I finally felt , without a doubt , I was making the right decision about my career . I left feeling inspired and reinvigorated .

Note - Building the Community Industry > Page xvii · Location 427

Exactly how i felt upon discovering the community community on twitter

Chapter 1: Why Community Is the New Competitive Advantage

Highlight (yellow) - The Rise of Community-Driven Business > Page 3 · Location 522

“ Our philosophy [ was ] to take most of the money we would have spent on paid advertising and invest it into customer service and the customer experience instead , letting our customers do the marketing for us through word of mouth . ”

Highlight (yellow) - The Rise of Community-Driven Business > Page 4 · Location 534

With one - to - one , you're limited by how many people you can form deep trust and connection with . With one - to - many communication , you can reach more people , but will lack depth . With many - to - many communication , there is no limit .

Highlight (yellow) - The Rise of Community-Driven Business > Page 4 · Location 547

Whenever she took on a new community project , she made sure it would be something she could measure , and tie back to ROI .

Highlight (yellow) - The Rise of Community-Driven Business > Page 5 · Location 549

she was able to show how community reduced support costs , increased product adoption , and increased customer spend and retention .

Note - The Rise of Community-Driven Business > Page 5 · Location 550

Think about how i can show this.

Highlight (yellow) - Giving Customers a True Sense of Community > Page 6 · Location 585

The authors describe a sense of community as “ a feeling that members have of belonging , a feeling that members matter to one another and to the group , and a shared faith that members ' needs will be met through their commitment to be together . ”

Highlight (yellow) - Giving Customers a True Sense of Community > Page 6 · Location 587

there are four factors that contribute to a sense of community : membership , influence , integration / fulfillment of needs , and shared emotional connection .

Highlight (yellow) - Giving Customers a True Sense of Community > Page 6 · Location 591

Boundaries . How do people become members , and what are the boundaries keeping others out ?

Note - Giving Customers a True Sense of Community > Page 6 · Location 592

Open to all X community might not be a good way to market your community.

Highlight (yellow) - Giving Customers a True Sense of Community > Page 7 · Location 600

members feeling like they have influence over the community and the community having influence over the members .

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Each member should know that someone is listening , no matter what , even if it's just the community manager .

Note - Giving Customers a True Sense of Community > Page 7 · Location 607

Make sure no topic goes unanswered.

Highlight (yellow) - Giving Customers a True Sense of Community > Page 7 · Location 612

your community , like any other product , needs to solve a problem for its members in order to make it worth their time and contribution . A reward might be something specific like an answer to a question or networking . Or it could be something a bit more intangible , like a sense of belonging , a feeling of purpose , a new friend , etc .

Note - Giving Customers a True Sense of Community > Page 8 · Location 615

Think of rewards at 2 levels: - reward for seekers - getting the required help is a good reward for them - reward for helpers - reward them with swag, connections, friends, influence etc.

Highlight (yellow) - Giving Customers a True Sense of Community > Page 8 · Location 626

without clearly defined membership , an exchange of influence , fulfillment of needs , and a shared emotional connection , it's fair to assume that the strength of community amongst a group is pretty weak .

Highlight (yellow) - The Unrivaled Scalability of Community > Page 9 · Location 651

By giving your customers the opportunity to connect with and support each other , you can deliver exponentially more value at a fraction of the cost of traditional business tactics .

Highlight (yellow) - Community Is an Extension of Your Team > Page 10 · Location 666

Historically , only employees would contribute , and customers would consume . Your marketing team does the marketing , your product team builds the product , your content team creates the content , your support team supports the customer . What community does is it extends the capacity and impact of each of those teams by organizing community members to contribute to the same kinds of projects and goals .

Highlight (yellow) - The Power of Owning a Topic in People's Minds > Page 13 · Location 721

Owning a topic in people's minds is quite simple ( but not easy ) : you need to successfully solve their problem for them enough times that your community becomes the most efficient and trusted place they know of to get an answer , and they form a new habit .

Highlight (yellow) - The Power of Owning a Topic in People's Minds > Page 13 · Location 723

They need to feel confident that if they ask a question in your online community , they will get quality answers in a reasonable amount of time .

Note - The Power of Owning a Topic in People's Minds > Page 13 · Location 724

Promise a 100% response rate and max reply time.

Highlight (yellow) - The One Thing They Can't Copy > Page 14 · Location 735

Community , on the other hand , can't be copied , because community isn't software . Someone can copy the look , feel , and functionality of your forum , but they'll lack the people , relationships , emotional investment , and social identity that an established community has .

Highlight (yellow) - The One Thing They Can't Copy > Page 14 · Location 747

Community adds an emotional layer to switching costs . To leave your product would mean leaving their people , their relationships , and sacrificing the social capital they've earned within your community . There's a social cost to leaving your product .

Note - The One Thing They Can't Copy > Page 14 · Location 749

To increase retention, increase the number of connections a community member makes in the community.

Highlight (yellow) - Good for Business, Good for Humanity > Page 15 · Location 760

There are two things that every community program should focus on : How it creates value , belonging , and emotional safety for members How it creates value and measurable results for the business

Chapter 2: The Fundamentals of Community Strategy

Highlight (yellow) - The Three Levels of Community Strategy > Page 20 · Location 852

The key is to communicate how community engagement is also achieving business goals that impact revenue and growth . They both matter . Business goals without a focus on building an authentic , healthy community will result in low engagement and trust . Community engagement goals without a focus on achieving business goals will result in an underfunded , undersupported community team .

Note - The Three Levels of Community Strategy > Page 21 · Location 856

Focusing on community engagement and achieving business goals are two sides of the same coin.

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Over the years we've developed a simple system for structuring and measuring your community strategy called the three levels of community strategy ( Table 2.1 ) . TABLE 2.1 The Three Levels of Community Strategy 1 . Business level How your community program will drive revenue for your company . 2 . Community level How your community will grow and become more healthy and engaged over time . 3 . Tactical level The specific initiatives and improvements you work on in order to build a healthy , engaged community , and achieve the business outcomes .

Highlight (yellow) - The SPACES Model: The Six Business Outcomes of Community > Page 22 · Location 891

The SPACES model was built by our team to help businesses understand the different types of measurable outcomes that are driven by communities . This simple framework has been used by thousands of companies to identify the key business objectives and revenue drivers for their communities .

Highlight (yellow) - The SPACES Model: The Six Business Outcomes of Community > Page 25 · Location 941

Community isn't meant to replace your existing programs . It's meant to enhance and accelerate it . Look at your support program and think about how community can amplify the work that they're doing by empowering experts to contribute . Look at your marketing programs and think about how community can accelerate growth by activating your biggest advocates .

Highlight (yellow) - The SPACES Model: The Six Business Outcomes of Community > Page 26 · Location 968

The actual belonging building efforts will be focused on these contributors , and for everyone else , it's all about optimizing your operations to make sure they can find the most relevant information in the right amount of time .

Note - The SPACES Model: The Six Business Outcomes of Community > Page 27 · Location 970

Focus on developing a sense of belonging for contributors.

Highlight (yellow) - The SPACES Model: The Six Business Outcomes of Community > Page 28 · Location 1006

Product teams absolutely love having an engaged community that they can always turn to for feedback . Product focused community programs also help earn the trust of a customer - base , who will feel like they're being listened to , and that they have an impact on the product and business .

Highlight (yellow) - The SPACES Model: The Six Business Outcomes of Community > Page 29 · Location 1024

These kinds of “ distributed leadership ” programs where the company identifies local ambassadors to serve as chapter leaders who can host events for other customers in their region are becoming extremely popular and can be highly effective . The chapter leader gets approval to represent the brand , they're given a playbook for how to run their events , and the company supports them with resources , training , and benefits .

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Community helping in growth and conversion.

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Acquisition is an area that a lot of community teams don't lean into nearly enough . Understandably , they're afraid of making their community too sales - y and losing trust with community members . You should absolutely not come in hard with a cold - sale in a community , certainly not if you haven't established trust already .

