Book: Smarter Faster Better: The Secrets of Being Productive in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg. Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.

It is a good book. I almost gave 3 stars, but it is still a Mastery effect. It deserves four.

Each chapter in the book is devoted to a specific area: Motivation, Teams, Focus, Goal setting, Managing others, Decision making, Innovation, and Absorbing data.

My notes on each topic:

Motivation

  • Motivation is feeling in control.
  • There is an example of the marines training. The training is not exactly about combat, but about doing what you think you couldn’t do.

Teams

Focus

  • Focused teams solve emergencies better.
  • Develop mental models
  • Anticipate what may happen. What will your wife say at some situation? What will happen if a specific piece fail? Build mental models for many situations as possible

Goal setting

  • Be careful with to-do lists, you have to use them in the right way. You may waste a lot of time just to “reach your goal” and have a clean list. Things like reading emails is not a good goal. Plan for smart goals.

Managing others

  • This chapter is all about Lean and the Toyota way. Learn to listen to your employees and give them enough space to improve the whole process.

Decision making

  • No one can prevent the future, but with enough data, we can forecast some events and even improve the chances of success.

Innovation

  • Innovation is usually a combination of previously known ideas mixed up in a new way.
  • The most innovative ideas came from people who deal with multiple groups or departments. People who can explain a concept to other departments easily.
  • Toyota gives space for every employee to innovate and improve the process. Disney gives the chance to their employees to put their emotions into the movies.

Absorbing data

  • Collect data and try some hypothesis on it. Every choice is an experiment.
  • When we learn something, we should force ourselves to interact with the data. Try to explain a new concept to a friend for example.