I have no trouble believing it's possible. What I do struggle to believe is that the author would have been so up in arms had it been the ‘other side' behind these actions.
What I know for sure is that the further you go to either extreme on the political spectrum, the harder it is for me to give credence to your views. I don't think there are very many issues that are as black and white as most people like to believe. Saying things like “any thinking person would...” or bollocking entire groups of people just because the believe something different than you makes it very difficult for me to think much about what you are saying.
It's hard to know what is true and what isn't. Spending time in an echo chamber makes it very nearly impossible.
I didn't like the author's style. It was repetitive, egotistical, and too confident.
Key takeaways:
- A great–or terrible, I suppose–example of blindness caused by hubris. Be very careful being 100% confident of anything–it makes it hard to change your mind in light of new evidence.
I was pulled in by this book. Mr. McCarthy did an amazing job writing this book, giving enough detail that you could tell what was going on, leaving enough out that you could fill in the blanks with your imagination.
The book started slow, going through many previous innovations and making some light commentary about them. About halfway through the book became intensely practical. I was stopping every few minutes to make notes.
Key takeaways:
- Innovation is simply evolution of ideas.
- You should strive for evolution, not revolution. Big, drastic changes rarely work. Even changes that look big and drastic are usually a cumulation of slow, steady progress unveiled.
- Innovation seems obvious in hindsight, but is impossible to predict in the moment.
- Invention vs innovation. Innovation is not making something new, but putting things together in a new way.
- “Failure is only the opportunity to begin again, more intelligently.” Henry Ford
- Bankruptcy laws can stimulate or stifle innovation. States with the homestead exception, allowing you to keep your home through bankruptcy, have considerably more business innovation. As someone that has worked in credit, I have often been frustrated by bankruptcy laws. It is a good reminder that–in certain arenas–bankruptcy can benefit society.
- A recurring theme in this book is that innovation REQUIRES collaboration. Holding too tightly to patents can hinder, rather than help. Come up with your best idea, and share it widely. Someone else will take your foundation and build on it. Then you can benefit from their advances.
- The Monkey Principal: Tackle the hardest part first. If your plan involves a monkey reciting Shakespeare while standing on a pedestal, focus on teaching the monkey to speak. Don't start with building the pedestal.
- Being wrong may hurt, but being slow will kill you. You're better off to try a few things and fail, then you are to be left in the dust.
- Amazon has a reverse veto system. An idea must be forwarded to higher ups even if all buy one of the managers thinks the idea is rubbish.
Major recurring ideas through the book: Innovate often. Share your ideas freely. Too much regulation or red tape stifles innovation. Innovation is good for society as a whole. As your organization gets bigger, it's harder to innovate–there must be a plan for how you will continue to move forward.
Key takeaways:
- I appreciated the way Mr. Obama somehow made being president seem both like a regular job and completely unlike a regular job at the same time. Reading this book, I was struck by how often I flipped between two thoughts: I could never be president, it sounds way too complicated, and I could probably handle being president, it doesn't sound that hard. I'll attribute that to Mr. Obama's ability to humanize the role, not my own ability to handle the pressures of being president.
- Being president is just management. While reading this book, the perspective I took away is that effective management is two parts: 1) Getting experts to work for you and balancing all the concerns your experts bring up simultaneously. If we solve this problem the way the environmental expert says, how will that work with the military expert's concerns? How will that impact the economy? 2) Getting the most out of the experts that work for you.
- No problem tat reaches the top office (president, CEO, etc.) has a clean, 100% solution. If it did, someone else down the chain of command would have solved it already. As the top official, you need to be comfortable weighing a mix of bad options and choosing the least-bad one.
Key takeaways:
- Regardless of political views (and I won't get into mine) claiming the ‘other side' is wrong, or ignorant isn't a good look. While some things are possible to prove false, many are not. Reading through this book I found it off-putting when Anne did that, even though I think we would probably agree on many stances. It didn't seem productive and is unlikely to result in meaningful conversation that would convince a person to rethink their views.