Highlight (yellow) - The SPACES Model: The Six Business Outcomes of Community > Page 32 · Location 1080

Some studies show that 80 percent of the content will be created by 20 percent of the users . And , at a big enough size , it's possible that only 1 percent of your members will be consistent , active contributors . That's why it's so important that you make your contributors successful . A small group can have outsized impact on the rest of your business .

Highlight (yellow) - The SPACES Model: The Six Business Outcomes of Community > Page 32 · Location 1085

When customers feel like they're truly part of a community , and not just transactional consumers , they're much less likely to switch to a competitor . They're getting social value as well as practical value .

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If your Community can create social value for your customers, they are less likely to switch to a competitor and risk losing that value.

Highlight (yellow) - The SPACES Model: The Six Business Outcomes of Community > Page 33 · Location 1103

Our research found that only one third of companies are able to connect their community data to their customer data . 4 Not the worst , but for community teams to be able to continue to grow and get buy - in , this is a non - negotiable . Without the data , you can't say for sure that community is having an impact on your business , and it will be very difficult to justify increasing budget in community .

Note - The SPACES Model: The Six Business Outcomes of Community > Page 33 · Location 1107

SUPER IMPORTANT: connect community data with customer data. Only way to prove the importance of community to the business.

Highlight (yellow) - The SPACES Model: The Six Business Outcomes of Community > Page 34 · Location 1109

Community - driven success programs are where you're empowering and facilitating education created by your members for your members . The goal is to help them become more efficient and capable at using your product , and to help them grow in their career through improving skills and strategic abilities . This takes customer support , which can tend to be more reactive and very product focused , to a more proactive approach with a bigger focus on improving skills and strategic abilities .

Highlight (yellow) - The SPACES Model: The Six Business Outcomes of Community > Page 34 · Location 1123

The best part about success programs is that by making your customers into experts and investing in their career , you'll undoubtedly create more passionate advocates who then want to give back to the community and company . You'll create a whole new wave of leaders who will teach classes , host events , support other customers , and invite others into your community . Invest in the success of your community members , and they'll be motivated to invest in your success .

Highlight (yellow) - Metrics and the Attribution Challenge > Page 35 · Location 1145

Community is another touchpoint , and it's a damn powerful one at that . You don't need community to be the single thing that made a person decide to buy your product , to renew a contract , to give you a high customer satisfaction score , or accomplish any of the goals in the SPACES model . You do want to be able to show if and when community was a touchpoint on the journey to that outcome . Then you'll be able to say with confidence that community is meaningfully driving growth and retention .

Highlight (yellow) - Finding Your Community Focus > Page 36 · Location 1176

It's important to focus on just one or two primary objectives for your community program when you're first getting started and your community team is small .

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And each objective also requires organizing different groups of members ! Because the members who are motivated and capable of being an expert answering questions in a support forum may be very different from the members who are motivated and capable of being ambassadors and hosting events , or the members who have lots of useful product feedback !

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All strategic frameworks aim to take a big nebulous goal and make it more specific . They all do this with three elements : The goal you're trying to achieve The measures that will tell you if you've achieved that goal The actions you'll take in order to achieve the goal That's it , it's that simple ! Let's look at those three strategic frameworks and how they fit . OKRs were popularized in the book Measure What Matters by John Doerr . There are three pieces to OKRs : Objectives ( the goal ) Key Results ( the measures ) Initiatives ( the actions )

Note - Choosing a Measurement Framework > Page 42 · Location 1294

The only explanation of OKRs that make sense.

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The actions from your business - level strategy will become your goals for the community level of your strategy .

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So you can see how you start with the end in mind . What is the business goal ? From there , you lay out how you'll build community that achieves those goals . You keep getting more specific until you know exactly what you're focusing on this week , month , or quarter , and how that work ultimately impacts the community and the business .

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The seed is essentially an idea . It's a belief that there's a group of people who don't yet have a space to call their own .

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The successful communities you see today looked very different when they first started . If you're starting a new community , then look at how other communities started , not how they look in their mature stage today .

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You need people to create content for members to engage with in the community . But you need people in the community in order to motivate people to create content .

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In order to get members to contribute , you'll likely have to ask them directly and nudge regularly . They haven't developed a habit of coming to your community yet . There are few examples for how to participate in the community .

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All groups come from existing groups .

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Those who refuse to share power will eventually lose power .

Chapter 3: Creating a Social Identity

Highlight (yellow) - The Social Identity Cycle > Page 58 · Location 1589

And Cam was personally welcomed by an admin and a bunch of members in the community .

Note - The Social Identity Cycle > Page 58 · Location 1589

Note importance of personal welcome msgs

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On the highest level , there are three questions that will help you define the social identity of your community : People : Who are we ? Purpose : What do we believe ? Participation : What do we do ?

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People may seem well connected but have some part of their identity where they feel isolated .

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There's a good chance that everyone has some part of their identity where they feel lonely . There's always an opportunity for community .

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Keep in mind that one of the worst feelings in the world for humans is to feel excluded . Especially if it's a group that they believe they should belong to . Exclude with empathy . Exclude with the knowledge that not everyone has a community to turn to , and while yours might not be perfect for them , it might be the closest thing they can find .

Highlight (yellow) - Investing in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion from Day One > Page 66 · Location 1747

Being passive isn't going to bring about change . Without taking action , your community will perpetuate these norms . It's the world we live in , and it's very easy to maintain the status quo .

Highlight (yellow) - Investing in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion from Day One > Page 67 · Location 1769

Over time the similar identities in the community will be reinforced , and as it grows it will be more and more difficult to attract diverse members . They'll look around , not see anyone who looks like them , and question whether they'll feel included in your space .

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Critical feedback was always welcome , of course – but always with the intention of helping the creators out , not putting them down .

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How to ask members to give feedback

Chapter 4: Mapping the Community Participation Journey

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This is where the commitment curve comes in . The idea is that over time , your members ' level of commitment will increase . As their commitment to the community increases , their willingness to make larger and larger contributions to the community goes up . So you need to only make smaller asks of members at the beginning of the curve , and increase the ask as they move up the curve .

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Generally , you want to focus your engagement strategy on the inner circles . The Pareto principle applies here , which predicts that roughly 80 percent of the content in your community will be created by 20 percent of your members . While this principle doesn't apply to all communities , it's a common distribution found in large social platforms . So you want to make sure that 20 percent is set up to be really happy , engaged , and successful . You'll grow your community a lot faster by working to get that 20 percent to double their commitment than by trying to get the other 80 percent of your community to increase their commitment by fivefold .

Note - The Four Levels of Participation > Page 85 · Location 2079

To improve engagement focus on top 20%

Highlight (yellow) - How to Attract Members to Your Community > Page 88 · Location 2139

You should make sure your community is listed clearly on your website . If it's a customer community , think about where your community can show up on different parts of your website where your customers are already spending time , like in dashboards or in help documents .

Highlight (yellow) - How to Move Members Up the Commitment Curve > Page 92 · Location 2214

My belief is that you generally can't * get * anyone to do anything that they aren't organically motivated to do . If they don't care about your community , or they don't get value from participating , you can't make them care .

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Not even with puny financial 'incentives'

Highlight (yellow) - How to Move Members Up the Commitment Curve > Page 92 · Location 2219

Take the time to talk to your members at each level of participation and learn more about their experience . Ask your passive members if they'd be interested in participating more actively , and why they haven't taken that leap yet . Ask your power members if they'd be interested in becoming a leader and why they haven't applied yet .

Highlight (yellow) - Activating Successful Community Leaders > Page 95 · Location 2282

Most parts of your community that you want to keep hands on and personalized , but you can no longer handle yourself , can be handed off to community leaders . In the CMX community , we could no longer keep up with personally welcoming the hundreds of members who were joining every month . So we created an official “ welcome committee ” of community members who volunteer to welcome new members who are at the start of the commitment curve every week , and make sure each member gets a personal message .

Chapter 5: Validation, Rewards, and Incentives

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Motivation comes in two forms : intrinsic and extrinsic .

