PersonalMBA

• Very good overall (probably to low-level for me)
• Formal business degrees often not worth the money. What you learn is very useful, but there are more efficient (and cheaper!) ways to learn it.
• "Life is tough, its tougher if you're stupid" –John Wayne Quotes
• "Education is not the answer to a question, it is the means to answer all questions" – Bill Allin
• "The limits of my language are the limits of my world" -Wittgenstein Quotes
• "Whoever best describes the problem is the one most likely to solve it" – Dan Roam Invert
• Your brain works with a lattice work of mental models. The key is to understand the most fundamental models – the ones that do most of the heavy lifting. You can out-think smarter people if you hone your mental models and train yourself to be objective and multidisciplinary.
• Even though we are constantly surrounded by it, business is one of the most complex and multidisciplinary human activities.
• Definition of a Business:
  1. provides value that 2) other people want/need 3) at a price they are willing to pay, in a way that 4) satisfies the purchasers needs and expectations and 5) provides enough revenue to be self-sufficient. (Business is a process of identifying a problem and finding a way to solve it that benefits both parties.)
• What do people need/want ? Maslows core human drives: physiologic / safety / belonging / esteem and self-actualization. ERG theory: people desire: existence/relatedness and growth (in this order)
• Working on the right thing is more important that working hard. SystemsNotGoals
• Having options or flexibility is an often overlooked/underrated form of value. UnpopularTruth
• The job of an entrepreneur is not to come up with ideas (that is the easy part) but to discover if an idea can work in reality.
• "Better to be roughly right than precisely wrong" – John Maynard Keynes PerfectionNotRequired Estimation
• As soon as you start talking about something people dont care about they will ignore you. Rationality Mental Models
• Trying to appeal to everyone is a waste of time and money.
• "All we hear is an opinion not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth" - Marcus Aurelius
• Three universal currencies: resources, time and flexibility. (Flexibility is usually underrated)
• Historically gift giving was how the powerful remained in power. History
• Most people resist creating systems to improve their work/life because it feels like extra work. When done right it can vastly decrease your amount of work. If you are feeling overloaded the best thing to do is take the time to setup a more effective system. Rationality SystemsNotGoals
• Amortization attributing a small piece of the expense of a large upfront investment across many small sales. or spreading the cost of a resource investment over the estimated life of the investment.
• Humans have a hard time paying attention to what is NOT present (Absence Blindness) Mental Models
• Your consciousness is how your brain solves problems that it cant automatically. WhoWeAre Consciousness
• Behaviorism is the idea that you can control behavior by controlling stimuli.
• Humans are optimized to perceive contrast not to compare what we see with what could be there but is not. We base our decisions on information in the surrounding environment. Mental Models
• The way to love anything is to realize it may be lost. Stoicism
• "You've got to think about the big things while you;re doing the small things so that all the small things go in the right direction" – Alvin Toffler
• Write down the two or three most important things that you need to do today in your list, then try to get them done first thing in the morning.
• Goals are things that you want to make progress on NOW ie TODAY. IF you dont want to commit to working toward a goal now, put it on your someday maybe list and move on.
• Abdicating responsibility for you decisions making doesn't mean your not making them – your just deciding to be a victim of circumstance.
• Externalizing your thoughts (either through speaking or writing) allows us to re-input information into our brains in a different form, allowing us to process the same information with different cognitive resources in a different way.
• "The palest ink is clearer than the fondest memory" Notebooks and journals, regularly used are worth their weight in gold.
• Asking yourself good questions allows you to discover good answers. Constantly ask: "What are the best questions I could ask myself about this situation?"
• If there is nothing that could change your mind, there is nothing tethering your beliefs to reality.
• If you want to make a man happy, add not to his riches, but take away from his desires. – Epicurus
• Only metric of success: are you spending time doing things you like, with people you enjoy, in a way that is sustainable.
• Turning results you dont control into goals is a recipe for frustration.
• Dont assume you cant do something. Make the other party tell you know. This is a great habit to install, you ll be surprised at how far it will take you.
• The best way to increase your power is to improve your influence and reputation.
• Comparative advantage is an argument for diversity.
• "Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what needs to be done and they will surprise you with their ingenuity" - General Patton
• Fight Bystander Apathy (from Boy Scouts) -) step up and take responsibility, unless relieved by a more experienced professional -) always direct commands or requests to ONE SPECIFIC INDIVIDUAL AT A TIME
• People are horrible at planning. Planning is guessing.
• Plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.
• We find comfort among those who agree with us, and growth among those who dont. - Frank Clark
• The reason listening is hard is that not-listening doesn't feel like not-listening: it just feels like the other person is wrong. - Andrew Badr.
• Hiring Advice:
  • Ask to see examples of two or three of their best projects to date.
  • To References Ask: "Would they work with the candidate again? IF they hesitate or talk around the question h, its a no. If you cant reach a reference when you call, leave a massage and ask them to contact you if the candidate is extraordinary. If they are, you;ll receive a call. If they aren't, you wont.
  • Give the applicant a ~1 day project or scenario and use it to evaluate their actual work in a realistic environment. Their presentation of the project replaces the job interview.
• "Better to have an approximate answer to the right question than an exact answer to a wrong question" - John Tukey
• Its easy to fixate on things that are easy to measure instead of things that are important.
• "Everyone generalizes from one example. At least, I do" – Steven Burst
• Use checklists to make sure an important task gets done correctly every time. -) Helps formalize a system -) Once written down, easy to see how it could be improved.

• Your real life is your thoughts.
• Your thoughts are you own making
• Your character is your own handiwork.
• You can be disgraced by no mans hand but your own.

Questions:

• Do I externalize (write or record) what I'm thinking about?
• Am I making it easy to capture my thoughts as I have them?
• Am I regularly asking myself appropriate guiding questions?
• Do I review all my commitments on a regular basis?
• Is there another way of defining success that I may find more fulfilling?

Pick up a notebook, set aside an hour, and spend time with yourself answering these questions