- I was fascinated by Anne's analysis of conspiracy theories and how they impact a group of people, specifically as it relates to an election
- Democracy is important, obviously. It was interesting to read about how democracy has been changed or valued in realtime.
“Democracy has always been loud and raucous, but when its rules are followed, it eventually creates consensus-the modern debate [social media, us-vs-them, etc.] does not.”
Key takeaways:
- Prepare for anything when entering new territory. Do you have the people or tools to survive if the circumstances are much different than you anticipated?
- People are resilient. When you reach the end of your rope, you might be surprised to discover how much further you can go on
- Do not go outside
Did not finish. I had a hard time caring enough to follow along. I got about 25-30% of the way through and couldn't be bothered to keep going.
Key takeaways:
- Action is important. It's not enough to know/say what is right, you must actually live it.
- A few bad actions are enough to wipe out a lifetime of virtue.
- Contemplate your own mortality.
- Wealth/poverty, health/sickness, pleasure/pain: none of these are inherently good or bad on their own.
- Virtue seemed to be a resonating theme as the most important thing to pursue.
Not my favorite Steinbeck, and it felt a little long. Still, it was an enjoyable read.
Key takeaways:
I don't agree with the authors of this book in several areas. One caveat they make is that industries that are safety focused (like healthcare, construction, etc.) or heavily regulated (financial services, etc.) do not work well with many of the principles in this book.
- Rules and policy are only required if you have sloppy or bad employees. If you have quality employees, these things will be drastically less important.
- Talent Density: You are better off to have a few MVPs than many average performers. Increase your talent density by a) hiring exceptional people; and b) letting go of everyone else.
- A negative team member brings the team down more than a positive person moves it up. This point was especially impactful when thinking about negativity in leaders.
- You want to be surrounded by stunning colleagues exclusively.
- Say what you feel with positive intent. Anyone in the organization can give anyone feedback, if done well.
- When a team member comes to complain about someone to you, respond with, “‘What did this person say when you told them about this?”
- “Speak up either to dissent or to augment.”
- 4A feedback model:
1. Aim to Assist: Feedback must be given with positive intent.
2. Actionable: Feedback must focus on something the recipient can do differently.
3. Appreciate: When receiving feedback, appreciate it. Consider the message with an open mind, rather than getting defensive.
4. Accept or Discard: When receiving feedback, after considering it, you get to choose if you will follow it.
- As a leader, ask for feedback during your reviews with staff.
- If an employee is out of line, don't immediately create a new policy–address the employee. Most of these situations can be treated as one-offs.
- Pay people top of market, then expect them to be top of market. If they aren't, let them go with a generous severance.
- In many cases a top performing team member can accomplish as much as to mid-performing team members. You're better off to hire one top performer and then two mid performers and pay them appropriately.
- Teach everyone how to read financial statements so people can see how their work impacts the business.
- If you don't trust your employees to make decisions in line with their jobs, you shouldn't have them on the team.
- Give your team autonomy and ownership. Your employees should have “chips”. They can spend them on any bet they like. Don't judge them on any individual bet, but rather their ability to make good bets over time. Are you building a stack of chips, or are you running out?
- It's disloyal to the company to disagree with an idea and not express it.
- Farming for descent: If you have a new initiative you're working on, you have to go looking for people that disagree with you before you put it into play.
- When you have an idea, share it with the team. Ask them to rate this idea on a scale of -10 to +10 and include comments. This helps to gauge not only the level of descent but also the reason for it. Receiving more negative than positive responses doesn't mean you don't go ahead, but it gives you some feedback to consider before you proceed.
- We can't make good decisions without good data. We need to use some combination of gut feeling and data.
- You're not a family, you're a team. You are only on this team because of your work output. Keeper test to perform when determining whether to let someone go: Would you try to stop them from leaving if they mentioned a competitor offered them a job? If not, you shouldn't have them on the team.