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Self - determination theory says that intrinsic motivation is driven by three things : competence , relatedness , and autonomy . 3 We can find all three in communities . People join communities to grow their skills and learn , to connect with other people , and are more likely to contribute when they feel a sense of ownership .

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When you bring market norms and extrinsic rewards into a situation that was driven by social norms , the market norm tends to replace the intrinsic motivation .

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research shows that when a prize is unexpected , like you surprising a member with a swag package in the mail , it does not have a negative effect on their intrinsic motivation .

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Reinforce the intrinsic motivations with praise , social validation , and other extrinsic rewards .

Highlight (yellow) - SNAP! A Framework for Effective Extrinsic Rewards > Page 103 · Location 2432

SNAP ! stands for Status , Networking , Access , and Perks . You can use this framework to brainstorm new ways to reward the members of your community .

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news . If you're not seeing much engagement in your community now , adding points , badges , swag , levels , or perks won't be much help . Why ? Because gamification rewards like badges and points aren't status , they're proof of status .

Highlight (yellow) - The Thing about Gamification > Page 106 · Location 2506

If you have engagement going in your community already , then gamification can truly accelerate things like throwing gasoline on an open flame . It can move people along the commitment curve faster .

Highlight (yellow) - Come for the Utility, Stay for the Unity > Page 108 · Location 2543

So if you're working to attract new members to your community , figure out the most important practical value that they'll get from the community , and focus on that more so than the emotional value . Tell them what problems you will solve for them .

Highlight (yellow) - Measuring Community Health and Engagement Using the Social Identity Cycle > Page 109 · Location 2558

Going back to the solar system analogy , we can think of members like particles floating in outer space and their “ sense of community ” is like gravity , pulling them together to form planets , solar systems , and galaxies . Like particles in space , as they gather and form a more dense mass , the gravitational pull of that mass increases and attracts more particles .

Note - Measuring Community Health and Engagement Using the Social Identity Cycle > Page 109 · Location 2560

Do your community members feel a "sense of community"?

Highlight (yellow) - Measuring Community Health and Engagement Using the Social Identity Cycle > Page 110 · Location 2589

If you see a 30 % DAU / MAU rate , you're absolutely crushing it , says Hawk . “ Our meta community is around 20 % and it's highly engaged . I've run successful communities at around 8 – 10 % . ”

Highlight (yellow) - Measuring Community Health and Engagement Using the Social Identity Cycle > Page 111 · Location 2593

Those totals will give you an idea if more people are participating in your community , but it won't necessarily tell you if you're retaining your members . It could be a whole new batch of people participating every month . So look at repeat usage and track that over time . For example , you can track how many members have taken at least three actions in your community in the last 30 days . You can also break down metrics based on when members joined . For example , look at activity rates amongst members who signed up in the last 90 days and compare it to members who signed up in the last 30 days to get an idea of your dropoff rates .

Chapter 6: Designing Community Spaces and Experiences

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Although there are a lot of actions a member can take along the commitment curve , the real community magic happens when they participate in a shared experience .

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Asynchronous experiences provide breadth . Synchronous experiences provide depth .

Highlight (yellow) - The Two Kinds of Community Experiences > Page 116 · Location 2722

Bringing members together live enhances the asynchronous experience . Now when members interact on your forum , it won't just be an avatar but an actual person that they've met , talked to , and shared an experience with .

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Music is the perfect metaphor for facilitating community engagement . A great song will have a steady beat with different lyrics , a chorus where everyone knows the words to sing along , and a crescendo where the energy peaks and the crowd goes wild . A great community is the same . It will have a steady cadence of different content and experiences for people to engage with ( the beat ) , regular rituals where everyone knows how to participate ( the chorus ) , and then one or two big energizing experiences every year where the whole community comes together ( the crescendo ) .

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Under each interval , write down at least three ideas for what you can do to engage your community with a recurring experience daily , weekly , monthly , quarterly , and annually .

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A general rule is that the less frequent the experience is hosted , the bigger the production it will be .

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Consistency is incredibly important in communities .

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It helps them build a habit of coming back consistently . It's already on their calendar . They have to do less guessing about what's going to happen when .

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Having variable content and experiences is important , too . It keeps your members on their toes and makes them want to come back to see what they might have missed . While CMX Summit happens around the same time every year , we don't want the experience to be exactly the same .

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When designing any shared experience , there's a standard set of pillars we use called The 7Ps : People . Who are we gathering ? Purpose . Why are we gathering ? Place . Where are we gathering ? Participation . What will participants do ? Policy . What are the rules and guidelines ? Promotion . How will you invite members ? Performance . What will success look and feel like ? If you're launching a new forum , use the 7Ps to design your experience first .

Highlight (yellow) - The 7Ps of Community Experience Design > Page 122 · Location 2842

designing for each of these elements can give you a more clear idea of what a space or experience will look and feel like , and help you get clarity on the focus , intention , and expected outcomes of the space or experience .

Highlight (yellow) - Curating the Right People for the Right Purpose > Page 123 · Location 2859

If your goal is to drive word of mouth and referrals , then you can organize a dinner and invite both your most loyal customers and your biggest target prospects so that they can sit and talk to each other .

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If you want to make people feel like they're a part of something really big and exciting , then it may make sense to bring * everyone * together for a large event . Customers , prospects , audience members , employees , partners … everyone . If you'd like to host a deep , vulnerable conversation , then you might want to only send private invitations , and choose people that you know will be respectful and personally invested in the topic .

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Insight: this is how you grow your community while keeping intimacy. The public forum exists to make people feel part of something bigger than themselves. Small meetups/channels keep things intimate.

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Any identity that exists in your community is an opportunity to create an intentional , dedicated space .

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A person will be much more willing to be vulnerable in small groups where they know and can see everyone who's listening and there's an expectation of confidentiality .

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Note the importance of expectation of confidentiality. ODCB calls it "sacredness".

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The smaller the group , the more safe the members will feel . So if you want to create a community experience where people can be vulnerable , share emotions or secrets , and be really open , you'll want to keep your group small .

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I've found that people generally crave the size of community that they don't have .

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If there are only small events focused on a topic , you probably have an opportunity to build a large gathering . If there's only large gatherings , try building a smaller , more intimate group .

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How to get new community idea

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Smaller groups provide the opportunity for more intimacy , but less diversity . Larger groups provide the opportunity for more diversity , but less intimacy .

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Online , a forum with 10 people in it will feel empty , and a chat group with 1,000 in it will feel extremely overwhelming .

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Don't start off with too many subgroups and sections . Get critical mass in a few first , then add more spaces over time .

Note - Aligning Size with Purpose > Page 126 · Location 2922

This is what i did with the dataquest community when i reduced the categories.

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The asynchronous nature of forums makes it hard to feel like there's a lot of energy pulsing through the space in the early days . So they host big events on the forum to get everyone to sign on at the same time and participate in a big shared experience . It could be as simple as a series of Ask Me Anythings ( AMAs ) where you invite experts to show up in the community and answer questions for an hour .

Note - Starting with a BANG! > Page 132 · Location 3042

Really need to organise an AMA for the dataquest community.

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You only remember the “ peak ” moments .

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When you're creating your online community experience or hosting a big event , 99 percent of the details that you're sweating over will not be what people will remember . They'll only remember the absolute best and absolute worst experiences they have .

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Peak moments can take many different forms . They fall into a few different categories , laid out by the Heath brothers : Elevation : that top of the roller coaster , standing ovation , high - energy moment . Pride : the feeling of accomplishment , getting the spotlight , accomplishing a big goal . Insight : learning something new , getting that ah - ha ! moment . Connection : meeting someone new or forming a deeper relationship with someone . At CMX Summit , we try to create opportunities for all four :

Highlight (yellow) - Facilitating Small-Group Discussions > Page 135 · Location 3098

Every Wednesday , we'd sit down for lunch and have a 90 - minute discussion facilitated by the founders Chad Hamre and Brendan Baker . The format was simple : we'd go around and each share a high and low from our week for the first 45 minutes , then switch to a shared discussion on a single topic .

