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Originals by Adam Grant

Originals by Adam Grant

by Parker · 63 things on Twos

Any one of us can champion ideas that improve the world around us
A friend is someone who sees more potential in you than you see in yourself, someone who helps you become the best version of yourself
“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” - George Bernard Shaw
The more you value achievement, the more you come to dread failure
"On matters of style, swim with the current, on matters of principle, stand like a rock." - Thomas Jefferson
Entrepreneurs who kept their day jobs had 33 percent lower odds of failure than those who quit
“Could possibly be original in one area unless he were possessed of the emotional and social stability that comes from fixed attitudes in all areas other than the one in which he is being original.” - Edwin Land
Having a sense of security in one realm gives us the freedom to be original in another
Successful originals take extreme risks in one arena and offset them with extreme caution in another
Failing yields less regret than failing to try
Creative geniuses aren't qualitatively better in their fields than their peers. They simply produced a greater volume of work, which gave them more variation and a higher chance of originality
When it comes to idea generation, quantity is the most predictable path to quality
In the face of uncertainty, our first instinct is often to reject novelty, looking for reasons why unfamiliar concepts might fail
The more expertise and experience people gain, the more entrenched they become in a particular way of viewing the world
As we gain knowledge about a domain, we become prisoners of our prototypes
Our intuitions are only accurate in domains where we have a lot of experience
Products don’t create value. Customers do
Intuitions are only trustworthy when people build up experience making judgments in a predictable environment
In a rapidly changing world, the lessons of experience can easily point us in the wrong direction. And because the pace of change is accelerating, our environments are becoming ever more unpredictable. This makes intuition less reliable as a source of insight about new ideas and places a growing premium on analysis
The more successful people have been in the past, the worse they perform when they enter a new environment. They become overconfident, and they’re less likely to seek critical feedback even though the context is radically different
It’s never the idea; it’s always the execution
If we want to forecast whether the originators of a novel idea will make it successful, we need to look beyond the enthusiasm they express about their ideas and focus on the enthusiasm for execution that they reveal through their actions
“Great spirits have always encountered opposition from mediocre minds.” - Albert Einstein
Leading with weaknesses disarms the audience
When we’re aware that someone is trying to persuade us, we naturally raise our mental shields. Rampant confidence is a red flag—a signal that we need to defend ourselves against weapons of influence
“Unbridled optimism comes across as salesmanship; it seems dishonest somehow, and as a consequence, it’s met with skepticism. Everyone is allergic to the feeling, or suspicious of being sold.” - Rufus Griscom
"Maybe I'm wrong"
An amateur can appreciate art, but it takes a professional to critique it
Leading with limitations makes you look smart
Being up front about the downsides of your ideas makes you more trustworthy. You come across as knowledgeable, honest, and modest
If we want people to accept our original ideas, we need to speak up about them, then rise and repeat
Liking continues to increase as people are exposed to an idea between ten and twenty times
If we could do things over, most of us would censor ourselves less and express our ideas more
People have a better memory for incomplete than complete tasks. Once a task is finished, we stop thinking about it. But when it is interrupted and left undone, it stays active in our minds
Being original doesn't require being first. It just mans being different and better
Roughly three out of every four startups fail because of premature scaling—making investments that the market isn't yet ready to support
Nonconformists that buck the trends are more likely to stay in the market, receive funding, and ultimately go public
Settlers can improve upon competitors' technology to make products better
If you have an original idea, it's a mistake to rush with the sole purpose of beating your competitors to the finish line
The more experiments you run, the less constrained you become by your ideas from the past
If we communicate the vision behind our ideas, the purpose guiding our products, people will flock to us
Ambivalent relationships are unhealthier than negative relationships because it takes more energy and copying resources to deal with individuals who are inconsistent
Firstborns are more risk averse than laterborns
It doesn't take guts to follow the crowd, it takes courage and intelligence to be willing to be different
When our character is praised, we internalize it as part of our identities
When we shift our emphasis from behavior to character, people evaluate choices differently
Parents can nurture the impulse to be original, but at some point, people need to find their own role models for originality in their chosen fields
Groupthink is the enemy of originality; people feel pressured to conform to the dominant, default views instead of championing diversity of thought
"Minority viewpoints are important, not because they tend to prevail but because they stimulate divergent attention and thought. As a result, even when they are wrong they contribute to the detection of novel solutions and decisions that, on balance, are qualitatively better." - Charlan Nemeth
Dissenting opinions are useful even when they're wrong
Social bonds don't drive groupthink; the culprits are overconfidence and reputational concerns
"The greatest tragedy of mankind comes from the inability of people to have thoughtful disagreement to find out what's true." - Ray Dalio
The greatest shapers don't stop at introducing originality into the world. They create cultures that unleash originality in others
"I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it... The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear." - Nelson Mandela
Fear forces you to prepare more rigorously and see potential problems more quickly
Fear is marked by uncertainty about the future: We’re worried that something bad will happen. But because the event hasn’t occurred yet, there’s also a possibility, however slim, that the outcome will be positive. We can step on the gas by focusing on the reasons to move forward—the sliver of excitement that we feel about breaking loose and singing our song.
Instead of trying to calm yourself down when you experience fear, we can motivate ourselves to act in the face of fear and get excited
Originality brings more bumps in the road, yet it leaves us with more happiness and a greater sense of meaning
Without a sense of urgency, people won't make needed sacrifices. Instead they cling to the status quo and resist
If people think a behavior is safe, we should emphasize all the good things that will happen if they do it—they'll want to act immediately to obtain those certain gains. But when people believe a behavior is risky, we need to destabilize the status quo and accentuate the bad things that will happen if they don't change
If you want people to take risks, you need first to show what's wrong with the present. To drive people out of their comfort zones, you have to cultivate dissatisfaction, frustration, or anger at the current state of affairs, making it a guaranteed loss
Actions to generate and recognize original ideas: question the default, triple the number of ideas you generate, immerse yourself in a new domain, procrastinate strategically, seek more feedback from peers
Originals by Adam Grant Summary