Better's Blinkist

Tag: career-success

• Published by Be Better March 26th, 2020

  

  Less Doing, More Living

  Less Doing, More Living: Make Everything in Life Easier

  Your highlights:

  What’s in it for me? Learn how to free up more time for yourself by becoming super efficient.

  We all wish we had more time to spend on the things we love doing, whether that means being around our family or working on our hobbies. Yet, despite these wishes, time is something of which we never seem to have enough

  26 March, 2020 05:12 Share

  They show you how you can find time in your schedule and space in your brain to spend most of your time doing what you want to do. Based on three central aims – Optimize, Automate and Outsource – they inform you how to unleash waves of efficiency in everything you do, from organizing your finances to maintaining your health

  26 March, 2020 05:12 Share

  you’ll discover • why you’ll never have to personally book a table in a restaurant ever again; • why running errands is a thing of the past; and • how to turn your smartphone into a portable bank manager.

  26 March, 2020 05:13 Share

  Track your life to learn where you can start saving time.

  Maybe you’ve heard of the 80-20 rule? It states that 80 percent of what you accomplish is the result of a mere 20 percent of all the time and energy you invest. And this isn’t only applicable to work or study. It’s the case for everything you do. So how can we figure out what time isn’t worth spending?

  26 March, 2020 05:13 Share

  But what does it mean to improve something as broad as our daily routine? Think of it as optimizing your processes. For a role model, look to IKEA. Each IKEA product comes with highly optimized instruction manuals for assembling each product, whether it’s a coffee table or geometric lamp. These instructions have been boiled down to their very essence – a few language-independent, easy-to-follow steps. It’s time to approach your life like IKEA approaches their manuals. Whatever the task, whether it’s writing emails or organizing meetings, you should minimize fuss and get it done in as few steps as possible.

  26 March, 2020 05:14 Share

  Create an external brain to save valuable space in your own.

  We all like to think of ourselves as great multi-taskers with brilliant memories. But often we don’t actually have enough room to juggle everything in our minds. Life would be so much simpler if we just had an extra brain.

  26 March, 2020 05:14 Share

  You can consider Evernote simply as a backup of your brain. Neuroscientists have even shown that Evernote organizes information in a very similar way to the human brain, linking similar thoughts together into complex, interconnected networks. But what if you know how to organize but want to spend less time organizing?

  26 March, 2020 05:15 Share

  An on-demand assistant service consists of a pool of assistants. Say you’ve got a task that needs doing, like proofreading a document or improving a PowerPoint presentation. Whoever’s available in the pool will do it. For $25 a month, Fancy Hands allows you to get assistance with as many as five tasks. For $95, you can request assistance with an unlimited amount of tasks per month.

  26 March, 2020 05:15 Share

  Customize to save time – and money!

  Say you’ve got a great idea for the perfect bedroom shelving unit to suit your needs. You know you’ll have to build it yourself, which means buying the materials, borrowing tools and spending hours preparing and cleaning up. But if only there were an easier and less expensive way! Well, there is: 3D printing. 3D printing offers a world of possibilities for creating your own customized products. Take Shapeways, a site where you simply upload a 3D model, and they print it for you.

  26 March, 2020 05:16 Share

  The author, for example, wanted to create a custom bracket to mount his new MacMini to the wall. He made a simple sketch of his idea and used the online outsourcing platform Fiverr to find someone who could make a complete 3D model of it. He then sent this model to Shapeways and, a week later, the completed bracket was waiting for him in his mailbox. If that sounds like a success to you, then get this: the author then used the Shapeways ecommerce platform to sell his MacMini bracket, and made $400 by selling six of them.

  26 March, 2020 05:17 Share

  Consider Vitamins on Demand, a service that collects all the medications and supplements you require and then organizes them into separate packs for each day. Say goodbye to loading up your holiday suitcase with all your pill bottles while worrying whether you’ve got them all. Instead, just grab the number of packs you need and head out the door!

  26 March, 2020 05:17 Share

  Take control of your workweek.

  you simply can’t get a book written if you only work four hours each week! Nevertheless, the book made an important point: you need to make your workweek yours, and decide what to do, and when.

  26 March, 2020 05:34 Share

  Begin by determining which hours of the day are your best working hours. This will automatically make you more effective. Some people prefer working in the night; others, in the morning. Some like working a bit every day, while others like to squeeze a lot into shorter periods of time.Everybody works differently, so figure out what works best for you!

  26 March, 2020 05:34 Share

  It’s also vital to figure out what is slowing you down. Often it’s external factors

  26 March, 2020 05:35 Share

  And there’s also another part of your workday that’s sapping your time: the scheduling of meetings. Did you know that, on average, the normal procedure for organizing a meeting requires an exchange of seven emails? Luckily, applications such as ScheduleOnce will, as the name suggests, help you get that meeting scheduled the first time around.

  26 March, 2020 05:35 Share

  Errands add up, so eliminate them!

  One great way is by signing up for an online delivery service. Amazon’s Subscribe & Save, for instance, delivers necessities like toilet paper, razors, shampoo and laundry detergent to your door at certain intervals.Perhaps you go through two tubes of toothpaste every month; so arrange to have those two tubes delivered to you at the end of each month and never waste time buying toothpaste again.