Highlight (yellow) - Facilitating Small-Group Discussions > Page 136 · Location 3107

That's why small discussion groups have become one of my favorite formats for building community . Hosted regularly , they become a deep and meaningful part of people's lives . They're genuine , and intimate .

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You can also have people arrive in the space by asking members to say hello to a neighbor , all making a sound together , or anything else that makes everyone feel aware of their current environment and takes their mind away from whatever they were doing before .

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At ODCB, lais played music as people joined in the first few mins.

Highlight (yellow) - Facilitating Small-Group Discussions > Page 137 · Location 3132

Once everyone is engaged , there are a lot of different formats for kicking off and facilitating small - group discussions . Here are a few ideas I've used with success : Round of intros : Kick off with a round of intros . Spice it up with a “ fun ” question like , “ What cartoon character do you most identify with ? ” Whip - around : An initial question that everyone answers to get everyone involved in the conversation early . A lot of these formats can be considered whip - arounds . They're usually quick answers to a question like , “ What is your goal for this discussion ? ” or , “ What is one thing you're grateful for ? ” Traffic light : Ask everyone to share how they're feeling at that moment , “ red , yellow , green . ” High - and - low : Have each person share a high and a low from their life / work . This is also called “ a rose and a thorn . ” Presentation : Have one or multiple members share their screen and give a short presentation , then open up to discussion . Share a challenge : Each person has a chance to share a challenge that they want feedback on and then gets time for other participants to give them feedback . Topic - based discussion : Have a topic or theme for the call , and leave it open to participants to jump in with their thoughts and opinions . Commitment and next steps : Finish the discussion by asking each participant to share one commitment they will make as a result of the discussion , or a next action they will take .

Highlight (yellow) - Tell Your Members How to Participate > Page 138 · Location 3154

Tell Your Members How to Participate

Highlight (yellow) - Tell Your Members How to Participate > Page 139 · Location 3169

When we welcome new members to the CMX online community , we don't just tell them to introduce themselves , we tell them how to introduce themselves

Highlight (yellow) - Tell Your Members How to Participate > Page 139 · Location 3174

Teach your members how to successfully ask the community for help .

Highlight (yellow) - How to Get Members to Be Open and Vulnerable > Page 140 · Location 3194

Some of the most valuable community experiences a person will have is one where they have a chance to be truly open and vulnerable . We walk around most of our lives keeping things close to the chest .

Highlight (yellow) - My Three Go-To Community Rules > Page 146 · Location 3307

Give More Than You Take

Note - My Three Go-To Community Rules > Page 146 · Location 3307

Answer more questions than you ask

Highlight (yellow) - Using Metrics to Optimize Community Spaces and Experiences > Page 150 · Location 3386

You can take the same approach for any kind of community , online or offline , synchronous or asynchronous , to identify opportunities to improve engagement in your spaces and experiences .

Note - Using Metrics to Optimize Community Spaces and Experiences > Page 150 · Location 3388

Talk to various types of participants.

Chapter 7: Activating Community Engagement

Highlight (yellow) - Engagement Is a Constant Experiment > Page 154 · Location 3431

So don't be afraid of an event not working . Don't be afraid of a post getting no replies . In fact , you should expect things not to work a whole lot before it starts to work . And boom ! When something works , keep doing it !

Highlight (yellow) - Personal Invitations and “Doing Things That Don't Scale” > Page 154 · Location 3441

There's great power in a personal invitation . When you personally invite someone to your community , it lets the person know that they were personally considered and approved . It makes them feel special and creates an understanding of intimacy and quality .

Note - Personal Invitations and “Doing Things That Don't Scale” > Page 154 · Location 3443

Or when you personally invite someone to a program or a discussion.

Highlight (yellow) - Personal Invitations and “Doing Things That Don't Scale” > Page 155 · Location 3454

You can use personal invitations to facilitate engagement as well . In the online communities I run , we always have a rule that every question must get at least three quality answers in 24 hours . If it's not happening organically , we make it happen . I'll start messaging other members privately and ask them to jump in and answer the question . What most people do in this situation is post a comment to the whole community and ask , “ Can anyone help answer this question ? ” It's too easy for everyone to ignore that ask . But if you personally message them and invite them to respond to the post , it will be much more obvious if they ignore it . To the person who asked the question , it still looks like organic growth . They just see that a few people answered their question . To the person I ask to help , they feel good because I let them know that I consider them an expert and that they're helping the community in a meaningful way .

Note - Personal Invitations and “Doing Things That Don't Scale” > Page 155 · Location 3459

THIS IS GOLD! What a great way to get your member's questions answered.

Note - Personal Invitations and “Doing Things That Don't Scale” > Page 155 · Location 3461

THIS IS GOLD!! How to answer every question in your forum

Highlight (yellow) - Personal Invitations and “Doing Things That Don't Scale” > Page 156 · Location 3469

People need to feel seen if they're going to participate . If they can just sit in the back row and blend in with the crowd , they mostly will . No one wants to be the first one to raise their hand .

Highlight (yellow) - Personal Invitations and “Doing Things That Don't Scale” > Page 156 · Location 3474

I remember a long time ago , a speaker came to a startup accelerator I was participating in to teach the companies in our cohort about marketing . At the end of the class , he held out a $ 100 bill and said , “ Who's going to step up and grab the opportunity ? ” encouraging us to get up and grab the bill from his hands . No one moved for a good 15 awkward seconds , until one person slowly got up and grabbed the bill from his hands and everyone laughed . Everyone was so afraid to be the first mover , even if there was a $ 100 reward in it . The speaker was making a point about how we often see opportunities to strike , but we hesitate because we're afraid to be the first mover , afraid of being wrong or getting embarrassed .

Note - Personal Invitations and “Doing Things That Don't Scale” > Page 156 · Location 3479

Love this story! Shows how even when an opportunity strikes, most people hesitate to grab it because of they fear being wrong in the eyes of others.

Highlight (yellow) - Personal Invitations and “Doing Things That Don't Scale” > Page 157 · Location 3488

Every member who enters the community feels personally welcomed . Every person who shows up at the event has someone meaningful to talk to . Every person who posts in your community gets quality responses . You need to be “ behind the curtain ” making introductions , facilitating discussions , and putting in the work to get the wheels of community turning . Over time , your community will develop organic engagement .

Highlight (yellow) - Ask for Permission > Page 157 · Location 3502

A key way you can consistently make your members feel more influential is to always ask for permission when you'd like to do something . It's a subtle but powerful difference in facilitating engagement .

Highlight (yellow) - Don't Fear the Crickets > Page 159 · Location 3532

If you're going to be successful at building community , you have to get over this fear . You have to get comfortable with the idea that some of what you post will not get a lot of engagement , especially in the early days of building community .

Highlight (yellow) - Default to Transparency and Admit Your Mistakes > Page 167 · Location 3708

By trusting your community , you're teaching them to trust you , too .

Highlight (yellow) - Use Your Authentic Voice > Page 169 · Location 3742

The subtle personalization can make all the difference in the world . Maybe it's a “ y'all ” or the overuse of ellipses as I tend to do … whatever is true to you .

it is tantamount to being disloyal to the company if you fail to speak up when you disagree with a colleague or have feedback that could be helpful . After all , you could help the business — but you are choosing not to .