- If you didn't have them on your team already, would you hire them?
- 360 feedback. Have a process where you can receive feedback from your managers, people on the same level as you, and people who report to you.
- Lead with context, not control. If your team can't handle this or you don't trust them enough for this, are they the right people? For example: “Our goal is to strengthen client relationships while managing costs. Travel if it will significantly impact a deal or partnership.” Now employees know what is expected of them, they can make decisions on their own, as long as they work toward that goal.
Key takeaways:
- Obama, despite being among the most important people in the world, still took time to look after the people around him, reaching out with notes of encouragement or sympathy, following up and celebrating their victories. Good leadership requires this.
- Changing your views does not mean you have flip flopped. It happens when you learn and grow. Samantha started her career heavily critical of US foreign policy. As she learned more about the intricate details involved in the decisions, she could better appreciate why the answers that felt so clear when she was younger were not necessarily the right answers. Those in power were not weak or unconcerned, but they had other things to consider. This is not an excuse to do nothing or to maintain status quo, however. We, as a society, need both ‘idealists' and those who will balance all considerations. Listen to both. Somewhere in that tension, the ‘best' answer resides.
- One person can make a difference.
- It is easy to feel defeated when up against the big problem. Focus on the problem you can solve.
Key takeaways:
This has long been a favorite. It was one of the first books I read on the subject of business, and for that reason it will always have a special place. I have re-read it several times and will likely continue that tradition.
- The Fluctuation: Panic is rarely worth the hype. “What will the market do?” “It will fluctuate.”
- The Edsel: Own your mistakes. You can rebound.
- Federal Income Tax: It is impossible to make a fair tax law that will please everyone. The same thing is true of every government initiative. Accept that, and while that should never stop you from pushing for a better solution, someone who only ever complains isn't likely to bring about a solution to the problem.
- A Reasonable Amount of Time: Don't play in the grey area. Just because no one has gotten into trouble in the past, doesn't mean that will always be true.
- Xerox: Stick to your principals, even when they are unpopular.
- Communication: Be explicit. Don't leave room for misunderstandings. Say what you mean, and have a culture where you mean what you say.
- Last Great Corner: Don't be arrogant, and don't play games you don't understand. While the exchange clearly treated Saunders unfairly, he was hardly likeable.
- David E. Lilienthal: Keep a journal. I was encouraged, Lilienthal didn't begin his career in the private sector until later in life. Even if the first part of your life is ‘typical', it is never too late to choose a new path, and changing late doesn't mean you won't be successful.
- Stockholders and Annual Meetings: Have a good relationship with your stockholders (or other interested parties) and don't take yourself too seriously. Mr. McCormack of Comsat seemed to genuinely enjoy the rowdy atmosphere.
- One Free Bite: How do you as a business or employee want to be perceived? Could not the majority of this mess have been resolved with clear communication and genuine respect?
Key takeaways:
- I really enjoyed the chapter about hernias, and how computers tend to be better than doctors at diagnosing conditions. It's easy to think that my experience makes me better in most cases than a computer or algorithm could be, but that isn't the case. I expect this would be true outside of diagnosing disease, and should apply in other fields as well.
- The hernia chapter also discussed the success of a hospital that only repairs hernias. They are significantly more efficient and have a much higher success rate. Again, this could likely be extrapolated to other areas of life as well.
Key takeaways:
- People are difficult to read
- Do not assume you fully understand someone
- Recognize that meeting someone face-to-face does not necessarily mean you understand them better
Key takeaways:
- A nice, well explained summary of the ‘key' tenants of the faith, while acknowledging and leaving room for people to have differing views.
- C. S. Lewis is a master at examples.
- I found the section on pride to be especially convicting. I can be perfectly happy with what I have, but as soon as someone close to me has more, I suddenly become dissatisfied with something that had previously been enough.
