Some authors are great at publishing 300 pages books that can be synthesized in 3 lines. It makes sense: would you pay $18 for 3 lines? I would not. And I would probably not consider a 3-line author an academic. At best, I may remember the guy as a great punchliner.
Thus, why not write 300 pages around the 3 lines? It builds academic credibility. It opens the door to the speaker business. You may even hit rich if the book is a success. It does make a lot of sense! Except maybe for the reader. Who wants to spend 6 hours reading through 300 pages they will not remember?
I read many of these books. Sometimes a few dozen of the pages are useful to really grasp the idea. But after a few days, nothing much sticks out of the 3 lines. I often forget the content because its depth is lost on me. It seems academics published their thesis in extenso. This Time Is Different is a good example. It is an amazing piece of work. But I do not want to read it in full. Sometimes, I forget the content because it is a tat shallow. Read through Start With Why and you may feel the author is a better speaker than writer. And half the book is actually off the topic. By the way, why does everyone always quote Apple, GE, GM, Kennedy and Dr Martin Luther King? Are there only 50 companies and 20 leaders worth speaking about in the world? Or might everybody have the same ghostwriter? 😉
Anyway, I must admit the 3-line version is often brilliant. I do remember the 3 lines. Thus, here is a list of my favorite 3-liners. All these books are great masterpieces worth knowing and understanding. You may even want to read them to dig deeper. Please do if you can. There is much more in them than what follows, and they all deserve much acclaim.
The 3-line synthesis is only what my limited mind chose to remember. Here they are:
Thinking, fast and slow, by Kahneman. We have two brain roads: one fast and one slow. Most of the time we think fast. When we drive for instance. Our mind makes decisions without us really noticing. And it is great. Sometimes, we think slow. When we ponder a tough choice for a long time, make analyses, and ask for advice. We could not think slow all the time. It would not work. Our biggest mistakes come from thinking fast when we should think slow. Thus, think twice at when you should think how.
The long tail, by Anderson. Internet provides instant or nearly instant access to almost anything. Before, you could have a business being the best available option in a given place at a given time. Now, you must be perceived as best than anything else one can think of. This new paradigm will benefit a long tail of very niche offers, that are suddenly available to people who could not access it before. It will benefit the best products, that can now reach everyone anytime. It will benefit the most mainstream products, as they are top of mind and human beings need a common culture. But it will bring down everything that was not great. Anything that used to be only better than available competition is in trouble. How does your business rank on the tail?
The black swan, by Taleb. People and businesses seem surprised when disasters hit them. They go around claiming it was so unlikely and so unpredictable. Who could have thought of it? But if you take a long-term view, unlikely events happen very regularly. It is extremely predictable that an unlikely event will happen. They always happen! The author calls them black swans. They are rare but they do happen regularly. So, are you ready for the next black swan? Or will you or your business be part of the next extinction wave?
Antifragile, by Taleb. Rigidity is fragility. And messy is good. Systems that are too perfect lack adaptability. When the black swan comes, they will collapse. Systems that are suboptimal consider the possibility of the unexpected. Come a surprise, they will adapt. The surprise is just one additional event in their messy balance. How perfect is your environment? Should you build some robustness through a touch of imperfection?
This time is different, by Reinhardt and Rogodd. Historically, governments never repay their debts. Why should they when they have an army? Most of them do not blatantly default. It would lack elegance. They may pay with newly printed money. They may devalue progressively or abruptly. Or they may grasp a politically acceptable occasion to write it off. On average, all governments in the world default once every forty years. Remember: why on earth should you pay your debts when you have an army?
Start with why, by Sinek. Great leaders communicate a mission to people around them. We follow these leaders because they touch a deeper sense of belonging and can link their acts with a cause that resonate. It is not the what. It is not the how. It is the why. Next time you want to motivate people, focus on why they should listen to you and follow you. Start your speech with why, the move to how, and finally what. All the rest will follow.
Why nations fail, by Acemoglu and Robinson. Human organizations can be extractive or inclusive. Extractive organizations are typically dictatorships. A mall elite organizes society so that it is at their service. Extractive groups can do overall well and achieve great things. Nevertheless, they will never be at full potential and are bound to collapse sooner or later. They leave way too many talents on the side of the road. Only inclusive organizations can blossom at full potential and hope to last. They aim at educating everyone and make the most of everyone in a free, open and fluid environment. If you can, strive to create inclusive groups of individuals, they are stronger.
Blue ocean strategy, by Kim and Mauborgne. Some markets are red oceans. There are fishes everywhere competing for the available food. Should you go there and join the party? Sure, there is a lot of food. There are also a lot of people: it will be a tough world. Or should you strive at creating your own market and differentiate enough so that you are not in a competition anymore? These are the blue oceans. Spaces where food is abundant, and competition is non-existent. Think twice before jumping in a red ocean. And try to find a blue one.
