Einstein

Einstein – Walter Isaacson

Summary: Good book about Einstein’s life. Good balance between the science and his personal life and adventures.

TBD: fuller review and links between this one and Innovators and Leonardo Da Vinci

Waking Up

Summary: great book on spirituality without the need for religion.

“wisdom is nothing more profound than an ability to follow one’s own advice.”

He also offers some more insight into meditation and how to practice it.

And discusses drugs, gurus and other good/bad ways to deepen your knowledge on this topic.

Personal note: TBD longer review with my own notes

The Caves of Steel

Good detective/sci-fi story. Listened to this one with the story-line in my mind. Was done well. Can analyse it further (TBD).

The Caves of Steel is a novel by American writer Isaac Asimov. It is essentially a detective story and illustrates an idea Asimov advocated, that science fiction can be applied to any literary genre, rather than just a limited genre

The Rise of Superman

Interesting book about performance.

Biggest ‘mistake’, I think, is that he sees large leaps of progress as exponential. Whilst it can just be an S-curve and/or the benefits are only incremental (computing/moore’s law)

But still an addition to the book I have about Flow already.

Note: Update the summary with notes from the book one day, TBD

Leonardo Da Vinci

Leonardo Da Vinci by Walter Isaacson is another one of the great biographies that he has done. Although I wasn’t interested in reading the one about Steve Jobs, I have read his other work about The Innovators.

The book is interesting in that it covers all aspects of Leonardo. Not just his accomplishments, but also with a focus on the things he didn’t complete. All in all, it’s a very inspiring read. Here is a synopsis from Goodreads:

Based on thousands of pages from Leonardo’s astonishing notebooks and new discoveries about his life and work, Walter Isaacson weaves a narrative that connects his art to his science. He shows how Leonardo’s genius was based on skills we can improve in ourselves, such as passionate curiosity, careful observation, and an imagination so playful that it flirted with fantasy.

He produced the two most famous paintings in history, The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa. But in his own mind, he was just as much a man of science and technology. With a passion that sometimes became obsessive, he pursued innovative studies of anatomy, fossils, birds, the heart, flying machines, botany, geology, and weaponry. His ability to stand at the crossroads of the humanities and the sciences, made iconic by his drawing of Vitruvian Man, made him history’s most creative genius.

His creativity, like that of other great innovators, came from having wide-ranging passions. He peeled flesh off the faces of cadavers, drew the muscles that move the lips, and then painted history’s most memorable smile. He explored the math of optics, showed how light rays strike the cornea, and produced illusions of changing perspectives in The Last Supper. Isaacson also describes how Leonardo’s lifelong enthusiasm for staging theatrical productions informed his paintings and inventions.

Leonardo’s delight at combining diverse passions remains the ultimate recipe for creativity. So, too, does his ease at being a bit of a misfit: illegitimate, gay, vegetarian, left-handed, easily distracted, and at times heretical. His life should remind us of the importance of instilling, both in ourselves and our children, not just received knowledge but a willingness to question it—to be imaginative and, like talented misfits and rebels in any era, to think different.

Also see Bill Gates’ take on the book here.

…but mostly because he was insatiably curious about pretty much every area of natural science and the human experience. He studied, in meticulous detail, everything from the flow of water and the rise of smoke to the muscles you use when you smile.

Switch

From the great brothers who’ve also brought us Made to Stick, comes Switch by Chip & Dan Heath. A book about how to make a lasting change. A change in your customers, employees or fellow countrymen. It’s a wonderful read, full of examples and actionable as can be. Here is a short summary, followed by a few personal implementation ideas.

Summary

The book uses the following analogy. You are a rider (rational) who is guiding an elephant (emotional) along a path (environment). It’s a great way of looking at the world and in line with other writings from Wait But Why and others (and makes me also think about Thinking Fast and Slow).

Direct the Rider

1. Follow the bright spots: Investigate what’s working and clone it
2. Script the critical moves: Don’t think big picture, think in terms of specific behaviours.
3. Point to the destination: Change is easier when you know where you’re going and why it’s worth it.

Motivate the Elephant

1. Find the feeling: Knowing something isn’t enough to cause change. Make people feel something.
2. Shrink the change: Break down the change until it no longer spooks the Elephant.
3. Grow your people: Cultivate a sense of identity and instil the growth mindset.

