Shane Snow

Smart Cuts

Sources: 4 min. Books /
A revolution will prevent you from racing to the bottom: Jim Collins described this in Great By Choice – big risks come with big rewards, so instead of entering the race for cheaper, faster and smaller, throw out the rulebook and come up with something new altogether.
Great way to explain the self-attribution error: “We externalize our mistakes because we need to live with ourselves afterward”

When failure isn’t personal, we often do the opposite. When someone else fails, we blame his or her lack of effort or ability. When we see people succeed, we tend to attribute it to situational forces beyond their control, namely luck.
The tough part about negative feedback is in separating ourselves from the perceived failure and turning our experiences into objective experiments. But when we do that, feedback becomes much more powerful.

When market and technology growth are smooth and steady, the first mover gets the inertia and an advantage. When industry change is choppy, the fast follower—the second mover—gets the benefits of the first mover’s pioneering work and often catches a bigger wave, unencumbered.
Something important about breakthrough success: simplification often makes the difference between good and amazing.
Constraints make the haiku one of the world’s most moving poetic forms. They give us boundaries that direct our focus and allow us to be more creative. This is, coincidentally, why tiny startup companies frequently come up with breakthrough ideas. They start with so few resources that they’re forced to come up with simplifying solutions.
Succeed in approximate ladders that afford easy switching: The common pattern among these fastest-rising US presidents’ journeys is that, like the BYU students, they didn’t parlay up a linear path. They climbed various ladders of success and then switched to the presidential ladder.
Rapid, negative (so constructive) focused feedback
“Tell me something funny” vs. “Tell me a knock-knock joke” as a way that specificity (so constraints) make it easier fo rus to do something
While hard work is important, deliberate pattern spotting can compensate for experience. Giving makes us a superconnector and creates serendipity. Momentum is the predictor of success. Simplification gets what we do from good to amazing. Constraints make us more creative. Going after a 10x goal forces better thinking and attracts supporters.
Bigger or Better illustrates an interesting fact: people are generally willing to take a chance on something if it only feels like a small stretch. (get them to feel traction)
Socrates → Plato → Aristotle → Alexander the Great (mentors)
Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes. —Oscar Wilde

It doesn’t have to be 2D! (What assumptions are we making?)

Bjon Borg - 20 and at Wimbeldon

The game Borg was playing involved a two-handed backhand stroke that the world hadn’t seen before. “Basically I started playing double handed on both my forehand and backhand side because my first racket was very heavy,” Borg told CNN in 2011. This stroke gave him unprecedented topspin and an unfair advantage over opponents.
Costco: Costco, for example, broke records in a cutthroat industry by turning grocery shopping conventions on their heads:

Customers pay just to get in.
Customers are forced to buy more per-item quantity than other stores and are given fewer choices (4 toothpaste brands vs dozens available at many stores).
Low-skill employees are paid generously high wages.
The return policy is atypically liberal.
The company embraces unions and only advertises through its own magazine.

🍎 Innovation

However, it turns out that first-mover advantage is not an advantage at all! As I explored in Smartcuts, research from the University of Southern California shows that 47% of first-movers in business fail outright, and that only 11%. More than half the time, however, it's a "fast-follower"—the second to bring a solution to market—not only beat pioneering companies but remain the market leader for years to come, even when later entrants try to disrupt them. Write researchers Lieberman and Montgomery, "Pioneers often miss the best opportunities, which are obscured by technological and market uncertainties. In effect, early entrants may acquire the ‘wrong’ resources, which prove to be of limited value as the market evolves.”

Argues Apple watch and wallet let the market get the kinks out

Simplicity: In recent years, the tactic was radical simplicity. Jobs' mantra, in fact, was "Focus and simplicity." He famously said, "Simple can be harder than complex; you have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple.” The Magic Mouse became a sensation by removing buttons when everyone else was adding them.