Highlight (yellow) - 2 THEN INCREASE CANDOR …: Say What You Really Think (with Positive Intent) > Page 21 · Location 557

The brain is a survival machine , and one of our most successful survival techniques is the desire to find safety in numbers . Our brain is constantly on the watch for signals of group rejection , which back in more primitive times would have led to isolation and potentially death . If someone calls out a mistake you are making in front of your tribe , the amygdala , the most primitive part of the brain , which is on constant watch for danger , sets off a warning : “ This group is about to reject you . ”

Highlight (yellow) - 2 THEN INCREASE CANDOR …: Say What You Really Think (with Positive Intent) > Page 29 · Location 692

A climate of candor doesn’t mean anything goes . The first few times Netflix employees gave me feedback I felt so startled I thought the rules of feedback were something like , “ say what’s on your mind , to hell with the cost . ” But Netflix managers invest significant time teaching their employees the right and wrong way to give feedback . They have documents explaining what effective feedback looks like . They have sections of training programs where people learn how and practice giving and receiving it . You can do this too . After ploughing through all the Netflix materials on candor and hearing dozens of interviewees explain how it works , I’ve found the lessons can be summarized in the following 4A format . 4A FEEDBACK GUIDELINES Giving Feedback 1 . AIM TO ASSIST : Feedback must be given with positive intent . Giving feedback in order to get frustration off your chest , intentionally hurting the other person , or furthering your political agenda is not tolerated . Clearly explain how a specific behavior change will help the individual or the company , not how it will help you . “ The way you pick your teeth in meetings with external partners is irritating ” is wrong feedback . Right feedback would be , “ If you stop picking your teeth in external partner meetings , the partners are more likely to see you as professional , and we’re more likely to build a strong relationship . ” 2 . ACTIONABLE : Your feedback must focus on what the recipient can do differently . Wrong feedback to me in Cuba would have been to stop at the comment , “ Your presentation is undermining its own messages . ” Right feedback was , “ The way you ask the audience for input is resulting in only Americans participating . ” Even better would have been : “ If you can find a way to solicit contributions from other nationalities in the room your presentation will be more powerful . ” Receiving Feedback 3 . APPRECIATE : Natural human inclination is to provide a defense or excuse when receiving criticism ; we all reflexively seek to protect our egos and reputation . When you receive feedback , you need to fight this natural reaction and instead ask yourself , “ How can I show appreciation for this feedback by listening carefully , considering the message with an open mind , and becoming neither defensive nor angry ? ” 4 . ACCEPT OR DISCARD : You will receive lots of feedback from lots of people while at Netflix . You are required to listen and consider all feedback provided . You are not required to follow it . Say “ thank you ” with sincerity . But both you and the provider must understand that the decision to react to the feedback is entirely up to the recipient .

Highlight (yellow) - 2 THEN INCREASE CANDOR …: Say What You Really Think (with Positive Intent) > Page 36 · Location 792

Following other general critical - feedback guidelines — such as “ Never give criticism when you’re still angry ” and “ Use a calm voice when giving corrective feedback ” — could have helped too .

Highlight (yellow) - 3 NOW BEGIN REMOVING CONTROLS …: a. Remove Vacation Policy: b. Remove Travel and Expense Approvals > Page 52 · Location 1029

Giving employees more freedom led them to take more ownership and behave more responsibly . That’s when Patty and I coined the term “ Freedom and Responsibility . ” It’s not just that you need to have them both ; it’s that one leads to the other . It began to dawn on me . Freedom is not the opposite of accountability , as I’d previously considered . Instead , it is a path toward it .

SECTION TWO: Next Steps to a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility

Highlight (yellow) - 4 FORTIFY TALENT DENSITY …: Pay Top of Personal Market > Page 79 · Location 1379

We determined that for any type of operational role , where there was a clear cap on how good the work could be , we would pay middle of market rate . But for all creative jobs we would pay one incredible employee at the top of her personal market , instead of using that same money to hire a dozen or more adequate performers .

Note - 4 FORTIFY TALENT DENSITY …: Pay Top of Personal Market > Page 79 · Location 1381

Companies that hire employees through college GPAs, standardised tests or competitive prog Qs are hiring for operational roles.

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People are most creative when they have a big enough salary to remove some of the stress from home . But people are less creative when they don’t know whether or not they’ll get paid extra . Big salaries , not merit bonuses , are good for innovation .

Highlight (yellow) - 4 FORTIFY TALENT DENSITY …: Pay Top of Personal Market > Page 98 · Location 1685

The rule at Netflix when recruiters call is : “ Before you say , ‘ No thanks ! ’ ask , ‘ How much ? ’ ”

Highlight (yellow) - 5 PUMP UP CANDOR …: Open the Books > Page 120 · Location 2004

Generally , I believed that if the dilemma is linked to an incident at work , everyone should be informed . But if the dilemma is linked to an employee’s personal situation , it’s up to that person to share details if he chooses .

Highlight (yellow) - 5 PUMP UP CANDOR …: Open the Books > Page 123 · Location 2049

Vulnerability is courage in you and inadequacy in me . ”

Highlight (yellow) - 5 PUMP UP CANDOR …: Open the Books > Page 124 · Location 2062

The pratfall effect is the tendency for someone’s appeal to increase or decrease after making a mistake , depending on his or her perceived ability to perform well in general .

Highlight (yellow) - 6 NOW RELEASE MORE CONTROLS …: No Decision-making Approvals Needed > Page 136 · Location 2206

Netflix does not operate in a safety - critical market , like medicine or nuclear power . In some industries , preventing error is essential . We are in a creative market . Our big threat in the long run is not making a mistake , it’s lack of innovation . Our risk is failing to come up with creative ideas for how to entertain our customers , and therefore becoming irrelevant .

Highlight (yellow) - 6 NOW RELEASE MORE CONTROLS …: No Decision-making Approvals Needed > Page 139 · Location 2256

at Netflix you don’t lose your job because you make a bet that doesn’t work out . Instead you lose your job for not using your chips to make big things happen or for showing consistently poor judgment over time .

Highlight (yellow) - 6 NOW RELEASE MORE CONTROLS …: No Decision-making Approvals Needed > Page 151 · Location 2438

One of the reasons I left Yahoo was that I didn’t feel ownership for anything . Even though I might have come up with an idea and started an initiative , by the time it got approved by everyone and his mother it didn’t feel like mine any more . If it crashed , I’d feel : “ Well , thirty other people agreed ! It’s not my fault ! ”

SECTION THREE: Techniques to Reinforce a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility

Highlight (yellow) - 8 MAX UP CANDOR …: A Circle of Feedback > Page 189 · Location 2929

There is one Netflix guideline that , if practiced religiously , would force everyone to be either radically candid or radically quiet : “ Only say about someone what you will say to their face . ”

Conclusion

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“ Rules and process ” is so familiar a paradigm for coordinating group behavior , it hardly needs any explanation at all . Starting in kindergarten when Mrs . Sanders sat all the other five - year - olds on the green rug and explained in detail what you were and weren’t allowed to do , you were already learning rules and process . Later , when you took that first job bussing dishes at that noodle place by the mall and you learned what color socks you could and couldn’t wear under your uniform and how much would be subtracted from your paycheck if you ate a biscuit during your shift , your apprenticeship in rules and process was progressing . The rules - and - process approach has been the primary way of coordinating group behavior for centuries . But it isn’t the only way ,

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With this in mind , you can consider your objective carefully before deciding when to opt for freedom and responsibility and when rules with process would be a better choice . Here are a set of questions you can ask in order to select the right approach : Are you working in an industry where your employees ’ or customers ’ health or safety depends on everything going just right ? If so , choose rules and process . If you make a mistake , will it end in disaster ? Choose rules and process . Are you running a manufacturing environment where you need to produce a consistently identical product ? Choose rules and process . If you’re leading an emergency room , testing airplanes , managing a coal mine , or delivering just - in - time medication to senior citizens , rules with process is the way to go . This has been the go - to coordination model for the majority of organizations for centuries and , for some , will continue to be the best choice in coming years . But for those of you who are operating in the creative economy , where innovation , speed , and flexibility are the keys to success , consider throwing out the orchestra and focusing instead on making a different kind of music .

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In the industrial era , the goal was to minimize variation . But in creative companies today , maximizing variation is more essential . In these situations , the biggest risk isn’t making a mistake or losing consistency ; it’s failing to attract top talent , to invent new products , or to change direction quickly when the environment shifts .

The answer isn’t more hours , it’s less bullshit . Less waste , not more production . And far fewer distractions , less always - on anxiety , and avoiding stress .