- Do not worry about whether or not you feel love for a person. Act as though you do. In doing that, you will have loved the person.
- God operates outside of time. Imagine you are an author writing a story about Mary. You write, “Mary sat down at her table to eat.” You can then go back to the start of her story and fill in some details, then jump to the end of the book and adjust her ending. When you resume, Mary doesn't know anything happened, but you can move around outside of time and adjust the story.
Key takeaways:
- In isolation, on paper, a lot of the ideas presented in this book are appealing. I think that would probably be the case for most political party platforms. The problem is we live in the real world where things are rarely so neat. This highlights that no worldview is perfect, but that (most) bring something important to the table. To stand somewhere on the political spectrum and tear apart the views (or worse, the people) who have chosen to stand somewhere else is not productive. We'd be far better off to carefully consider all perspectives, then chose the stance that seems best for the majority of people, not the one that aligns with our party of choice.
- This book challenged me. Too often I have chosen a political stance based on what feels right. Stephen showed that often it's not that simple. There are too many nuances and and humans are complex. I like immigration and the idea of allowing many people in. He highlighted that many policies that benefit immigrants who move to Canada are counter intuitive to what I might have believed. Of course there is more to the story than what he has provided, but it was a good reminder that there can be compelling evidence on each side of a discussion. If we really want what is best, we need to make time to listen to both.
- Stephen raised issues surrounding Donald Trump's presidency many times. I found his analysis about how DT gave a voice to people who felt like they hadn't been represented very interesting. It wasn't necessarily that everyone who voted for Trump agreed with all of his policies, but that they believed he would represent them when no one else was.
- I do not enjoy politics and have not been very involved in these conversations. Stephen Harper was the prime minister from 2006 - 2015 when I was young and even less interested, so I knew very little about him. While there are many issues we wouldn't see eye-to-eye on, I really enjoyed hearing his perspective and the approach he used to make decisions.
Didn't love it, didn't hate it.
I loved The Road. I enjoyed No Country for Old Men. I thought I loved Cormac McCarthy.
Then I read Blood Meridian. HATED it. I found it boring. I tried another (I forget which one now-Child of God, maybe?), and gave up after a few chapters. This book was neutral. I don't regret reading it, but I'd never recommend it to anyone. It felt like a story that didn't have a purpose.
Maybe I don't care for McCarthy after all.
Good book. It provided some good reminders and interesting perspectives. Nothing revolutionary or groundbreaking, but I think most people would benefit from reading it.
- Use caution when using highly successful people as role models, rather look for broad trends and patterns. Uber successful people are much more likely to be affected by good luck and long tails. Lessons from their lives don't necessarily apply to yours.
- Business is about tails. 50% of what you do may flop, 25% may be neutral, and 23% may be good, but the 2% that is wildly successful will make the biggest difference. Make lots of bets.
I liked most of this book. It's not a part of history that I know much about. I think it did a reasonable job showing both sides of the conflict.
Key takeaways:
- Surround yourself with people who have broad experience and differing views
- A wide scope of knowledge and experience is immensely beneficial
- Start with a wide range, narrowing it as you progress.
Key takeaways:
- 1% better or worse is significant after time, not daily. Time is a magnifier. With time, good habits will lead to exponential improvement, while bad habits will lead to a decline.
- Success is the product of daily choice, not once in a lifetime transformations.
- It's all about trajectory. A millionaire who spends more than they earn is on a bad trajectory, while someone with little money who saves money each month is on a positive trajectory.
- I really enjoyed listening to the story about the cycling team that looked for 1% improvements. They tried different massage oils until they found one that allowed muscles to repair faster so they could train more. They painted the inside of their workshop white so they would see dust/dirt that otherwise might have fallen into a chain or bearing, they tested different fabrics for their uniforms until they found one that allowed them to stay cool without sweating as much or catching the wind, etc.
Identity consider the difference between your beliefs and your actions