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3.43 AVERAGE
3.43 AVERAGE
This short read gives sage advice on when to say no. Seth Godin’s described the dip as “the place between beginners luck and real accomplishment”. The weed out classes in college or the professional exams in your career. His advice centers on strategic quitting. Quitting the classes, projects, and products that distract from the your one area of greatness.
While I recognize the Pareto principal being very useful when thinking about these lessons in an organizational context, I don’t believe all people have one area of greatness. Great people have a variety of experiences and skills that lead to their mastery (Range by David Epstein is a great read about this). This is not to say individuals shouldn’t still use strategic quitting to help guide them, avoid burn out, and have the courage to say no.
While I recognize the Pareto principal being very useful when thinking about these lessons in an organizational context, I don’t believe all people have one area of greatness. Great people have a variety of experiences and skills that lead to their mastery (Range by David Epstein is a great read about this). This is not to say individuals shouldn’t still use strategic quitting to help guide them, avoid burn out, and have the courage to say no.
This book came in as a highly recommended one by a few bookstragrammers that I follow but unfortunately I just wasn't feeling it. Although the premise was promising, the conclusion deduced as to when to quit was overly simplistic.. didn't think the examples used were quite as solid too. Sad I didn't get much out of it like others did, as much as I had wanted to.
informative
fast-paced
funny
informative
reflective
fast-paced
A fantastic book that every PhD student should read.
The advice is obvious but presented clearly and simply, making it a very powerful message: Winners quit (the right stuff). Basically, you can either quit your project (to focus on something else more worthwhile), stick with it (til the end) or neither. The first two are winning strategies, the last is not (and the one I chose in my PhD -- I should have read this book 3 years ago). The book is about making that decision.
It is very well written, in an informal style, and can easily be read in a day or weekend.
The advice is obvious but presented clearly and simply, making it a very powerful message: Winners quit (the right stuff). Basically, you can either quit your project (to focus on something else more worthwhile), stick with it (til the end) or neither. The first two are winning strategies, the last is not (and the one I chose in my PhD -- I should have read this book 3 years ago). The book is about making that decision.
It is very well written, in an informal style, and can easily be read in a day or weekend.
”When was the last time you heard about someone who stuck with a dead-end job or a dead-end relationship or a dead-end sales prospect until suddenly, one day, the person at the other end said, ‘Wow, I really admire your persistence; let’s change our relationship for the better’? It doesn’t happen.”
I’m always captivated by pieces of work that straddle the intersection of two different genres of medium. When does the short story become the novella, the novella a novel? When does a mini-series become a television show? When does a Tiktok become a short Youtube video become a long form Youtube video become an independently released documentary?
There is a genre of nonfiction book that could easily have been an article. These books have a title + subtitle combo that’s so descriptive that I already pretty know what the book is getting at. Make the book self-help, needing very few sources of objective info, and it might as well be a TED Talk.
This book talks about how quitting too soon can keep you from discovering greatness, and how not quitting soon enough can keep you wasting time and resources in a dead end environment. Agreed. It uses big, evocatively broad brush statements to say that being average is a waste of time (but being the best of a hyper localized micro-market is great, all about scope and context.) Okay.
I’m always at a loss what I’m supposed to do at the end of these. I say “Okay” out loud and try to keep that thought in mind as I move forward, I guess.
I’m always captivated by pieces of work that straddle the intersection of two different genres of medium. When does the short story become the novella, the novella a novel? When does a mini-series become a television show? When does a Tiktok become a short Youtube video become a long form Youtube video become an independently released documentary?
There is a genre of nonfiction book that could easily have been an article. These books have a title + subtitle combo that’s so descriptive that I already pretty know what the book is getting at. Make the book self-help, needing very few sources of objective info, and it might as well be a TED Talk.
This book talks about how quitting too soon can keep you from discovering greatness, and how not quitting soon enough can keep you wasting time and resources in a dead end environment. Agreed. It uses big, evocatively broad brush statements to say that being average is a waste of time (but being the best of a hyper localized micro-market is great, all about scope and context.) Okay.
I’m always at a loss what I’m supposed to do at the end of these. I say “Okay” out loud and try to keep that thought in mind as I move forward, I guess.
The premise of the book is that you should do things where you will excel. "Average is for losers".
• Winners quit the right stuff at the right time.
• People settle for good enough instead of best in the world.
• Being well rounded is not the secret to success.
• Zipf’s law - the no.1 is favoured a lot. The benefits which accrue to the person in the first place are highly skewed
• 2 curves + 1 "bonus"
• Curve 1 - The Dip – rift between starting point and mastery
• Curve 2 – Cul-de-sac – dead end
• Curve 3 – the cliff
• Winners quit the right stuff at the right time.
• People settle for good enough instead of best in the world.
• Being well rounded is not the secret to success.
• Zipf’s law - the no.1 is favoured a lot. The benefits which accrue to the person in the first place are highly skewed
• 2 curves + 1 "bonus"
• Curve 1 - The Dip – rift between starting point and mastery
• Curve 2 – Cul-de-sac – dead end
• Curve 3 – the cliff
Good book to read if you are in the nascent stage of any venture
Godin's THE DIP is a quick read at 80 pages. It feels more like an essay than a book, but Godin packs a lot into those 80 pages. His point is to get you to think about where you're putting your energy, time, and resources (like money) and whether or not those pursuits are worth it. In this at least, he succeeds. But for those of us who aren't intimately familiar with marketing and business lingo, some of the ideas are a little hard to grasp. Despite this, the book is still worth the read.