Shape the Path

1. Tweak the environment: When the situation changes, the behaviour changes. So change the situation.
2. Build habits: When behaviour is habitual, it’s “free” – it doesn’t tax the Rider. Look for ways to encourage habits.
3. Rally the herd: Behaviour is contagious. Help it spread.

Made to Stick

Made to Stick – Chip Heath & Dan Heath
Summary:

1. Simplicity
   Simplicity is about making the intention very clear (Commander Intent). Example, general asks of platoon to take the hill, not where every soldier needs to stand exactly.
   Simplicity is about finding the core of the idea. The hard part is weeding out ideas that may be really important but just aren’t the most important idea. Goal: nothing left to take away. Elegance and prioritisation, not dumbing down.
   Example. Southwest airlines. ‘We are THE low-fare airline’. So do they serve lunch?
   Simplicity is about starting with the lead. If you say three things, you don’t say anything.
   Prevent decision paralysis by eliminating uncertainty about a decision.
   Example. Local newspaper. ‘Names, names, and names’. This way they share their core message.
   Step 1. Define core message. Step 2. Communicate core message to others.
   Simple messages are core and compact. The more we reduce the information in an idea, the stickier it will be. But information behind core message can be huge. E.g. Better one bird in the hand than 10 in the air.
   Proverbs are simple yet profound. Short sentences (compact) that draw from long experience (core). E.g. it’s easier to remember JFK than KJF. Ideas with profound compactness are valuable. You use what is already there.
   If simple ideas are staged and layered correctly, they can very quickly become complex. Use schema (concepts) to build on. Schemas enable profound simplicity.
   Give just enough information to be useful. Then a little more, etc. Pyramid structure text.
   Simplicity is analogies. Aliens was Jaws on a spaceship. Imagine how the spaceship looks!
   Good metaphors are generative. Create new perceptions, explanations, and inventions. E.g. Disney employees are cast members.
   Metaphors and proverbs substitute something easy to think about for something difficult.
   Feature creep is the enemy of simplicity. Message needs to be short because we can learn and remember only so much information at once.

How does this apply to Queal?
The question is how we can use simplicity as a way to describe Queal. I think it’s one of our biggest challenges because we (ourselves) think that the product is difficult to explain. So let’s try and make it simple, yet profound.
Another questions is about how we prevent feature creep and don’t overload people with information. Therefore we should be very conscious of how we present information in what order. And what to just not tell people about.
Another question is about how to prevent decision paralysis. What if they have to choose between Queal and WundrBar/Go? Should we present them as alternatives and/or what about presenting it as alternatives to a dinner/breakfast/etc.

Ideas
Queal – it’s a meal
Queal – easy meal
Queal – easier meal
Queal – it’s a meal, stupid
Queal – healthy breakfast
Queal is a quick meal, like a sandwich (analogy) only better.
Queal is an easy meal. Like a sandwich only better. Easier to make, store & to go. Easier to get vitamins & minerals. Easier to do more in life.
Boost is 21st century (schema) coffee (analogy & schema). Caffeine for energy, LT for focus. Take it with any drink. (v2)
Connecting you.
Queal Go your portable meal. Nutritious like a salad, tasty like a Mars.
Random idea: 400kcal and 700kcal as serving sizes, do Queal in tub. Prices online for 400kcal.
Lieke: More access to life. Door to efficiency. A productive lifestyle. Complete nutrition for body and mind. Enjoy life to the fullest. Key to productivity.

• Getting more out of daily life
  Easy food. The smoothiest meal. No cooking skills required.
  Nutritious bar food (bar double).
  Brain extender. Open hidden doors.
• Improve and optimise. Getting more things done.
  Onno: A great meal in a short minute. Smart fuel. The ultimate nutrition lifehack. It’s your sandwich, multivitamin and veggies in one. Your efficiency powerup. Effortless but tasty fuel to get you started – to turbo charge your day.
• Fuel (analogy) – functional, not to replace the enjoyable foods
  Shotgun approach to food. Hit all the marks. A+ nutrition. Tick all the boxes. Score 100% on your next meal. Be your own personal trainer.
  Super snickers.
  Kala: The best things in life are simple. Perfect nutrition for a better you.
• Not nutrition related (on purpose) – focus on concept
  Shaken not stirred. Everything in one place, everything in one shake.
  Two birds one bar. (time & money)
  Conclusions:
• Kala: The best things in life are simple. (image: only show shaker or bar?). (vague fb ad)
  o A/B with or without description
• Kala: shaken not stirred. (cooked. Dead animal. Grilled. Fried. Pouched. Peeled. Gutted.) video or picture? (Floris: draft of picture) (Onno: draft of video)
• Floris: give feedback to bar ads
• Kala: Brain extender. Open hidden doors. Brain power-up. 22nd century coffee.

