Smartcuts: The Breakthrough Power of Lateral Thinking Paperback – September 6, 2016

As I began to read Smartcuts, I was again reminded of the fact that many (if not most) human limits are self-imposed. For reasons that are assumed but seldom explained, we accept as received wisdom that what "they" say  has always been true. I wish I had a dollar for every time I have been told "We've always done it that way" or "We tried it once and it didn't work." In one of Hans Christian Andersen's most popular tales, "The Ugly Duckling," a bird born in a barnyard is abused because he is an ugly duck. Over time, he matures into a handsome swan. Sacred cows and false assumptions usually go unchallenged.According to Shane Snow, there are significant differences between "rapid, potentially short-term gains, or shortcuts, and success achieved through smarter work, or smartcuts." That is, "an act of lateral thinking with integrity. Working harder [but also smarter] and achieving breakthroughs without creating negative externalities."Edward de Bono is generally credited with popularizing lateral thinking in 1967 with the publication of his eponymous book. In Smartcuts, Snow has "catalogued the patterns through which rapid successes and breakthroughs innovators have achieved the incredible through lateral thinking. The nine principles comprise a framework for breaking conventions that explains how many of the world's most successful people and businesses do so much with less."Here are the principles, each thoroughly explained in the book:1. Hacking the Ladder2. Training with Masters3. Rapid Feedback4. Platforms5. Catching Waves6. Superconnecting7. Momentum8. Simplicity9. 10X ThinkingSmartcut thinking offers dozens of practical benefits:o Reduction (if not elimination) of wasteo Improvement of first-pass yieldo Reduction of cycle timeo Simplification of processo Increase of agility and resilienceo Faster modificationo Strengthened verificationI agree with Shane Snow: "We can do incredible things by rejecting convention and working smarter. What would happen if we looked at problems like pollution and climate change, racism and classism, violence and hunger, and instead of waiting for luck to strike, asked ourselves, 'How can we use smartcuts to fix things faster?' You can make incremental progress by playing by the rules. [That is, complying with someone else's rules.] To create breakthrough change, you have to break the rules. Let's break some rules together."In Leading Change, James O'Toole suggests that the strongest resistance to change is cultural in nature, the result of what he so aptly characterizes as "the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom." Never underestimate the difficulty of achieving breakthrough results with lateral thinking. That said, keep in mind this reassurance from Margaret Mead: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out Snow's more recent book, Dream Teams: Working Together Without Falling Apart (June 2018), as well as Safi Bahcall's Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries (March 2019).

The book satisfied my wants but I expected something a little more professional. The book does a great job of giving examples of principles employed by successful people. A lot of the advice stems from persistence, perseverance, ambition, utilizing the tools around you, and breaking down problems to its most basic needs. This is not a revolutionary book for an already successful person although it is a great motivator to think differently. The book contains many great examples of broken traditional methods such as mentoring and teaching. I do feel that we are in a time where we can change traditional methods and revolutionize many industries. I work in construction management and I feel that my industry has many opportunities for lateral thinking.

I read about 50 nonfiction books a year, and start many more. Only rarely do I lose sleep reading one, as I did with "Smartcuts."*What's so special about this book that kept me up late and had me sneaking pages here and there between meetings till I finished less than 3 days later? Well, certainly one thing is the engaging format. Author Shane Snow seems to delight in keeping his reader on the edge of his/her seat, giving us a teaser with one tale, then breaking into another, then another, then taking us back to the first, etc until he ties them all up by the end of the chapter. That trick is excruciatingly delightful to me, the type of intellectual striptease you get with a Malcolm Gladwell book or article, for instance. Note to self for my next book: more of that.But that's the surface ploy. Narrative structure alone, no matter how clever, will not keep your busy reader's attention through even the first chapter. I don't think I'm alone in requiring substance, and this is where "Smartcuts" (shortcuts that are ethical and savvy) truly excels.My favorite two chapters come at the end of the book (but please don't skip ahead, as you'll miss too much). Together, Shane makes the case for why it's often easier to improve by a factor of ten than it is by ten percent. "Nice claim," I thought to myself, "And I certainly want this to be true - it's right up this heretic's alley. But how does he back up what I want to hear with substance?" Well, he does, in spades. Take Elon Musk's SpaceX, which is doing... (for more: https://meddle.it/content/8a546f544abc8983014afd90eb291efe/public)

A broad based study on what gamers might call “speedrunning” but for career professionals, entrepreneurs, artists, musicians, etc. Snow writes of key concepts that can allow a person to exponentially leap towards their goals, versus grinding away at it with no end in sight.For the seasoned reader, this book might come across as light reading especially when there are other books that deep dive into these concepts with focus, but it is a great light read to keep you on course.

I like the book because it was an easy read and had a lot of good stories. My takeaway is use small victories and momentum to reach your goals. The author gives ways for smartcuts: connect with super connectors , use leverage, get constant feedback, hack the ladder of success,use momentum. My favorite parts of the book were the stories,like the one about Zack , a young kid dying and they do a documentary and they continue to tweak the title until it got the most attention and it became a hit, and the story of the hospital who copied the pit stop in car races to transfer one operation to the other more efficiently and D'Wayne the shoe designer who made it big by never giving up , getting a mentor and paying it forward and last getting inspiration from the books about Jackie Robinson. And the story of Jimmy Fallon is really good.Is a good book and you will use one of the ideas to Smartcuts your way to success.

otimo livro

For someone like me that was used to do the right things and be an A student, this is something that really smash my brain.

il libro è molto molto interessante. L'ho letto due volte e l'ho consigliato ai miei amici e fratelli, e a imprenditori.

Thank you for wrapping the product in a bubble wrap :) The packaging was excellent.As for the book, it's a very interesting and pacy read. I'm done with 100 pages as of writing this review and the book continues to keep me hooked.

Awesome, well researched book. Full of interesting anecdotes and stories - honestly a lot more fun than most business non-fiction. I definitely learned some interesting tips which I try to integrate into my life as much as I can.