  26 March, 2020 05:37 Share

  There are some errands that you can’t automate, however. You know, those ones that catch you by surprise, forcing you to rush out and do them before it’s too late. Well, thanks to outsourcing, you don’t have to waste time on these, either.TaskRabbit is a great example of an online outsourcing marketplace for those small, unforeseeable tasks – a quick run for groceries, for instance, or a sprint to get your computer or car fixed.

  26 March, 2020 05:37 Share

  Stay on top of your finances with the latest tools.

  Mint.com is a great tool for organizing your finances and keeping track of your financial health.Just provide Mint.com with your details and logins for bank accounts, loans and credit cards, and they’ll let you know via email when a balance is dipping toward the red, or if there’s been a big deposit or withdrawal from an account, as well as making sure that you’re getting paid.

  26 March, 2020 05:37 Share

  Another innovative new tool to help you stop stressing and start saving is BillShrink. BillShrink simply asks for a few personal details: your checking account information, your driving habits, how often you use your cellphone and how much you spend on other services, such as movie streaming and magazine subscriptions.Based on this information, Billshrink outlines cost-effective alternatives and outlines how much these alternatives would help you save over a two-year period; they also alert you to new deals and offers.

  26 March, 2020 05:38 Share

  Give yourself limits and boost your quality of life.

  But there’s no need for this headache! You can overcome it simply by setting limits for yourself.Start off by setting an upper limit. This will help you locate and keep track of your possessions.Take the author’s electronic gear stash, which once occupied an entire closet. Over time, though, the closet became overcrowded, and finding a specific cable meant dragging the whole mess out of the closet and onto the floor. The author realized things had gotten out of hand, and decided to take action.So he bid his electronics goodbye and sold off most of his gear on Ebay. What was left fit into one box, which became the upper limit. If he buys a new piece of electronic gear, some other piece has got to go. This way, his stash is manageable, tidy and he can always find what he needs.

  26 March, 2020 05:39 Share

  By setting lower limits. The author, for example, has set a lower limit of at least one trip every month, at least 30 miles of running per week and cooking meals at home at least three days a week. By setting lower limits for your leisure time in this way, you’ll make sure your time doesn’t always get gobbled up by work.

  26 March, 2020 05:40 Share

  Batch your tasks to stay focused.

  Have you ever had the frustrating experience of just getting into something – and then being interrupted by a distracting text or email? It ruins your focus and now you’re irritated to boot.Well, there’s a way to keep your focus from being destroyed like this: batching. Batching is the simple process of grouping similar tasks together and completing them in batches, instead of one at a time, here and there. This way, it’s easier to focus on what you’re doing right now.

  26 March, 2020 05:41 Share

  The author pays all his bills for the week on Fridays, instead of paying them as they come in.

  26 March, 2020 05:41 Share

  A great place to start is by getting rid of unnecessary paperwork. Sure, there’s a lot of talk about living in a paper-free society, but everyday we still find ourselves dealing with pesky papers. Which is why online tools are around: to help us eliminate paperwork even further.

  26 March, 2020 05:41 Share

  Health is the ultimate productivity secret.

  It’s as simple as this: getting enough shut-eye and eating healthy determines how much energy you will have to do the things you want to do. No amount of productivity apps in the world can change this!

  26 March, 2020 05:42 Share

  If you want to improve your sleep, there are two simple steps that will help. Firstly, take D-vitamins with your breakfast each day. Secondly, avoid devices emitting blue light, such as TVs, iPads and computers in the hour before you go to bed.

  26 March, 2020 05:42 Share

  Design your own exercise regimen to include three types of movement.First, there should be a strength and skill component – something like rock climbing or parkour will do the trick.Second, include high-intensity interval training – a short interval of exerting yourself to the maximum, followed by an interval of active rest.And, finally, you should engage in some kind of mobility training – something like yoga or just a good old-fashioned stretching session.

  26 March, 2020 05:44 Share

  About the book:

  Less Doing, More Living (2014) guides you through nine fundamental steps on your journey toward becoming more effective. In these blinks, the author shares his favorite tools and techniques for optimizing, automating and outsourcing everything on that pesky to-do list, thus giving you time for the things that are most important in your life.

  About the author:

  Ari Meisel is an author and entrepreneur. He advises businesses, leaders and others on how to add value to their endeavors and lives by employing effective time-management strategies.

  

  Blinkist takes outstanding nonfiction books and distills their key insights into made-for-mobile book summaries that you can read in just 15 minutes. Learn something new every day - on your smartphone, tablet or PC.

  blinkist.com

  

  Tags

  blinkist career-success productivity
• Published by Be Better March 20th, 2020

  

  Super Thinking

  Super Thinking: The Big Book of Mental Models

  Your highlights:

  What’s in it for me? Hacks to help you think smarter.

  What is worldly wisdom? Let’s take each word in turn. Worldliness means being concerned with ordinary life. Wisdom, on the other hand, implies knowledge of the big picture when it comes to life as a whole. But there’s more to it than that.