Highlight (yellow) - It’s crazy at work > Page 2 · Location 140

Stress is passed from organization to employee , from employee to employee , and then from employee to customer . Stress never stops at the border of work , either . It bleeds into life . It infects your relationships with your friends , your family , your kids .

Note - It’s crazy at work > Page 2 · Location 142

Bad work habits trickle down from the founder

Highlight (yellow) - It’s crazy at work > Page 5 · Location 172

Calm is asynchronous first , real - time second .

Highlight (yellow) - Your company is a product > Page 7 · Location 195

But when you think of the company as a product , you ask different questions : Do people who work here know how to use the company ? Is it simple ? Complex ? Is it obvious how it works ? What’s fast about it ? What’s slow about it ? Are there bugs ? What’s broken that we can fix quickly and what’s going to take a long time ?

Curb Your Ambition

Highlight (yellow) - Bury the hustle > Page 16 · Location 234

Now this opposition mainly comes from a lens focused on the world of creative people . The writers , the programmers , the designers , the makers , the product people .

Highlight (yellow) - Bury the hustle > Page 16 · Location 241

You can play with your kids and still be a successful entrepreneur . You can have a hobby . You can take care of yourself physically . You can read a book . You can watch a silly movie with your partner . You can take the time to cook a proper meal . You can go for a long walk . You can dare to be completely ordinary every now and then .

Highlight (yellow) - Happy pacifists > Page 20 · Location 269

Mark Twain nailed it : “ Comparison is the death of joy . ” We’re with Mark .

Highlight (yellow) - Our goal: No goals > Page 23 · Location 304

Plus , there’s an even darker side to goal setting . Chasing goals often leads companies to compromise their morals , honesty , and integrity to reach those fake numbers .

Highlight (yellow) - Our goal: No goals > Page 27 · Location 315

You can absolutely run a great business without a single goal . You don’t need something fake to do something real . And if you must have a goal , how about just staying in business ? Or serving your customers well ? Or being a delightful place to work ? Just because these goals are harder to quantify does not make them any less important .

Highlight (yellow) - Don’t change the world > Page 28 · Location 327

If you stop thinking that you must change the world , you lift a tremendous burden off yourself and the people around you . There’s no longer this convenient excuse for why it has to be all work all the time .

Highlight (yellow) - Make it up as you go > Page 30 · Location 344

We simply believe that you’re better off steering the ship with a thousand little inputs as you go rather than a few grand sweeping movements made way ahead of time .

Note - Make it up as you go > Page 31 · Location 345

Instead of creating a 1yr plan to change career and figure out what to do, create a 6 week plan.

Highlight (yellow) - Make it up as you go > Page 31 · Location 346

Furthermore , long - term planning instills a false sense of security . The sooner you admit you have no idea what the world will look like in five years , three years , or even one year , the sooner you’ll be able to move forward without the fear of making the wrong big decision years in advance . Nothing looms when you don’t make predictions .

Highlight (yellow) - Comfy’s cool > Page 32 · Location 355

The idea that you have to constantly push yourself out of your comfort zone is the kind of supposedly self - evident nonsense you’ll often find in corporate manifestos .

Note - Comfy’s cool > Page 32 · Location 356

1. This is told to students as well. This is the reason why you should spend long hours studying this topic that you hate just because it is the latest fad or for preparing for this highly competitive exam. Whichever successful person's success you're trying to emulate, got good doing what they loved - not what they found painful. 2. ROADIES!

Highlight (yellow) - Comfy’s cool > Page 32 · Location 357

Requiring discomfort — or pain — to make progress is faulty logic .

Highlight (yellow) - Comfy’s cool > Page 38 · Location 364

Most of the time , if you’re uncomfortable with something , it’s because it isn’t right .

Note - Comfy’s cool > Page 38 · Location 364

If you're uncomfortable studying something, it is probably not meant for you.

Defend Your Time

Highlight (yellow) - 8’s enough, 40’s plenty > Page 40 · Location 391

If you can’t fit everything you want to do within 40 hours per week , you need to get better at picking what to do , not work longer hours .

Highlight (yellow) - Protectionism > Page 42 · Location 410

Time and attention are best spent in large bills ,

Highlight (yellow) - The quality of an hour > Page 44 · Location 419

1 × 60 = 60 2 × 30 = 60 4 × 15 = 60 25 + 10 + 5 + 15 + 5 = 60 All of the above equal 60 , but they’re different kinds of hours entirely .

Highlight (yellow) - The quality of an hour > Page 47 · Location 427

No wonder people who work like that can be short - or ill - tempered .

Highlight (yellow) - Effective > Productive > Page 48 · Location 442

Machines can work 24 / 7 , humans can’t . When people focus on productivity , they end up focusing on being busy . Filling every moment with something to do . And there’s always more to do !

Highlight (yellow) - Effective > Productive > Page 49 · Location 449

If you’ve only got three hours of work to do on a given day , then stop . Don’t fill your day with five more just to stay busy or feel productive . Not doing something that isn’t worth doing is a wonderful way to spend your time .

Highlight (yellow) - The outwork myth > Page 51 · Location 461

So how do people get ahead if it’s not about outworking everyone else ? People make it because they’re talented , they’re lucky , they’re in the right place at the right time , they know how to work with other people , they know how to sell an idea , they know what moves people , they can tell a story , they know which details matter and which don’t , they can see the big and small pictures in every situation , and they know how to do something with an opportunity .

Highlight (yellow) - Office hours > Page 55 · Location 502

What’s worse , they don’t know when these questions might come up . You can’t plan your own day if everyone else is using it up randomly .

Feed Your Culture

Highlight (yellow) - We’re not family > Page 75 · Location 612

They’re usually not referring to how the company is going to protect you no matter what or love you unconditionally . You know , like healthy families would . Their motive is rather more likely to be a unidirectional form of sacrifice : yours .

Highlight (yellow) - They’ll do as you do > Page 78 · Location 640

Workaholism is a contagious disease .

Highlight (yellow) - The owner’s word weighs a ton > Page 86 · Location 687

There’s no such thing as a casual suggestion when it comes from the owner of the business .

Highlight (yellow) - Hire the work, not the résumé > Page 101 · Location 807

There’s no arbitrary “ years of experience ” cut to prevent a fast learner from applying to a senior position .

Highlight (yellow) - Ignore the talent war > Page 105 · Location 846

We’ve found that nurturing untapped potential is far more exhilarating than finding someone who’s already at their peak . We hired many of our best people not because of who they were but because of who they could become .

Note - Ignore the talent war > Page 105 · Location 848

Tobi - In a secondary talent market, hire for future potential.

Highlight (yellow) - Don’t negotiate salaries > Page 113 · Location 907

There’s a fountain of happiness and productivity in working with a stable crew . It’s absolutely key to how we’re able to do so much with so few at Basecamp . We’re baffled that such a competitive advantage isn’t more diligently sought .

Dissect Your Process

Highlight (yellow) - The wrong time for real-time > Page 132 · Location 1039

Important topics need time , traction , and separation from the rest of the chatter . If something is being discussed in a chat room and it’s clearly too important to process one line at a time , we ask people to “ write it up ” instead . This goes together with the rule “ If everyone needs to see it , don’t chat about it . ” Give the discussion a dedicated , permanent home that won’t scroll away in five minutes .

Highlight (yellow) - Dreadlines > Page 134 · Location 1055

Our deadlines remain fixed and fair . They are fundamental to our process — and making progress . If it’s due on November 20 , then it’s due on November 20 . The date won’t move up and the date won’t move back . What’s variable is the scope of the problem — the work itself . But only on the downside . You can’t fix a deadline and then add more work to it . That’s not fair . Our projects can only get smaller over time , not larger . As we progress , we separate the must - haves from the nice - to - haves and toss out the nonessentials .

Highlight (yellow) - Watch out for 12-day weeks > Page 139 · Location 1108

when you’ve worked all week and you’re forced to work the weekend , the following Monday is the eighth day of the last week , not the first day of next week . This means that if you keep working through that following week , you’re working 12 - day weeks .

