More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
Too often, we wait until we’re sure we’re right. Better to begin with an assertion. And then find out.
An assertion is a promise. A promise that you’ll try. A promise that you’ll ship. And a promise that if you fail, you’ll let us know why.
Find your audience, then share a point of view and an invitation to connect around a new idea.
If you’re going to accept responsibility, you want to be certain that people understand what you’ve just asserted.
What are the implications, ramifications, and side effects of what you plan to do? What are your contingency plans? What will happen if it works? (And if it doesn’t?)
The professional creative works to change the culture. Not all of the culture, certainly, but a pocket of it.
Your assertion begins a cultural shift, because it’s an invitation for coconspirators to join you.
People at higher levels of performance don’t spend more hours training.
The athletes at the highest level had just as many friends and just as normal a life as dedicated swimmers at lower levels.
The ability to swim fast is not something yo...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
two key differences between great competitors...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
Skill. The best swimmers swim differently than the ones who do...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
Attitude. The best swimmers bring a different attitude to their training.
They choose to find delight in the parts that other swimmers avoid.
It’s our belief in possibility and the support of the culture around us.
When you’re surrounded by respected peers, it’s more likely you’ll do the work you set out to do.
Don’t wait for it to happen to you.
organize a cohort of fellow artists who will encourage themselves.
Find your cohort. The generous ones.
It’s much more likely that we’ll succeed by overinvesting in just one or two skills.
The challenge, then, is to have one superpower.
Begin with one.
In order to deliver speed at a low price, FedEx had to commit. They made a significant number of choices all focused on that one metric.
their system is their superpower.
Fortunately, it’s now possible to easily outsource many of the things you’re not very good at,
Choose the skill we’re going to assert to the outside world.
Even if it comes at the cost of neglecting some of the work you used to do that, in the end, was simply a distraction.
Ultimately, the goal is to become the best in the world at being you.
To bring useful idiosyncrasy to the people you seek to change, and to earn a reputation for what you do and how you do it.
We can teach people to make commitments, to overcome fear, to deal transparently, to initiate, and to plan a course of action.
We can teach people to desire lifelong learning, to express themselves, and to innovate.
it’s vital we acknowledge that we can unteach bravery and creati...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
A first hurdle: Are you aware of what the reading (your reading) must include?
The reading is what we call it when you do the difficult work of learning to think with the best, to stay caught up, to understand.
The study
You don’t have to like their work or agree with their assertions. But you need to know who they are and what they’re saying.
the posture of understanding both the pioneers and the state of the art is essential.
Skill is ...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
Good taste comes from domain knowledge, combined with the guts and experience to know where to veer from what’s expected.
Good taste means that you understand genre and its benefits even more than the fans do.
His understanding of what’s come before gives him the platform and the standing to help figure out what’s going to come next.
Creativity doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes.
By choosing their constraints, they are able to develop a coherent approach to what to do next.
all creativity is based on using existing constraints to find new solutions.
Art solves problems in a novel way, and problems always have constraints.
The edge of the box gives you leverage.
Each embraced a set, or a method, or a budget, and then inhabited that choice fully.
Finding the constraints and embracing them is a common thread in successful creative work.
Time Money Format Team members User trust Materials
Technology Regulation Physics The status quo
You probably have no choice but to ease one or two of them. But the r...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