  20 March, 2020 02:13 Share

  Well, that’s exactly the question Gabriel Weinberg and Lauren McCann set out to answer. Drawing on economics, physics, philosophy and a host of other disciplines, these blinks present a set of mental models that will help you understand the world, make better decisions and take your thinking to the next level.Along the way, you’ll learn what a fourteenth-century philosopher can teach you about dating; why avoiding errors is more important than being right; and what an Israeli daycare center can teach us about reciprocity.

  20 March, 2020 02:15 Share

  Super thinking leverages tried-and-true concepts to help us explain the world and make better decisions.

  Life, however, is full of complicated conundrums and ambiguous evidence. Making up our minds often feels less like an act of reason than a stab in the dark. Surely there’s a better way? Well, there is – super thinking, a way of understanding the world that relies on proven cognitive blueprints to make sense of the jumble of data out there. Let’s unpack that. Every industry has its own mental models that allow practitioners to create "mental pictures" of a problem. These aren’t one-off snapshots, but techniques that can be reapplied time and again – that’s the "model" part. Put differently, they’re recurring concepts that explain the world.

  20 March, 2020 02:15 Share

  Fax machines were invented in the 1840s, but languished in obscurity for over a century. Why? Their cost meant only a few wealthy individuals and organizations could afford to adopt the technology. That affected the perceived value of faxing: even if you bought a machine, you wouldn’t be able to communicate with anyone you knew. As the cost came down, more people bought fax machines and more connections became possible. To put that into numbers, two devices can make one connection, five can make ten and twelve can make sixty-six. By the 1970s, faxing had reached critical mass. There were enough machines that the network itself became useful – if you had your own device, chances were you’d be able to contact anyone. Contemporary businesses have made a killing leveraging that insight. Critical mass told ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft, for example, how many drivers they needed in cities before people would begin relying on their services.

  20 March, 2020 02:16 Share

  Avoiding unforced errors and arguing from first principles can help you be wrong less often.

  Avoiding unforced errors involves paying attention to the way you reason things out. This is called arguing from first principles, and it’s all about thinking from the bottom up, starting with assumptions you’re sure are true. Elon Musk, the founder of the automotive and energy company Tesla, defines this as boiling things down to "fundamental truths" and going from there.

  20 March, 2020 02:16 Share

  How we look at something determines the way we think about it. Take it from nineteenth-century German mathematician Carl Jacobi. His motto? "Invert, always invert," which means that it’s often easier to solve a problem when you approach it from the opposite or "inverse" point of view.

  20 March, 2020 02:17 Share

  Before sending your résumé out, sit down and define your values. Is independence, status or money most important to you? Next, lay down your red lines – how far you’re prepared to commute, say, or the least-senior position you’re willing to accept. Finally, check those values against existing positions. That’s inversion in action: you’re not asking which jobs are available, but which ones suit your needs!

  20 March, 2020 02:17 Share

  You can also apply bottom-up reasoning to everyday decisions. Take job hunting. Lots of people waste energy applying for far too many positions, and then jump at the first opportunity that comes their way. First principles suggest a different approach.

  20 March, 2020 02:18 Share

  Ockham’s razor might just hold the key to your love life.

  Twelve hundred years later, the English philosopher William of Ockham reached the same conclusion: when confronted with equally plausible and competing assumptions, the simpler is more likely to be true. Call it Ockham’s razor. The idea is to "shave off" unnecessarily intricate explanations. In other words, think horses, not zebras, when you hear hoofbeats.

  20 March, 2020 02:19 Share

  That’s also a great way of beating common logical traps. In 1983, the psychologists Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman presented a now-famous thought experiment that considered the following: Linda is 31, single, outspoken and clever. She studied philosophy and attended demonstrations at university. Which is more likely: that Linda is a bank teller or that Linda is a bank teller who is active in the feminist movement? Most people plump for the second option. That’s an example of the conjunction fallacy in action. This states that the probability of two events occurring in "conjunction" is always less than or equal to the probability of one event occurring alone. Remember: not all bank tellers are feminists. To go back to dating, what’s more likely – finding a mate who makes you laugh or finding someone who is funny and shares your exact cultural preferences, down to ice cream flavors? The answer tells you why it pays to simplify assumptions!

  20 March, 2020 02:20 Share

  Putting yourself in others’ shoes is hard but the veil of ignorance can help you make fairer decisions.

  Working out other people’s motivations is tricky, especially when they’re strangers. The upshot? We jump to unfair conclusions. If a colleague sends us a curt one-line email, we think he’s being dismissive and discount the idea that he might just be in a rush. Psychologists call that a fundamental attribution error: While we explain our own behavior by looking to our intentions and external circumstances, we ascribe other people’s actions to essential characteristics. If you run a red light, it’s because you need to get to the hospital; if another driver does it, it’s because she’s inherently reckless.

  20 March, 2020 02:21 Share

  This model states that you should never attribute to malice what can be more easily explained by carelessness. Is your neighbor playing loud music to annoy you? Unlikely – he’s probably just forgotten how thin the walls are.

