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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Reid Hoffman
(2) cast the net more widely by querying a broad swath of your network all at once
A broad, relatively generic question such as the one on the next page is best asked
as a mass email or as a poll on a social network
because many people have relevant ex...
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many questions are either too private or too specialized for wide broadcast.
In these cases, you want to target a few particular and carefully selected individuals.
One way to start thinking about this is to sort the people you know into three (at times overlapping) categories:
Domain experts.
People who know you well.
Just really smart people.
As a general rule, when you want information from your network, when facing a decision,
begin by asking domain experts, then talk to people with whom you have strong personal relationships.
If you’re still not satisfied, or want yet another perspective, then turn to ...
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for example, ping a few people in the industry (regardless of how well you know them) in order to get a sense of your overall options.
Online social networks facilitate this by keeping you up-to-date on whom you know and what they know,
which allows you to target certain connections more efficiently.
“In all of these environments, you have to learn as much as you can as fast as you can, and you need to make an impact right away,”
“The secret to this really isn’t a secret: you have to ask a lot of questions.”
It may sound obvious, but if you don’t actually pose your inquiries in ways that generate useful answers, nothing else matters.
Converse, don’t interrogate.
If you’re talking to a mentor or someone else obviously superior in status, it may be appropriate and expected for you to ask question after question.
Questions when seeking "expert advice"
But when talking with allies and peers, offer thoughts of your own as a way of encouraging a real conversation.
Adjust the lens.
wide-lens question and a narrow-lens question
The wide-lens question may elicit a long rant
the narrow question invites specific, often factual answers about the specific area of inquiry—and
When you’re trying to make a decision, ask wide questions to figure out the criteria you should be using;
ask narrow questions to figure out which weight you should give to each.
Frame and prime.
to get the highest-quality intelligence you’ll want to frame the same question in multiple ways.
Another way to prime the answerer is to throw out a few sample answers to give a sense of the type of answer you’re looking for.
By offering up the kind of answer that’s helpful, you invite an answer of a similar level of specificity.
Follow up and probe.
Follow up and probe on qualif...
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“What does ‘risky’ mean?”
what “not a lot” means.
Dig until a deeper answer t...
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The idea here is to dig into their experience that led to their conclusion and determine root cause and understanding, rather than applying your assumptions about what those high level responses mean
remember that if you’re able to pose a very directed, detailed question, you’re already advanced in your thinking and close to an answer.
For vague or nebulous concerns, engage people in person and try to tease out the issues over a long conversation.
Serendipitous network intelligence turns up in similar ways—when you’re engaging people.
you never know what useful nuggets a person might throw out at a party or over a casual lunch.
Keep a few general questions in your back pocket to ask people in these kinds of situations or settings.
“What’s the
most interesting thing you’ve learned over the p...
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When you browse a connection’s newsfeed on LinkedIn or Facebook, you aren’t necessarily looking for anything in particular, but you may stumble upon an interesting
staying logged in to Amazon, LinkedIn, Yahoo, Facebook, Yelp, Google, and the other “dial tones” of the Internet, as Zynga CEO Mark Pincus calls them, can personalize your serendipitous intelligence.
pushing interesting information out to your network increases your chances of serendipitous intelligence.
Vetting, reference checking, and obtaining in-depth color about another person is something entrepreneurs do every time they make a new hire, and it’s something every professional does many, many times in his or her career.
one source of information trumps all others: other people.
which is why she tapped her network to learn as much as she could about Tim.
