Bookshelf

Key Takeaways:

• Control what you can control, accept what you cannot

• Focus on your judgments, not external events

• Practice negative visualization to appreciate what you have

• Our opinions, not things themselves, disturb us

Key Takeaways:

• Life is long if you know how to use it

• We waste time on trivial matters

• The present is the only time we truly possess

• Most people exist, but few truly live

Key Takeaways:

• Those who have a 'why' can bear any 'how'

• Meaning can be found even in suffering

• We cannot avoid suffering, but we choose how to cope

• Between stimulus and response lies our freedom to choose

Key Takeaways:

• Talk about their life, not your idea

• Ask about specifics in the past, not generics or opinions about the future

• Talk less, listen more

• The measure of success is not what they say, but what they do

Key Takeaways:

• Don't solve problems before understanding them

• Who really has the problem?

• The problem is rarely what it seems at first

• The best solution might be to not solve the problem at all

Key Takeaways:

• History repeats itself because human nature doesn't change

• Inequality is natural and inevitable

• War is constant; peace is the exception

• Civilizations rise, peak, and decline in predictable patterns

Key Takeaways:

• Systems thinking reveals leverage points for change

• Feedback loops drive system behavior

• Today's problems come from yesterday's solutions

• The purpose of a system is what it does, not what it says

Key Takeaways:

• All warfare is based on deception

• Know your enemy and know yourself

• Supreme excellence is winning without fighting

• In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity

Key Takeaways:

• Statistics can be manipulated to tell any story

• Always ask: Who says so? How do they know?

• Correlation does not imply causation

• The sample matters as much as the conclusion

Key Takeaways:

• P-hacking and publication bias corrupt research

• Small sample sizes lead to false discoveries

• Statistical significance ≠ practical significance

• Most published research findings are probably false

Key Takeaways:

• Omit needless words

• Use the active voice

• Put statements in positive form

• Vigorous writing is concise

Key Takeaways:

• Separate the people from the problem

• Focus on interests, not positions

• Generate options for mutual gain

• Use objective criteria for decisions

Key Takeaways:

• Bullshit is more dangerous than lying

• Bullshitters don't care about truth or falsehood

• Liars know the truth and hide it; bullshitters ignore it entirely

• Sincerity itself can be bullshit

Key Takeaways:

• The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao

• Act without doing; work without effort

• The softest things overcome the hardest

• Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is wisdom

Key Takeaways:

• In a complex democracy, propaganda is necessary to organize public opinion

• Those who manipulate public opinion constitute an invisible government

• Modern propaganda creates events rather than merely reporting them

• The engineering of consent is essential in democratic societies

Key Takeaways:

• Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise

• A penny saved is a penny earned

• Time is money

• Well done is better than well said

Key Takeaways:

• Pay yourself first—save at least 10% of your earnings

• Make your money work for you through wise investments

• Seek advice from those who are successful with money

• Live below your means and avoid debt

Key Takeaways:

• Good design is invisible; bad design frustrates

• Affordances show what actions are possible

• Provide feedback for every action

• When people make errors, it's usually the design's fault, not theirs

Key Takeaways:

• There's a gap between early adopters and the mainstream market

• Focus on a narrow beachhead market first

• Innovators and early adopters want technology; the majority wants solutions

• The chasm is where most startups fail

Key Takeaways:

• If something requires a large investment of time—or looks like it will—it's less likely to be used

• Get rid of half the words on each page, then get rid of half of what's left

• Users don't read pages, they scan them

• Design for scanning, not reading

Key Takeaways:

• Strategic inflection points can destroy companies that don't adapt

• Success breeds complacency; paranoia breeds vigilance

• When 10x forces of change hit, you must respond with 10x effort

• Let chaos reign, then rein in chaos

Key Takeaways:

• Think outcomes, not outputs

• Design is a team sport, not a deliverable

• Get out of the building and test assumptions early

• Minimum viable product beats perfect product

Key Takeaways:

• Create something new, don't copy what exists

• Competition is for losers; aim for monopoly

• Start small and dominate a niche

• Technology is vertical progress; globalization is horizontal

Key Takeaways:

• Consider both immediate and long-term effects of any policy

• Look at effects on everyone, not just one group

• The broken window fallacy: destruction doesn't create wealth

• What is seen vs. what is not seen in economic decisions

Key Takeaways:

• Science advances through paradigm shifts, not steady progress

• Normal science operates within paradigms; revolutions change them

• Anomalies accumulate until a crisis forces a paradigm shift

• Scientists from different paradigms see different worlds

Key Takeaways:

• Simple checklists dramatically reduce errors

• Even experts fail under complexity without systems

• Good checklists are precise, efficient, and easy to use

• Discipline over heroism in complex environments

Key Takeaways:

• Randomness plays a huge role in success and failure

• We see patterns where only randomness exists

• Small samples are unreliable; regression to the mean is inevitable

• Success is part skill, part luck—usually more luck than we admit

Key Takeaways:

• The Hook Model: Trigger → Action → Variable Reward → Investment

• Internal triggers create strong habits; external triggers just start them

• Variable rewards keep users coming back

• Users who invest in a product are more likely to return

Key Takeaways:

• Winners quit fast, quit often, and quit without guilt—until they find the right Dip

• The Dip is the hard part between starting and mastery

• Quit the Cul-de-Sacs and Dead Ends, lean into the Dips

• Strategic quitting is better than mediocre persistence

Key Takeaways:

• Being safe is risky; being remarkable is the only path

• Traditional marketing is dead; remarkable products market themselves

• Target the innovators and early adopters who care

• Don't be boring; boring is invisible

Key Takeaways:

• Change is inevitable; anticipate it and adapt quickly

• The quicker you let go of old cheese, the sooner you find new cheese

• Fear makes things worse; imagine yourself enjoying new cheese

• Notice small changes early to adapt to bigger changes ahead

Key Takeaways:

• The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others

• Individual liberty is the foundation of progress and human flourishing

• Society must protect minority opinions; silencing any opinion is an evil

• The tyranny of the majority can be worse than political tyranny

Key Takeaways:

• History's great figures were often ridiculous and flawed

• Don't take historical reverence too seriously

• Human nature hasn't changed; we're still making the same mistakes

• Humor reveals truth that serious history often misses

Key Takeaways:

• Central economic planning leads inevitably to totalitarianism

• Freedom is indivisible; economic freedom enables political freedom

• Even well-intentioned socialism erodes individual liberty

• The worst get on top: systems of power attract those who seek power

Key Takeaways:

• When stakes are high, opinions vary, and emotions run strong—that's a crucial conversation

• Start with heart: clarify what you really want from the conversation

• Make it safe: establish mutual purpose and mutual respect

• Master your stories: separate facts from the stories you tell yourself

Key Takeaways:

• Every difficult conversation is really three conversations: what happened, feelings, and identity

• Move from certainty to curiosity; ask questions instead of making statements

• Don't assume intentions; you can't know what others were thinking

• Express your feelings; they're part of the problem and part of the solution

Key Takeaways:

• Four components: Observations, Feelings, Needs, Requests

• Separate observations from evaluations and judgments

• Express needs rather than strategies for meeting needs

• Make requests, not demands; be clear about what you want

Key Takeaways:

• Frame control is everything; whoever controls the frame controls the conversation

• Hot cognitions (emotion) trump cold cognitions (logic) every time

• Create desire and tension; make them chase you

• The crocodile brain responds to novelty, danger, and social status

Key Takeaways:

• Start with why it matters, not what it is

• Lower the floor: make ideas accessible before making them sophisticated

• Use analogies and stories to make abstract concepts concrete

• Transform understanding into confidence and agreement

Key Takeaways:

• Self 1 (the teller) and Self 2 (the doer): the inner dialogue affects performance

• Quiet the judging mind to let natural abilities emerge

• Focus on what is, not what should be—observe without judgment

• Trust your body; it knows more than your conscious mind