  20 March, 2020 02:22 Share

  go a step farther and think more objectively, you can use the veil of ignorance. That’s the name of a model developed by the American philosopher John Rawls in his 1971 book A Theory of Justice. Here’s how it works:Birth is a lottery. Some people luck out and are blessed with a wealth of opportunities; others go empty-handed. That doesn’t stop us believing that our own privileges and others’ disadvantages are deserved. This, Rawls argued, distorts our understanding of fairness. But imagine you had to design a fair society without knowing where you’d end up in it. Rawls concluded that if you couldn’t be sure whether you’d be born a slave or a free person, you’d decide that slavery itself was unfair. Put differently, you’d take the feelings and interests of everyone affected by a decision into account – not just your own. It’s a useful model to apply to your own decision-making. So say you’re a manager in a company that’s thinking about abolishing an established policy that allows employees to work remotely. As you see it, there are a lot of good reasons for doing that. But what if you put yourself behind the veil of ignorance – would you advocate against the policy no matter who you were? What if you were an employee caring for an elderly relative, or a single parent?

  20 March, 2020 02:22 Share

  If you don’t want to get left behind by social change, you need to become adaptable.

  As the American scientist Leon Megginson pointed out, people sometimes confuse "the fittest" with strength or intellect or superior genes. The key, however, is adaptability – adjusting to a changing environment. And that’s the lesson the story of the dark peppered moth teaches us. Society also evolves over time. If you want to thrive in your social environment, you also need to become adaptable. So how do you that?

  21 March, 2020 10:22 Share

  One great way is by adopting an experimental mind-set. That’s a cycle of making scientific observations, developing hypotheses, testing them, analyzing data and formulating new theories. The most successful people and organizations adopt precisely that mind-set. They’re constantly on the lookout for new tools to boost their productivity, well-being and fitness.

  21 March, 2020 10:23 Share

  Take your health, for example. There’s an overwhelming mass of data out there suggesting that this or that diet is the best thing you can do for your body. Should you go vegan or paleo, or is fasting a better option? The only way to find out is to experiment. That’s more than just randomly trying different things, though. It means adopting a rigorous trial-and-error approach, trying different diets one by one and analyzing the results to figure out which works for you.

  21 March, 2020 10:23 Share

  The same goes for your "intellectual diet." If you aren’t experimenting with new ideas, you’re probably stuck with old, out-of-date ones. Notions change all the time, after all. You were probably taught that an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs and that Tyrannosaurus rex were smooth-skinned reptilians. Well, today, a lot of experts have come to view that theory as outdated, while most paleontologists believe the T. rex was partly covered in feathers! Stick with old ideas, and your thinking will end up just as obsolete as those light-colored moths clinging to sooty trees.

  21 March, 2020 10:23 Share

  Anecdotal evidence and the fallacy that correlation implies causation skew our understanding of statistical data.

  We live in a data-driven world. Quantification, once the preserve of scientists and engineers, shapes the way we understand everything from climate change to our personal lives. You might even be using apps that tally up your daily movements and tell you how much sleep you’re getting. That’s good, right? Well, yes and no. As the American writer Mark Twain liked to point out, there are "Lies, damned lies and statistics." Numbers, in other words, can mislead as easily as they can inform. And that’s why it’s so important to avoid statistical stumbles.

  21 March, 2020 10:24 Share

  The most common cause of error is relying on anecdotal evidence. That’s basically hearsay and personal experience. Evolutionarily, trusting such partial data makes a lot of sense. If you’ve seen someone eat a berry and get sick, you simply avoid the shrub in question rather than conducting a controlled berry-eating experiment. In other contexts, however, it’s a source of confusion. Think of the stories people tell about, say, their grandfather who smoked a pack of cigarettes a day and lived to the age of 90. These are out-of-the-ordinary cases that tell us nothing about average experiences. It’s a bit like going to a restaurant: you’re more likely to tell friends about your meal if it was outrageously good or bad than if it was merely mediocre. Smoking might not cause lung cancer in every case, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t significantly increase the average risk.

  21 March, 2020 10:25 Share

  What’s missing in this account is the confounding factor, an often less obvious but correct explanation – namely, that people are vaccinated largely when more people get sick than usual. A common cold, against which a flu shot doesn’t provide immunity, ends up being misidentified, and the vaccination gets blamed for causing the very thing it prevented! And that’s the trouble with data – it helps us understand the world, but sometimes it helps us misunderstand it, too.

  21 March, 2020 10:26 Share

  Then there’s the mistaken idea that correlation implies causation – that is, if two events occur consecutively, one must have caused the other. You can see this fallacy in effect every year around the time people get their flu vaccinations. Inevitably, someone will get a cold at the same time, mistake it for the flu and attribute it to the shot they just got.

  21 March, 2020 10:26 Share

  Confusing social and market norms undermine reciprocity.

  Let’s face it: life is full of conflict. In economics, these adversarial situations are sometimes described as "social games" pitting self-interested "players" against one another. Most conventional games are zero-sum: if you win, I lose. Unlike chess, however, real life isn’t black-and-white. Sometimes everyone can win.

  21 March, 2020 10:27 Share

  That’s a great example of reciprocity, the perceived obligation to return favors. It’s a pretty universal cultural concept. The Romans called it quid pro quo or "something for something." In modern English, we rephrase that as, "I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine."

