The Voltage Effect
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Average rating4.5
"A leading economist answers one of today's trickiest questions: why do some great ideas make it big while others fail to take off? 'Scale' has become a favored buzzword in the startup world. But scale isn't just about accumulating more users or capturing more market share. It's about whether an idea that takes hold in a small group can do the same in a much larger one--whether you're growing a small business, rolling out a diversity and inclusion program, or delivering billions of doses of a vaccine. Translating an idea into widespread impact, says University of Chicago economist John A. List, depends on one thing only: whether it can achieve 'high voltage': the ability to be replicated at scale"--
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The tagline says that this book helps you make good ideas great and great ideas scale. In my reading, I found the latter to be more true. There are a few sections of the book dedicated to explaining how you can get the best result from your inputs but most of the book is about finding flaws in your plan that would prevent it from scaling.
That's certainly not a bad thing but you have to approach the book with that intent. And even if you don't have ideas you're planning to scale, this is a very interesting study of how plans can inadvertently fail. Study of economic effects such as unintended spillovers, marginal utility, and sunk cost is interesting enough for this book to be a casual read.
