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Smarter Faster Better

the Secrets of Productivity in Life and Business
Jun 03, 2016Lord_Vad3r rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
What motivates me to go to work every day? I'm sure there are people all over the world who wake up and ask that question. Why, do I do it? For me, the answer's easy: I am addicted to living in an air-conditioned house and eating food. I am very fortunate in that I actually like my job. That doesn't mean I don't want to get better at it. I am always looking for ways to improve in all aspects of my life. I want to learn more, retain more, and produce more. That's why I picked up Smarter Faster Better in the first place, to see if there was anything I could glean and apply to my daily life or work. Quite often, I have noticed, books claiming to have a system for you to become more productive fall into the trap of repeating their elevator pitch in twenty different ways to make up 90 percent of the content. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Mr. Duhigg introduced a concept, provided supporting documentation, and then real world applications (where it has worked). The book is built around 8 concepts that can help both individuals and teams function better. He covers motivation, focus, goal setting, and decision-making for instance. Lean management techniques and psychological safety are included. I have used the SMART system before but I had never seen it paired with a stretch goal (a goal that when you first look at it, you'd think there was no way to reach it.) I have begun to experiment with some of the suggestions in the book. I decided for example to take on fewer projects and give greater attention to the ones I do have (focus). Also, I am trying to work on more things I am interested in or feel passionate about (motivation). I've begun applying his approach to my to-do lists. I will be looking for the opportunities to apply probabilistic thinking to future projects and for variables to manipulate. It will all make for a better product. For some time I have thought that schools should have a course called "Cause and Effect Thinking." In the Cincinnati schools discussed in the book they used Engineering Design Process which is pretty close to what I was envisioning. They say that the human mind can't really see the big picture until the mid-twenties but I bet that's because we've not made a concerted effort to develop that skill. I'm glad to see that it's being employed and that it's working. If we can get that and a greater focus on economics at every grade level it will go a long way towards fixing our school systems, which ARE BROKEN. Money spent on education is only a waste if it's not achieving ends that are beneficial to all of society and the world. Okay, I'm calming down now. . . maybe. At any rate, the book is easy to read with solid examples. I am going to pick up The Power of Habit just because I was so impressed with this product. Not all of the concepts will work in every situation but they will help in most.