Highlight (yellow) - Compromise on quality > Page 154 · Location 1216

Think of it this way . If you do one thing at 100 percent , you’ve spent 100 percent to get that one thing . If you spend 20 percent each on getting five things to 80 percent , well , then , you’ve done five things ! We’ll almost always take that trade .

Highlight (yellow) - Have less to do > Page 170 · Location 1341

rearranging your daily patterns to find more time for work isn’t the problem . Too much shit to do is the problem . The only way to get more done is to have less to do . Saying no is the only way to claw back time .

Highlight (yellow) - Three’s company > Page 173 · Location 1373

Just like work expands to fill the time available , work expands to fill the team available .

Highlight (yellow) - Stick with it > Page 175 · Location 1392

Having a box full of stale work is no fun . Happiness is shipping : finishing good work , sending it off , and then moving on to the next idea .

Highlight (yellow) - Know no > Page 176 · Location 1398

No is easier to do , yes is easier to say . No is no to one thing . Yes is no to a thousand things .

Highlight (yellow) - Know no > Page 176 · Location 1404

When you say no to one thing , it’s a choice that breeds choices . Tomorrow you can be as open to new opportunities as you were today . When you say yes to one thing , you’ve spent that choice . The door is shut on a whole host of alternative possibilities and tomorrow is that much more limited .

Mind Your Business

Highlight (yellow) - Season’s greetings > Page 185 · Location 1433

Change is often seen as stressful , but the polar opposite , monotony , can be even worse . You can only work exactly the same way , at the same pace , doing the same work for so long before monotony bites .

Highlight (yellow) - Season’s greetings > Page 186 · Location 1444

Be it in hours , degrees of difficulty , or even specific benefits that emphasize seasonality , find ways to melt the monotony of work . People grow dull and stiff if they stay in the same swing for too long .

Highlight (yellow) - Copycats > Page 203 · Location 1560

When someone copies you , they are copying a moment in time . They don’t know the thinking that went into getting you to that moment in time , and they won’t know the thinking that’ll help you have a million more moments in time . They’re stuck with what you left behind .

Highlight (yellow) - No big deal or the end of the world? > Page 212 · Location 1616

Jean - Louis Gassée , who used to run Apple France , describes this situation as the choice between two tokens . When you deal with people who have trouble , you can either choose to take the token that says “ It’s no big deal ” or the token that says “ It’s the end of the world . ” Whichever token you pick , they’ll take the other .

Most of our world is made of innovations inherited from people long forgotten — not people who were rare but people who were common .

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Then , 50,000 years ago , something happened . The crude , barely recognizable stone tools Homo sapiens had been using began to change — and change quickly . Until this moment , this species , like all other animals , did not innovate . Their tools were the same as their parents ’ tools and their grandparents ’ tools and their great - grandparents ’ tools . They made them , but they didn’t make them better . The tools were inherited , instinctive , and immutable — products of evolution , not conscious creation .

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Creative activity appears simply to be a special class of problem - solving activity characterized by novelty , unconventionality , persistence , and difficulty in problem formulation .

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Creation is destination , the consequence of acts that appear inconsequential by themselves but that , when accumulated , change the world . Creating is an ordinary act , creation its extraordinary outcome .

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Magic is instant , genius an accident of birth . Take them away and what is left is work .

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When we ask writers about their process or scientists about their methods or inventors where they get their ideas from , we are hoping for something that doesn’t exist : a trick , recipe , or ritual to summon the magic — an alternative to work . There isn’t one .

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The creativity myth is a mistake born of a need to explain extraordinary outcomes with extraordinary acts and extraordinary characters , a misunderstanding of the truth that creation comes from ordinary people and ordinary work .

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The virtue of a first sketch is that it breaks the blank page . It is the spark of life in the swamp . Its quality is not important . The only bad draft is the one we do not write .

Chapter 2: Thinking is Like Walking

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human thought has an essence unaffected by scale , subject , or thinker — that our minds all work the same way . It was radical and controversial , and it shifted the shape of psychology .

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We all use the same process for thinking , just as we all use the same process for walking . It is the same whether the problem is big or small , whether the solution is something new or something logical , whether the thinker is a Nobel laureate or a child . There is no “ creative thinking , ” just as there is no “ creative walking . ” Creation is a result — a place thinking may lead us .

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Minds do not leap . Observation , evaluation , and iteration , not sudden shifts of perception , solve problems and lead us to creation .

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Everyone who thinks of using the tack box gets there the same way . After eliminating other ideas , they think of building a platform out of nails , then think of using the tack box as the platform . There is no sudden shift of perception . We move from known to new in small steps . In every case , the pattern is the same : begin with something familiar , evaluate it , solve any problems , and repeat until a satisfactory solution is found .

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Creating is taking steps , not making leaps : find a problem , solve it , and repeat . Most steps wins . The best artists , scientists , engineers , inventors , entrepreneurs , and other creators are the ones who keep taking steps by finding new problems , new solutions , and then new problems again . The root of innovation is exactly the same as it was when our species was born : looking at something and thinking , “ I can make this better . ”

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Karl Duncker wrote that the act of creation starts with one of two questions : “ ‘ Why doesn’t it work ? ’ or , ‘ What should I change to make it work ? 41 ’ ”

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The creativity myth confuses having ideas with the actual work of creating .

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Research into brainstorming has a clear conclusion . The best way to create is to work alone and evaluate solutions as they occur . The worst way to create is to work in large groups and defer criticism .

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Because everything arises from steps , not leaps , most things are invented in several places simultaneously when different people walk the same path , each unaware of the others .

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Having ideas is not the same thing as being creative . Creation is execution , not inspiration . Many people have ideas ; few take the steps to make the thing they imagine .

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Creating is the result of thinking like walking . Left foot , problem . Right foot , solution . Repeat until you arrive . It is not the size of your strides that determines your success but how many you take .

Chapter 3: Expect Adversity

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Creation is not a moment of inspiration but a lifetime of endurance . The drawers of the world are full of things begun . Unfinished sketches , pieces of invention , incomplete product ideas , notebooks with half - formulated hypotheses , abandoned patents , partial manuscripts . Creating is more monotony than adventure .

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“ If your idea succeeds , everybody says you’re persistent . If it doesn’t succeed , you’re stubborn . ”

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Unfortunately , anyone who loves your idea the first time they hear it either loves you or wants something . What to expect when you’re inventing is rejection . Build a better mousetrap and the world will not beat a path to your door . You must beat a path to the world .

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Rejecting is a reflex . We do not only reject other people’s creative instincts ; often , we reject our own , too .

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even though we say we want creation , we tend to reject it .

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Uncertainty is an aversive state : we avoid it if we can . 54 Psychologists can show this in experiments . 55 Feelings of uncertainty bias us against new things , make us prefer familiarity , and stop us from recognizing creative ideas . This happens even when we value creation or think we are good at creating .

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we know it is socially unacceptable to “ dislike ” creation , we sincerely believe we “ like ” creation , but when presented with a specific creative idea , we are more likely to reject it than we realize .

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It is human nature to say no to new .

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Rejection is a reflex that evolved to protect us . No matter what we may gain , our first reactions to new are suspicion , skepticism , and fear .

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Great creators know that the best step forward is often a step back — to scrutinize , analyze , and assess , to find faults and flaws , to challenge and to change . You cannot escape a maze if you only move forward . Sometimes the path ahead is behind .

Chapter 4: How We See

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“ There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact . ”

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Creating is thinking . Attention is what we think about . The more we experience , the less we think — whether in chess , radiography , painting , science , or anything else . Expertise is efficiency : experts use fewer problem - solution loops because experts do not consider unlikely solutions .

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A paradigm is stable for a time , and scientists work on proving things that the paradigm predicts , but eventually exceptions appear . Scientists treat the exceptions as unanswered questions at first , but if enough of them are discovered and the questions are important enough , their paradigm is thrown into “ crisis . ” The crisis continues until a new paradigm emerges .