  21 March, 2020 10:27 Share

  Reciprocity is a social norm, a recognized if unwritten rule regulating social life. Obviously, we don’t always behave reciprocally. Sometimes it’s more appropriate to follow market norms. When you look at something from a "market perspective," you think of it in terms of your personal interests. A "social perspective," by contrast, asks if it’s the right thing to do. It’s the difference between asking, "Is this $60 babysitting job worth my time?" and "Should I help my friend out by looking after his kids for four hours?"

  21 March, 2020 10:27 Share

  Here’s why. Before the fines, latecomers felt guilty and made an effort to be more punctual. The introduction of a market norm undermined their sense that they owed the kindergarten teachers something – after all, they were paying, so there was no reason to feel bad. Interestingly, when the kindergarten abolished the fines, parents didn’t return to their old behavior – the experiment had undermined both types of norms.That just goes to show how important it is to apply the right conceptual models to situations. As the example of that Israeli daycare center shows, it pays to make sure you’re framing things in the right way!

  21 March, 2020 10:28 Share

  Final summary

  The key message in these blinks:Super thinking leverages tried-and-true conceptual models to improve your decision-making and help you avoid common logical pitfalls. Gleaned from disciplines as diverse as physics, economics and philosophy, these "super models" cut through the complexity and shed light on the thorniest conundrums. Whether you’re using Ockham’s razor to select potential mates, applying critical mass to understand an emerging market or using the veil of ignorance to put yourself in people’s shoes, these ultra-adaptable tools are guaranteed to up your cognitive game.

  21 March, 2020 10:28 Share

  Weigh your decisions with a numbered pro-con list. The simplest way of approaching a big question is to draw up a list of pros and cons – arguments for and against a decision. Chances are, however, that you’ll attach different value to different factors. That’s where numbered pro-con lists come in. Here you’ll be valuing each factor on a scale ranging from minus ten to zero for negatives and zero to ten for positives, thus giving you an insight into the relative value of each item. So say you’ve been offered a job, but taking it involves moving to a new city. What gets a higher score – the location or the improved salary offer? As simple as it sounds, this is a powerful mental model that will help you conduct a systematic cost-benefit analysis before taking the plunge.

  21 March, 2020 10:28 Share

  About the book:

  Super Thinking (2019) is a conceptual toolkit designed to help you cut through complexity and make better decisions. Drawing on insights from fields as varied as biology and economics, entrepreneur Gabriel Weinberg and statistician Lauren McCann present the "mental models" used by today’s top problem-solvers and decision-makers. But this isn’t a dry academic treatise on logic: apply these models to your personal and professional conundrums and you’ll be well on your way to becoming a super thinker in your own right!

  About the author:

  Gabriel Weinberg is the founder and CEO of DuckDuckGo, a multibillion-dollar internet privacy company. He is the author of Traction (2015), a guide to generating customer growth in the start-up sector.

  Lauren McCann is a statistician and researcher with over a decade of experience designing and analyzing clinical trials in the pharmaceutical industry. She holds degrees in mathematics and operations research from MIT and has written for several prestigious medical journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine.

  

  Blinkist takes outstanding nonfiction books and distills their key insights into made-for-mobile book summaries that you can read in just 15 minutes. Learn something new every day - on your smartphone, tablet or PC.

  blinkist.com

  

  Tags

  blinkist psychology career-success personal-development
• Published by Be Better February 3rd, 2020

  

  Six Thinking Hats

  Six Thinking Hats:

  Your highlights:

  The six hats are tools that help us to conceive new ideas and improve thinking.

  The six hats, therefore, enable your team in order to engage in parallel thinking, in which everyone views the problem from the same perspective.

  3 February, 2020 10:23 Share

  When using the six hats, keep some rules in mind.

  There are two ways to wear these hats: in single use or in sequence. When the hats are used singly, they function as symbols indicating that you want to concentrate on a particular type of thinking.

  3 February, 2020 10:06 Share

  Regardless of how you use the hats, you’ll need to consider both discipline and timing. Members of the group must have the discipline to use and maintain only the hat that is required at that present moment. Only the group leader, chairperson or facilitator has the power to change it. Luckily, developing that discipline only gets easier with practice – so keep at it.

  3 February, 2020 10:07 Share

  The Six Hats method will save you time, money and headaches.

  Imagine you’re in a car with three other people and you have to drive somewhere but everyone only vaguely know the roads. There’s bound to be many heated arguments over which road to take, which will only get worse the longer you’re on the road. However, if you have a road map, then it’s much easier to choose the best route, making the best possible choice become obvious to all. The Six Hats method gives you that map.

  3 February, 2020 10:10 Share

  About the book:

  Six Thinking Hats offers you valuable tools for group discussions and individual decision making. The book shows ways to compartmentalize different ways of thinking to help you and your group use your brains in a more detailed, cohesive and effective way.

  About the author:

  Edward de Bono was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford and has held faculty appointments at the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, London and Harvard. In addition to his academic career, he has offered consultation to many multinationals, including IBM, Procter & Gamble, Shell and Ford. His bestselling books include Lateral Thinking, De Bono’s Thinking Course and Teach Your Child How to Think.