This, too, holds with Apple history. When Apple released the first iPhone, it broke Business Rule #1: don't cannibalize your own products. The iPhone instantly made iPod obsolete. And yet, by not being afraid to break the rule, the company changed the telecommunications industry forever

Sticking to the status quo, what’s working is also a risk. You’re betting the golden goose keeps laying and doesn’t dry up

Smart Cuts

Sources: 4 min. Books /
A revolution will prevent you from racing to the bottom: Jim Collins described this in Great By Choice – big risks come with big rewards, so instead of entering the race for cheaper, faster and smaller, throw out the rulebook and come up with something new altogether.
Great way to explain the self-attribution error: “We externalize our mistakes because we need to live with ourselves afterward”

When failure isn’t personal, we often do the opposite. When someone else fails, we blame his or her lack of effort or ability. When we see people succeed, we tend to attribute it to situational forces beyond their control, namely luck.
The tough part about negative feedback is in separating ourselves from the perceived failure and turning our experiences into objective experiments. But when we do that, feedback becomes much more powerful.

When market and technology growth are smooth and steady, the first mover gets the inertia and an advantage. When industry change is choppy, the fast follower—the second mover—gets the benefits of the first mover’s pioneering work and often catches a bigger wave, unencumbered.
Something important about breakthrough success: simplification often makes the difference between good and amazing.
Constraints make the haiku one of the world’s most moving poetic forms. They give us boundaries that direct our focus and allow us to be more creative. This is, coincidentally, why tiny startup companies frequently come up with breakthrough ideas. They start with so few resources that they’re forced to come up with simplifying solutions.
Succeed in approximate ladders that afford easy switching: The common pattern among these fastest-rising US presidents’ journeys is that, like the BYU students, they didn’t parlay up a linear path. They climbed various ladders of success and then switched to the presidential ladder.
Rapid, negative (so constructive) focused feedback
“Tell me something funny” vs. “Tell me a knock-knock joke” as a way that specificity (so constraints) make it easier fo rus to do something
While hard work is important, deliberate pattern spotting can compensate for experience. Giving makes us a superconnector and creates serendipity. Momentum is the predictor of success. Simplification gets what we do from good to amazing. Constraints make us more creative. Going after a 10x goal forces better thinking and attracts supporters.
Bigger or Better illustrates an interesting fact: people are generally willing to take a chance on something if it only feels like a small stretch. (get them to feel traction)
Socrates → Plato → Aristotle → Alexander the Great (mentors)
Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes. —Oscar Wilde

It doesn’t have to be 2D! (What assumptions are we making?)

Bjon Borg - 20 and at Wimbeldon

The game Borg was playing involved a two-handed backhand stroke that the world hadn’t seen before. “Basically I started playing double handed on both my forehand and backhand side because my first racket was very heavy,” Borg told CNN in 2011. This stroke gave him unprecedented topspin and an unfair advantage over opponents.
Costco: Costco, for example, broke records in a cutthroat industry by turning grocery shopping conventions on their heads:

Customers pay just to get in.
Customers are forced to buy more per-item quantity than other stores and are given fewer choices (4 toothpaste brands vs dozens available at many stores).
Low-skill employees are paid generously high wages.
The return policy is atypically liberal.
The company embraces unions and only advertises through its own magazine.

🍎 Innovation

However, it turns out that first-mover advantage is not an advantage at all! As I explored in Smartcuts, research from the University of Southern California shows that 47% of first-movers in business fail outright, and that only 11%. More than half the time, however, it's a "fast-follower"—the second to bring a solution to market—not only beat pioneering companies but remain the market leader for years to come, even when later entrants try to disrupt them. Write researchers Lieberman and Montgomery, "Pioneers often miss the best opportunities, which are obscured by technological and market uncertainties. In effect, early entrants may acquire the ‘wrong’ resources, which prove to be of limited value as the market evolves.”

Argues Apple watch and wallet let the market get the kinks out

Simplicity: In recent years, the tactic was radical simplicity. Jobs' mantra, in fact, was "Focus and simplicity." He famously said, "Simple can be harder than complex; you have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple.” The Magic Mouse became a sensation by removing buttons when everyone else was adding them.

This, too, holds with Apple history. When Apple released the first iPhone, it broke Business Rule #1: don't cannibalize your own products. The iPhone instantly made iPod obsolete. And yet, by not being afraid to break the rule, the company changed the telecommunications industry forever

Sticking to the status quo, what’s working is also a risk. You’re betting the golden goose keeps laying and doesn’t dry up