Future babble, by Gardner. When we wonder how the future will unfold, we love to hear experts who talk with a strong assertive voice. They sound reassuring and save us from the hassle of thinking. But a hundred of years of academic research about predicting the future, shows that experts who are sure about their stuff are nearly always wrong. They are stubborn hedgehogs resisting other points of view. And there are more than one possible future. We dislike experts who ponder probabilities, admit uncertainties, and talk humbly. They sound unsure. But they are smart foxes that push our thinking forward, allow us to make our mind, and eventually help us make better decisions. Next time you have a choice to make about the future, turn away from hedgehogs and listen to foxes.
Le bouc émissaire, by René Girard. Any human society contains a scapegoat. This is an individual or a category of people which is excluded while being part of the society. The scapegoat is a member of the group; thus, they are not a foreigner or an enemy. Though, they are not fully treated as equals. They are the conscious or unconscious target of persecutions that can range from jokes, to insult, and violence. In cases of serious crises, the larger crowd tends to target the scapegoat community in search for expiation. No matter if you take a group of kids, a company, or a nation, there is always a scapegoat individual or community. Human society is intrinsically built upon this mechanism. Le bouc émissaire is a scary read when you think about it. You don’t want to believe in it? Read the book! It is convincing.
Factfullnees, by Hans Rosling. We are not good at understanding statistics evolution. And the world is better than we think. Humans tend to glorify the past, to pay too much attention to stories, and to shy away from saying things are good unless they are perfect. Thus, a large proportion of people believe the world is heading in the wrong direction. While almost any statistics would show you, it has improved tremendously over the last 150 years. You don’t believe this? Then the 3-line punchline is not enough for you. Read the book!
SPIN selling, by Neil Rackham. The biggest ever analysis of successful salespeople focused on what people did rather than what they say they did. People are usually unable to really explain how they do great. The results show that what works for small sales is counter-productive for large sales. Successful big B2B reps follow the SPIN approach. They Ask Situation questions (S), then Problem questions (P), then Implication questions (I) before they turn to Need-payoff questions (N). Neil Rackham writes « many experience salespeople, when introduced to the four simple questions, say ‘I could have told you that without needing a million dollars of research. It’s just obvious common sense' ». And, indeed, the author agrees it is plain common sense.
Cradle to cradle, by Michael Braungarg and William McDonough. Most of our current production system is designed to bring items from cradle to grave. We produce a lot of waste. And eco-friendliness is not the answer. Reduce, reuse, recycle and regulate is only making things less worse. And it is a permit to do bad. We need to move to a cradle-to-cradle conception where everything has many users and many uses over time and space. And where eventually things disassemble and feed the earth like nature does. This is the way to real eco-friendliness.
Metaphors we Live By, by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson. The words we use are all metaphors: they create mental images and relate to one another. It’s particularly clear when we talk about something using the vocabulary field of something else. « I defended my point as he attacked my argument » suggests that the discussion is compared to a war. Thus, we will act and react this way. Words matter and vocabulary fields matter. Be careful what you say!
How to avoid a climate disaster, by Bill Gates. It is the best read I know on what to do about global warming. Read if in full for a lot of insight. In short, the author is an economist who believes we will only become green when it is cheaper than the carbon alternative. He is also a technologist who advovates electrifying everything we can and pushing towards cheap zero carbon electricity. Finally, he is a citizen who believes anyone who can should pay the green premium (i.e. always buy the zero carbon option, even if pricier) to accelerate the development curve and lobby at their level: a well writen letter to the right person with decision power can have a lot if impact! Are you doing your part?
The life-changing magic of tidying up, by Marie Kondo. We are unable to throw things away and unable to put something back in its place. This double problem explains most of the mess around us. Marie’s magic thus consists in methodologically throwing away every item that is neither usefulor provides a deep positive emotion. Only then, we can find a place for each item and commit in keeping this item where it belongs. Obviously, the book goes deeper into how to to it, how to overcome our mental barriers, and why we should do it. Read it if you want to tidy up!
In search for excellence, by Tom Peters. It is great academic work, it has tremendous historical value, and it was highly debated. Though, the 8 principles in the first page are more than enough if you grasp the overall idea: have a bias for action, stay close to customers, encourage autonomy and entrepreneurship, ensure your people are productive, insist that your executives are hands-on and value driven through keeping in touch with your essential business, stick to the knitting (what you know best), have simple form lean staff to avoid administration, and maintain simultaneous loose-tight properties, being tolerant to local cultures as long as employees stick to core values.
Digital Minimalism, by Cal Newport. Internet, social medias and apps on your phone can be addictive and lead to wasting time or living unhappy life. To have technology serve you rather than enslave you, define what you want, act intentionally, be a satisfier rather than a maximizer, feel happy not knowing everything, monitor your habits and ensure you use only the technology that serves your purpose. Thus, limit your usage to a few curated services, think carefully how to use them, and make them somewhat hard to access. Intention trumps convenience.
Where is next? by yourself. You may observe it is a short list. I hope you will fill the gap. What is your favorite 3-liner? How would you synthesize it?
Please share the title and synthesis in comments. I would love to read the punchlines. And maybe even the book!
Curatus read 