Where to implement
Prospecting advertisements (how to leverage this info to grow)

• Paar dingen bedenken
  Website A/B test homepage & shop pages – or – improve text without A/B test
  Email funnel, what do we say to people
  What do we say with our packaging (GO bar, Queal, Boost)
  PR copy for America

Goal
Friends & customers describe Queal as: easy meal. (now they say different things 3=0)
 

1. Unexpected
   To get attention, we must attract it. You can do this by breaking a pattern (expectations). Our brain is designed to be keenly aware of changes. This is why warning lights blink.
   Surprise gets our attention. Interest keeps it.
   Example Dollar Shave Club, what pattern did it break? (high price for blades)
   Unexpectedness violates our schemas. When our guessing machines fail, surprise grabs our attention. Surprise makes us pay attention and think. It makes us want to find an answer.
   Avoid gimmickry. Surprise should be about your core message. Surprise with insight.
   To surprise it can’t be predictable. To be satisfying it should be post-dictable. If you want your ideas to be stickier, you’ve got to break someone’s guessing machine and then fix it.
   Identify core message. Find what is counterintuitive about the message? What are the unexpected implications? Why isn’t it already happening naturally? Communicate your message in a way that breaks your audience’s guessing machine along the critical counterintuitive dimension. Then help them refine their thinking.
   Expose the parts of your message that are uncommon sense.
   Keep attention with a mystery. It creates a need for closure. Mystery is created from an unexpected journey.
   Curiosity is the intellectual need to answer questions and close open patterns. Story plays to this universal desire by doing the opposite, posing questions and opening situations. Curiosity happens when we feel a gap in our knowledge. Gap causes pain. Itch to scratch. First open gap, then close it.
   If we (audience) gain knowledge we are more and more likely to focus on what we don’t know. E.g. human interest stories. Give people enough information to start caring about their gap in knowledge. Provide context. Sequencing of information is important. More like flirting than lecturing.
   Create insight, dramatic shift of how and why world changes. Create knowledge gaps, that need to be resolved.

How does this apply to Queal?
How to break a pattern/schema? (about food)
How to break & fix guessing machine?
How to create mystery?
What questions do I want my audience to ask?
What is our information sequence?

Ideas
Shake = healthy = all you need
Unexpected story = how I lived of shakes for 30 days…
The stories about soylent and not eating work because they invoke mystery. They also break the pattern of needing to eat your food and/or prepare it. They are post-dictable because it explains that the nutrients are in the mix. The questions of people are: how does this work, does it really work?
A story that combines the different aspects of Queal? Never go to the grocery story again? Everything your body needs, and more.
Unexpected (but maybe not core?) about apocalypse and not needing to go grocery shopping. Having it all, already delivered to you.
Or showing grocery store in bad way. Then ‘save yourself the trouble’. Exposing the unexpected shit of finding groceries, but maybe gimmicky?
Random idea: video that explains why it has everything. Lab-coat-ish story. Then stop, it’s not really about the science of the food (ok it is). But it’s about the research (show stacks of paper). Stock footage research on people nutrition. Maybe even funny with measuring scoop of food or excrement XD.

Where to implement
A

Goal
Aa

1. Concrete
   Abstraction makes it harder to understand an idea and to remember it.
   Example: land-reserve company that ‘gave’ people specific plots of land. (putting a name on it)
   !!!If you can examine something with your senses, it’s concrete.
   Concrete language helps people, especially novices, understand new concepts. Novices crave concreteness.
   The more memorable concrete details survived and the abstractions evaporated.
   The more hooks an idea has, the better it will cling to memory. Example: brown & blue eyes experiment.
   The difference between an expert and a novice is to think abstractly. So be concrete with novices. Curse of Knowledge. Customers are seeking easy and reliable (not complex and sophisticated).
   Use concrete (physical) props if possible.

