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Kindle Notes & Highlights
As economist Joseph Schumpeter famously observed, originality is an act of creative destruction.
“On matters of style, swim with the current,” Thomas Jefferson allegedly advised, but “on matters of principle, stand like a rock.”
After all, if you don’t swing for the fences, it’s impossible to hit a home run.
If you’re about to bet aggressively in blackjack, you might drive below the speed limit on your way to the casino.
But in reality, the biggest barrier to originality is not idea generation—it’s idea selection.
“You gotta kiss a lot of frogs,” he often told his team, “before you find a prince.”
Being original doesn’t require being first. It just means being different and better.
As psychologist Abraham Maslow noted, when you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
The experimental approach served Leonardo da Vinci well: he was forty-six when he finished painting The Last Supper and in his early fifties when he started working on the Mona Lisa.
In The Godfather: Part II, Michael Corleone advises, “Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.”
As journalist Robert Quillen wrote, “Progress always involves risk. You can’t steal second and keep one foot on first base.”