Smartcuts: How Hackers, Innovators, and Icons Accelerate Success

thinking (smartcuts) behind each of their success stories can be harnessed by anyone who seeks an edge—at work, at the gym, in the arts or education, from social enterprise to personal development, from big companies to small startups. In each of the following

Wealth without work. Pleasure without conscience. Knowledge without character. Commerce without morality. Science without humanity. Religion without sacrifice. Politics without principle.

“A master is able to give you feedback on a much more nuanced level, [and] has very little patience with distraction.”

“parlay,”

“We were kids without fathers . . . so we found our fathers on wax and on the streets and in history. We got to pick and choose the ancestors who would inspire the world we were going to make for ourselves.”

an age of platforms, creative problem solving is more valuable than computational skill.

see this book as a simultaneous hat tip and counterpoint to some of the great success and innovation literature out there (check out shanesnow.com/booklist for my recommendations).

Lateral thinking doesn’t replace hard work; it eliminates unnecessary

Companies that pivot—that is, switch business models or products—while on the upswing tend to perform much better than those that stay on a single course.