How does this apply to Queal?
Make time concrete. Say: save 1 hour per day. Or have 1 hour more to do x. Or see your loved ones more. Possible other examples, but question is which one to use?
Compare Queal to other existing food things. E.g. sandwich.
In our copy, not focus on the complicated. Focus on the easy and reliable!
Ideas
Where to implement
Goal

1. Credible
   We believe because our parents or our friends believe. We trust authorities. Experts. Celebrities. Or anti-authorities (anti-smoking).
   About honesty and trustworthiness of sources, not their status.
   Messages can have internal credibility. Concrete details can help. Vivid details boost credibility.
   Statistics are eye-glazing (don’t use them). Use human-scale principle, intuition works on this scale. Statistics aren’t inherently helpful, it’s the scale and context that make them so.
   Testable credits, things that can be falsified (example: Wendy’s burger size). “Are you better off than 4 years ago?”.
   A few vivid details might be more persuasive than a barrage of statistics.

How does this apply to Queal?
Who is a trustworthy source that we can tap into for endorsing Queal. Any random IT person or can we find a ‘famous’ one who can endorse us. Or business person. Or hiker. That has honesty and can speak from the hearth (also not focus on the ingredients but on benefits of the benefits).
In our own messages, use vivid details of 1) ingredients (maybe – focus on grains?) and 2) use case. “When popping down for a great coding session on the 45th floor of the .. building, Peter Jackson sits down at his XSID computer. Before the starts he opens his … bag and out comes a shaker. With precision he measures 3 scoops … etc)”
Dashboard: good use of statistics, see if all are on human-scale (p145)
Ideas
Where to implement
Goal

1. Emotional
   One individual trumps the masses. Thinking in statistics shifts people into a more analytical frame of mind. The mere act of calculation is bad.
   For people to take action, they have to care.
   But using words or feelings too much is semantic stretch (unique). Find associations that are distinctive for our ideas.
   Appeal to self-interest. People matter to themselves. Try to get self-interest into every headline you write. Emphasize benefits, the benefit of the benefit. What’s in it for you?
   People make decisions based on identiy.
   How does this apply to Queal?
   Always incorporate the self-interest (why it’s good for you). Use self-interest and not money or other more ‘basic’ motivations. Maybe even use self-actualisation.
   Ideas
   Queal is not the tastiest food. It’s food that is made to make you perform the best.
   Ready, Steady, Go. Meals to make you do more. Be Ready. Do more.
   Or So you can take control (if that is more important than doing more)

• Control of destiny/time/etc
  Where to implement
  Goal

1. Stories
   Aa
   How does this apply to Queal?

Ideas

Where to implement

Goal

The Fountainhead

I read The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand because two good friends recommended the book to me. I can’t say I agree with the philosophy presented (in a rather round-about way). I do see that some of the points (sticking to your convictions) can be good, but I think the underlying basis (where do these convictions come from?) is not sound.

Here are some of my notes:

Criticism – ‘good/main’ characters seem to know it all – that it’s innate already and not, –influenced by environment – is there not uncertainty? – are principles good? – what about guidelines, is that not better? – deontology versus consequentialism – torture is bad, but in some situations break the rules – struggle? – is that what is fulfilling? – goal of life? (bad questions?) happy days, why principles and struggle? – what is her main point? – zero-sum game – everything is written in terms of lose and win

Theme – certainty versus uncertainty – principles versus no-spine – deontology versus consequentialism – the love for the struggle – obedience versus dominance – at least 50x mentioned – about status roles / power roles – who is the boss over another? – or are you the boss over yourself? (is that even possible) – creator vs parasite – but everything is a remix (link to docu) – unsacrificed self

Musings before reading any other critique – I think the main goal was (/should be) that you live life on your own terms. You’re not being led by others and make your own way in life. And that Rand tries to say that sticking to your principles may hurt in the short-term but lets you be the ‘right’ person in the long-term. I don’t understand the whole struggle and why everything needs to be so difficult. Why not enjoy along the way, whilst still sticking to principles. But is there then room for improvement or forgiveness, change of mind and adaptation?

In my opinion, life could be seen as two phases that move in and out. One is rigid and planning and sticking to it. The other is more loose and seeing what life brings you. The second is what many people are being lived by (without themselves being ‘in control’) and the first is what you might want to aspire to. But that is also too rigid and maybe less enjoyable.

How to Change Your Mind

TBD