  

  Blinkist takes outstanding nonfiction books and distills their key insights into made-for-mobile book summaries that you can read in just 15 minutes. Learn something new every day - on your smartphone, tablet or PC.

  blinkist.com

  

  Tags

  blinkist psychology creativity career-success
• Published by Be Better February 1st, 2020

  

  Tools of Titans

  Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines and Habits of Billionaires, Icons and World-Class Performers

  Your highlights:

  Success comes from working with long-term systems, rather than short-term goals.

  The comic strip Dilbert tells the story of an innocuous office worker who is, in many ways, the perfect antihero. But that doesn’t mean he’s not a successful character. In fact, for Scott Adams, the comic’s creator, antiheroes can still be successful – because success isn’t about achieving goals; it’s about forming systems.

  1 February, 2020 13:26 Share

  The point is that people tend to focus on short-term goals, like creating and marketing a successful new product. If such goals can’t be attained within a given time frame, people tend to give up, decide that they’re not cut out to be entrepreneurs and go back to their mundane office jobs. This is a huge mistake. Instead, focus on a skill or relationship that you want to develop over time and forget any specific goals. Just take Scott, the creator of Dilbert. He started blogging even though it meant lots of extra work with little to show for it in added income. He knew it was worthwhile nonetheless because he was working within a system. The goal of his blogging wasn’t clear, but, by practicing, he went from being an aspiring writer to a skilled one with an online presence. The system was bound to pay off – and it did. Scott became a best-selling author, but not until many years later.

  1 February, 2020 13:26 Share

  About the book:

  Tools of Titans (2016) details the stories, strategies and successes of some of the most inspirational achievers, thinkers and doers of modern times. These blinks will teach you how to strengthen your body and your mind, all while building your creative business.

  "There’s a reason why Tim Ferriss has become such an influential voice when it comes to achieving top performance. He always manages to get the best advice out of such fascinating, impressive people. Even Seth Rogan is in here!" – Ben S. Head of Salad at Blinkist

  About the author:

  Tim Ferriss is a successful investor and advisor to technology start-ups. He was involved in the creation of companies like Uber, Facebook and Alibaba, to name just a few. He is the best-selling author of The 4-Hour Workweek and the creator of a celebrated podcast series, The Tim Ferriss Show.

  

  Blinkist takes outstanding nonfiction books and distills their key insights into made-for-mobile book summaries that you can read in just 15 minutes. Learn something new every day - on your smartphone, tablet or PC.

  blinkist.com

  

  Tags

  blinkist career-success
• Published by Be Better January 25th, 2020

  

  Principles

  Principles: Life and Work

  Your highlights:

  What’s in it for me? Learn the principles for building a successful business.

  Understanding what’s most important in your company is, of course, a very personal matter that you have to figure out for yourself. But from a business standpoint, there are some values that just make sense, like being honest with your staff in order to create an environment of trust and transparency that will keep problems from festering. So let’s dive in and learn more of Ray Dalio’s secrets to success!

  25 January, 2020 11:42 Share

  Look to nature and evolution in order to keep your eye on the big picture.

  This is why having a concrete set of guiding principles in your life is crucial. Like having a compass in a blizzard, being equipped with such principles means you’ll always know exactly where you’re headed and which choices will keep you on that path, no matter the circumstances. In short: having principles will provide you with fundamental truths that can be applied to any situation, allowing you to move toward your goals and the life you want to live.

  25 January, 2020 11:44 Share

  Think of nature. It’s sad to see a beautiful gazelle get eaten by a pack of vicious hyenas. But this is just a natural fact of life – part of the balanced ecosystem that has evolved over time. If you were to deny this reality and try to intervene, it would have dangerous repercussions. So remember that things will go wrong sometimes. And keep in mind that failure often provides a valuable chance to learn, adapt and evolve.

  25 January, 2020 11:45 Share

  Any business that’s been around for a long time has had to adapt to change and bounce back from hard times, which is what you’ll eventually have to do, too. Take the hard times in stride, and always keep learning and improving.

  25 January, 2020 11:45 Share

  It’s important to choose the right goal and to keep learning and improving.

  Nearly anything is possible in life, but you can’t have it all. A common mistake is to reach for too many goals, all at once. But the truth is, whenever you choose one goal, you’re automatically ruling out a number of other goals in the process. So the smart thing is to choose wisely by looking within and identifying what you desire most.

  25 January, 2020 11:46 Share

  Once your goal is in place, the next step is to methodically examine the situation and identify any challenges or obstacles that are in your way. This is where being realistic is key. Don’t ignore problems because they’re too personal and don’t underestimate a potential issue by being overly optimistic.

  25 January, 2020 11:47 Share

  Radical truth and transparency are key to meaningful and long-lasting relationships at work.

  Radical truth is about making sure that important issues don’t remain hidden, which means creating an environment where employees feel free to speak their mind. This kind of transparency is a safeguard against poor decisions, since coworkers will constantly be exchanging criticisms, making improvements and catching mistakes before they happen.

  25 January, 2020 11:49 Share

  Radical transparency is similar to radical truth. It means being open about the kind of behavior and work that management expects from employees, and vice versa. Managers and employees should treat one another as they would a partner in a long-term relationship. This means showing mutual respect, looking out for what’s in the other’s best interest and being crystal clear about who’s responsible for what.

