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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Eric Barker
Read between
August 25 - October 25, 2020
We don’t need to subtract; we need to add novel challenges to create engagement.
Therefore, to make work fun, add challenges. For something to have meaning, you ultimately have to make your mark, to be engaged. If your game is winnable, if you have control, if it challenges you—without being overwhelming—you’ll enjoy it more.
good games are very clear about what you need to do to win.
In an office environment, there are definite goals—but are they your goals?
Research shows that the most motivating thing is progress in meaningful work.
Amabile recommends taking a moment at the end of every day to ask yourself, “What one thing can I do to make progress on important work tomorrow?”
“Quit” doesn’t have to be the opposite of “grit.”
We’re consistently conservative about predicting how much extra cash we’ll have in our wallets, but when it comes to time, we always think there will be more tomorrow. Or next week. Or next year.
What he found was that most of the big changes they made weren’t about new initiatives but about the bad things they needed to stop doing.
Know your number-one priority. Then start quitting stuff that isn’t as important and see what happens. You’ll learn really fast if something really is more essential than you thought.
when we choose to quit pursuing unattainable goals, we’re happier, less stressed, and get sick less often.
“I know plenty of people for whom grit is a liability because it allows them to stick with something that makes them or others miserable and towards no long-term good aim.
“You can do anything once you stop trying to do everything.”
It turns out luck isn’t just serendipity or due to the paranormal. A lot of it is about the choices people make.
lucky people maximize opportunities.
more extroverted, and less neurotic.
If he got unlucky people to behave more like lucky people, would they get the same results? Turns out they did.
optimistic explanatory style
“activating good-luck-related superstitions via a common saying or action (e.g., “break a leg,” keeping one’s fingers crossed) or a lucky charm improves subsequent performance in golfing, motor dexterity, memory, and anagram games.”
These actions give people confidence, which helps them perform better.
When there’s no clear path to success, no relevant model for what you’re trying to achieve, trying crazy things may be the only way to solve the issue.
Fail fast and fail cheap.
Luckily, you’re not trying to be Batman. But all too often you and I act like we are. We think we always have to be perfect. One failure and it’s all over. But you’re not Batman. You can fail and quit and learn. In fact, that’s the only way you can learn.
Getting lots of different ideas crashing together turns out to be one of the keys to creativity.
It turns out that your brain isn’t very good at telling fantasy from reality.
When you dream, that grey matter feels you already have what you want and so it doesn’t marshal the resources you need to motivate yourself and achieve.
while dreaming, we feel good. But dreaming ends up increasing depression later on. Fantasizing gives us the reward before we’ve accomplished the task and saps the energy we need to realize it.
just planning out some basics, like when to do something, where, and how, made students almost 40 percent more likely to follow through with goals.
“if” and “then.”
thinking, If X happens, I’ll handle it by doing Y makes ...
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With no if-then implementation intentions, zero people followed through on putting a résumé together.
wish, outcome, obstacle, plan—is
First, you get to dream.
Really crystalize it in your mind and see the outcome you desire.
What obstacle is in the way?
What’s you...
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this process doesn’t sap your drive the way just fantasizing does.
“flexible optimism.”
Being a little pessimistic at times keeps us honest. But when the risks are very low (which is true, frankly, for most things) or when the payoffs are very high (such as a career you might want to devote your life to) optimism is the way to go.
the research pretty consistently shows extroverts make more money.
“childhood extraversion positively predicted . . . extrinsic success.”
Moving someone from the bottom fifth of popularity in their high school class to the top fifth equals a 10 percent boost in income during adulthood.
One study says, “extraversion was positively related to career satisfaction, salary level, and the number of promotions received over one’s entire career.”
Research shows that you don’t actually need to know more to be seen as a leader. Merely by speaking first and speaking often—very extroverted behavior—people come to be seen as El Jefe.
those who initially act shy in groups are perceived as less intelligent.
This comes naturally to extroverts and is actually more important than competence when it come...
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People who have more peripheral acquaintances are more plugged in and learn about emerging possibilities.
networking is related to concurrent salary and that it is related to the growth rate of salary over time.”
But research from Simon Fraser University showed that by having a large network dealers earned more money and were more likely to stay out of jail. The size of the criminal organization had no effect.
The results of these studies were clear: offenders who were better at building and managing their criminal network earned significantly more money from crime than others . . . the size of a dealer’s core criminal network was significantly associated with survival. Network size also emerges as a protective factor: the larger the size of a dealer’s network, the longer the survival.