  25 January, 2020 11:49 Share

  You’ll find that a workplace is at its best when employees show more consideration for their colleagues than they expect to be shown. Yes, this is a radical approach since most people might be used to cutthroat workplaces where everyone is only looking out for him- or herself. But you’ll find that productivity and quality will improve when employees drop the selfish behavior and start developing strong relationships based on generosity, cooperation and honest transparency.

  25 January, 2020 11:50 Share

  Radical truth extends to performance evaluations as well.

  Being dishonest isn’t always a malicious act. Indeed, people are often most dishonest when attempting to be kind. Once, the author was considering promoting an employee to Department Head. He knew that many of this employee’s coworkers felt he deserved the job. However, when the author looked at the company’s performance tracking system, which contained hundreds of pieces of data on every employee, the evidence told a different story – the employee being considered for promotion simply didn’t have the right qualities for the job.

  25 January, 2020 11:51 Share

  And the truth is, you’ll be doing everyone a disservice by ignoring the evidence that the employee isn’t ready for the promotion. As most people overestimate their capabilities and the amount of work they do, performing accurate evaluations is essential to preventing problems

  25 January, 2020 11:51 Share

  But accuracy and honesty are not only good for the overall business; they’re also good for each employee. Psychologists believe the biggest motivator for personal improvement is the pain you feel after making a mistake. When you feel so terrible about having done something wrong that you never want to feel that way again, it’s called "hitting bottom" – and it’s often what a person needs to finally change his or her ways.

  25 January, 2020 11:52 Share

  sorting out an employee’s shortcomings is very time-consuming, so it should be given priority over celebrating success. When dealing with strengths, it’s a relatively simple matter of encouraging an employee to keep up the good work. For problems, the cause needs to be identified and solutions need to be worked out, all of which can take much more time and resources.

  25 January, 2020 11:54 Share

  Flowcharts and metrics are great tools for enhanced performance.

  goal. For the author, his goal was to provide clients with the best possible return on their investments, and he often felt like a mechanic, popping open the hood to improve the engine of his Bridgewater machine. This analogy, of manager as mechanic and company as machine, is a great way to keep your mind focused on the responsibilities of the job and what needs to be repaired.

  25 January, 2020 11:55 Share

  Another great tool to check your machine for possible maintenance needs are metrics, or performance measurements. When you have a system in place to accurately measure performance, it’s like having a dashboard for your machine, complete with flashing lights to alert you the moment something goes wrong.

  25 January, 2020 11:55 Share

  With an accurate view of exactly what employees are doing, and how well they’re doing it, you’ll find that the job of supervision almost takes care of itself!

  25 January, 2020 11:55 Share

  Build organizations from the top down and keep an eye on manager-to-employee ratios.

  As you move toward your goals, it’s only a matter of time before problems arise. But there’s no reason to panic or be deterred by these bumps in the road. Developing solutions for problems is how many companies improve. In other words, most problems will end up providing fuel for your machine. However, if you hope to turn problems into advantages, you need to design your business so that problems get noticed and solutions get implemented as quickly as possible.

  25 January, 2020 11:56 Share

  Every manager should be trustworthy and have high standards. If this isn’t the case, their weaknesses and poor performance will eventually spread to their staff. On the other hand, managers who show their appreciation for excellent work, and have strong oversight and strict quality control, will lead teams of employees who rise to their level of great performance.

  25 January, 2020 11:56 Share

  The ideal ratio is closer to five employees for every manager, as this will give your managers the best chance of having meaningful relationships and mutual understanding with each employee. But rather than setting strict rules on team sizes, you’ll get the best results by assessing each manager's capabilities and proceeding accordingly

  25 January, 2020 11:57 Share

  About the book:

  Principles (2017) shares the insights that Ray Dalio has gained from his experience as one of the most successful businessmen on the planet. His advice shows us how solid-core principles can make decision-making an easy process, no matter what situation you’re in. With life being complicated enough as it is, these principles will keep you from second-guessing and provide you with the tools needed to be both highly analytical and highly successful.

  About the author:

  Ray Dalio is one of the world’s wealthiest people. The founder of Bridgewater Associates, an investment firm that Fortune magazine considers to be the fifth most important company in the United States. He is also a recurring figure on Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

  

  Blinkist takes outstanding nonfiction books and distills their key insights into made-for-mobile book summaries that you can read in just 15 minutes. Learn something new every day - on your smartphone, tablet or PC.

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  Tags

  blinkist management-leadership career-success
• Published by Be Better January 25th, 2020

  

  Barking Up the Wrong Tree

  Barking Up the Wrong Tree: The Surprising Science Behind Why Everything You Know About Success Is (Mostly) Wrong

  Your highlights:

  What’s in it for me? Find out how to really succeed professionally and socially.

  Success is more about breaking rules than following them. About doing what you’re passionate about rather than what society dictates. Of course, confidence and hard work are also important, but meaningless unless you have long-term goals to which to couple them. By looking at some examples of real-life success, the following blinks will uncover what it really takes to get ahead of the pack and help you accomplish your life goals

  25 January, 2020 11:20 Share

  Playing by the rules will only get you so far; creativity is the real engine of success.

  The problem is, an ability to succeed in an environment governed by rules, like a high school, won’t prepare a student to rise to the top of the real world.

  25 January, 2020 11:21 Share

  Those who are obsessed; the unruly creatives who can adapt to every aspect of the outside world. These creatives are driven by passion rather than external rules, and commit themselves to their passion projects with almost religious virtuosity – a clear recipe for excellence

  25 January, 2020 11:22 Share

  Nice guys are highly likely to finish first and last.

  It may seem odd, but it also makes intuitive sense; everybody knows a martyr who tries his best to help others only to be used by takers. And we also all know helpful people who rise because others are indebted to them. To put it simply, it’s not always bad to be nice. And by the way, bad people don’t get away with everything. That serial killer, Michael Swango, was caught and sentenced to three consecutive life terms in prison in 2000.

  25 January, 2020 11:23 Share

  Persevere through tough times thanks to the stories you tell yourself.

  Today, Alfredo Quinones-Hinojosa, also known as Dr. Q, is one of the top brain surgeons in the world. He runs his own lab at America’s best hospital, Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. However, his life started out in absolute poverty; as an illegal migrant farmworker, he had to demonstrate true grit, sticking with difficult work throughout his life and never giving up.

  25 January, 2020 11:24 Share

  In observing this phenomenon, Frankl found that what was keeping these survivors going was the meaning they saw in their lives, even during times of tremendous suffering; the people who made it were those who told themselves that they had a purpose beyond themselves. Frankl himself had such a purpose, wanting to survive for his wife. He had imaginary conversations with her all the time.

  25 January, 2020 11:25 Share

  In other words, optimism keeps people going, but true grit is more than positive thinking. It often also depends on the stories people tell themselves about the meaning of their lives.

  25 January, 2020 11:25 Share

  Extroverts make the most money, but introverts make the best experts.

  Why? We know that becoming an expert, regardless of the field, requires 10,000 hours of practice. Simply put, holding together a vast social network doesn’t leave extroverts with the time they need to do the hard, lonely work necessary to acquire such expertise. Meanwhile, introverts don’t have to worry about other people bothering them, and have plenty of time to hone their skills.

  25 January, 2020 11:26 Share

  if research is any guide, the scales certainly tip in favor of outgoing and popular people. Extroverted workers are much more likely to succeed than their peers, both in financial terms and in career progress.

  25 January, 2020 11:26 Share

  Confidence is key to success, but too much of it can make you hurt others.

  Research has even shown that overly confident people have better chances of receiving a promotion than their less confident colleagues, even if the latter are more accomplished. According to other studies, confidence increases productivity and causes people to take on more challenging tasks, thereby making them stand out as shining stars in the workplace.

  25 January, 2020 11:27 Share

  In other words, confidence can predict success and often results in increased power, both on the job and in daily life. However, there’s also a downside; too much confidence and power can destroy a person’s character.

  25 January, 2020 11:28 Share

  And finally, research has also found that feeling powerful makes people more selfish and better at lying. That’s because power and confidence reduce a person’s concern that he’ll hurt others, and therefore lower his remorse when telling a fib. This could explain why increased feelings of power positively correlate with the odds of cheating on a spouse.

  25 January, 2020 11:29 Share

  The key to success is working long hours and always pushing yourself to do better.

  The number of hours you spend working will make all the difference between the decent and the incredible. While intelligence will certainly help, once your IQ stretches beyond 120, adding additional points has basically no effect on success. That’s why the smart people who succeed are those that work the hardest.

  25 January, 2020 11:29 Share

  that work the hardest. Just take a Harvard study which found that the most successful managers in a number of industries commonly worked over 60 hours per week. The study clearly indicates that a person’s success depends on her productivity, and productivity depends on putting in time. Research has even found that in every complex, professional job, the top 10 percent of employees – those who make the most game-changing contributions – are 80 percent more productive than the average and 700 percent more productive than the employees in the bottom 10 percent.

  25 January, 2020 11:29 Share

  For example, research has found that doctors and nurses don’t tend to get better at their jobs over time. Another classic study by Benjamin Bloom considered leading scientists, artists and athletes. It found that one of the greatest benefits of mentorship in these fields was not insider knowledge or emotional support, but the presence of a figure whose expectations would push the mentee beyond their limits.

  25 January, 2020 11:30 Share

  About the book:

  Barking Up the Wrong Tree (2017) explores the divide between the extremely successful and the rest of the pack. These blinks draw on science, statistics and surprising anecdotes to explain the factors that determine success – and how almost anyone can attain it.

  About the author:

  Eric Barker is a former screenwriter for Walt Disney and Twentieth Century Fox. His popular blog, Barking Up the Wrong Tree, offers scientific insights that help readers succeed. Barker’s work has been published in the New York Times, Wired, the Wall Street Journal and TIME magazine, for which he writes a regular column.

  

  Blinkist takes outstanding nonfiction books and distills their key insights into made-for-mobile book summaries that you can read in just 15 minutes. Learn something new every day - on your smartphone, tablet or PC.

  blinkist.com

  

  Tags

  blinkist career-success