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a new paradigm is not an improved version of its predecessor . New paradigms vanquish old paradigms altogether

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Paradigms are a form of selective attention . What changes during one of Kuhn’s “ scientific revolutions ” is what scientists see .

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Confidence is belief in yourself . Certainty is belief in your beliefs . Confidence is a bridge . Certainty is a barricade .

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Confidence is a cycle , not a steady state , a muscle that must be strengthened daily , a feeling we renew and increase by enduring the adversity of creation . Certainty is constant . Confidence comes and goes .

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"confidence comes and goes" for confident people too?!

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When you can change your mind , you can change anything .

Chapter 5: Where Credit is Due

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No creator deserves too much credit because every creator is in so much debt .

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If everybody sees further because they are standing on the shoulders of giants , then there are no giants , just a tower of people , each one standing on the shoulders of another . Giants , like geniuses , are a myth .

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A human generation is about twenty - five years long .

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Equality brings justice to some and wealth to all .

Chapter 6: Chains of Consequence

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The Luddites — their name came from the then - famous , possibly fictional machine breaker Ned Ludd — have become icons of both restraint in the face of new technology and entrenched fear of change . They were driven by neither : they were just men desperate to keep their jobs . Their battle was against capital , not technology .

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The number of individuals who know how to make a can of Coke is zero . The number of individual nations that could produce a can of Coke is zero .

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A system of apprenticeship arose to meet this need : master weavers taught teenage children the skill of textile making . Weaving apprenticeships were a common form of schooling in the days before public education : in 1812 , the year of the Luddites ’ attack on William Cartwright’s mill , around one in twenty English teenagers living in or near mill towns became weavers ’ apprentices .

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Notice how economic demand created supply which created schooling

Chapter 7: The Gas in Your Tank

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Music business veterans call this second album syndrome — the one after the breakthrough that costs more , takes longer , tries harder , and fails .

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When Harlow introduced a reward — food — into the process , the monkeys ’ puzzle solving got worse . In his own words : it “ tended to disrupt , not facilitate the performances of the experimental subjects . ” 22 This was a surprising finding . It was one of the first times anybody noticed that external rewards could demotivate rather than invigorate .

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The relationship between reward and motivation is not as simple as “ rewards reduce performance . ” There are more than a hundred studies besides Amabile’s and Glucksberg’s . 26 They reach no consensus . Some find that rewards help , some find that they hurt ; some find that they make no difference .

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In this experiment , reward did lead to the most creative work — by the choice – reward group . But the least creative work was also caused by reward — it came from the no choice – reward group .

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The least creative group’s problem was easily diagnosed : members of the no choice – reward group reported feeling the most pressure . No choice – reward is the condition most of us are in when we go to work .

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Writer’s block is the mistake of believing in constant peak performance . Peaks cannot be constant ; they are , by definition , exceptional . You will have good days and less good days , but the only bad work you can do is the work you do not do .

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Unfulfilled passion creates a cavity between our present and our potential — a void that can drip with destruction and despair . It stagnates . It manifests as might - have - beens . If we do not chase our dreams , they will pursue us as nightmares .

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We are inclined to regard passion as positive and addiction as negative , but they are indistinguishable apart from their outcomes . Addiction destroys , passion creates , and that is the only difference between them .

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The first beginning will feel wrong . We are not used to being with ourselves uninterrupted . We do not know the way first things look . We have imagined our creations finished but never begun . A thing begun is less right than wrong , more flaw than finesse , all problem and no solution . Nothing begins good , but everything good begins . Everything can be revised , erased , or rearranged later . The courage of creation is making bad beginnings .

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interruption slows us down . No matter how little time is stolen by interruption , we lose even more time reconnecting to our work . Interruption causes twice as many mistakes . Interruption makes us angry . Interruption makes us anxious . These effects are the same among men and women . Creation knows no multitasking .

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Make your workday have long blocks of time. Dont splinter it with meetings.

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Creation is selection . Everything , whether nature or culture , was created by this process . Every peach , every orchid , every starling , like every successful act of art , or science , or engineering , or business , is made of a thousand failures and extinctions . Creation is selection , iteration , and rejection .

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The main virtue of a first sketch is that it breaks the blank page . It is a spark of life in the swamp , beautiful if only because it is a beginning .

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Selection is a bloody process . Beautiful work , maybe months in the making , is culled in moments . This is the hardest part of all . We are the sum of our time and dreams and deeds , and our art is all three . Abandoning an idea can seem like losing a limb . But it is not nearly as serious , and it has to be done . The herd must be thinned or it faces extinction , and any new work that does not suffer selection faces an equivalent fate : it is unlikely to pass peer review , or be produced or patented , exhibited , or published . The world will always be more hostile to our work than we are .

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No eurekas or flashes of inspiration . Innovation is whatever remains when all our failures are removed .

Chapter 8: Creating Organizations

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small , isolated , highly motivated group is the best kind of team for creation .

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Intellectually secure people do not need to show anyone how smart they are . They are empirical and seek truth . Intellectually insecure people need to show everyone how smart they are . They are egotistical and seek triumph .

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They know what they know and enjoy people who know more .

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This is commonly called out as a requirement for being a good CEO. Maybe, its a requirement for being good at any profession.

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These apparently impossible constraints gave us the model creative organization .

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Power of constraints

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The social skills that enable creation through cooperation — and the antisocial behavior that can result when creation is excessively controlled — are things we all have as children but that are educated out of most of us as we grow up .

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Talking while acting is useful , but talking about acting is not — or , at least , not often , and not for long . This is why “ Show me ” is such a powerful thing to say . “ Show me ” stops speculation and starts action .

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You cannot learn much by looking at an organization from the sky . Organizations exist only on the ground . They are not , as is commonly claimed , made of people . Organizations are made of people interacting . What an organization organizes is everyday human interactions .

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creation is doing , not saying . The most creative organizations prioritize rituals of doing ; the least creative organizations prioritize rituals of saying , the most common of which is the meeting .

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the more creative an organization is , the fewer internal meetings it tends to have , and the fewer people tend to be at those meetings

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Being too rigid about making things happen the way you planned stops you from reacting to emerging problems and causes you to miss unexpected opportunities .

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You cannot build a plan that predicts your setbacks — like the engine expert being arrested as a spy , or his engine exploding the first time you turn it on — but you can build an organization that executes anyway .

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We learn the hidden curriculum as children , when our minds are eager , we hunger for friends , and we are most afraid of shame . We learn it without knowing : the hidden curriculum is a set of unwritten rules , implied , often at odds with what we are told . We learn the opposite of the official curriculum : that originality ostracizes , imagination isolates , risk is ridiculed . You faced a choice as a child you may not remember : to be yourself and be alone or to be like others and be with others . Education is homogenization . This is why nerds are targets and friends move in herds .

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We carry this lesson through life . Education may be forgotten , but experience gets ingrained . What we divide into discrete periods like “ high school , ” “ college , ” and “ work ” is in fact a continuum . And so the hidden curriculum operates in all organizations , from corporations to nations .

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do what the CEO does , not what the CEO says . Talk about innovating and taking risks , but do not do it .

Chapter 9: Good-Bye, Genius

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Creating is to humans as flying is to birds . It is our nature , our spirit .

The evidence suggests that the ever - accelerating pace and informational crush of modern life will make this particular form of unthinking compliance more and more prevalent in the future . It will be increasingly important for the society , therefore , to understand the how and why of automatic influence .

Chapter 1: Weapons of Influence

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A well - known principle of human behavior says that when we ask someone to do us a favor we will be more successful if we provide a reason . People simply like to have reasons for what they do .

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You and I exist in an extraordinarily complicated stimulus environment , easily the most rapidly moving and complex that has ever existed on this planet . To deal with it , we need shortcuts .

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we must very often use our stereotypes , our rules of thumb to classify things according to a few key features and then to respond mindlessly when one or another of these trigger features is present .

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recognized this inescapable quality of modern life when he asserted that “ civilization advances by extending the number of operations we can perform without thinking about them . ”

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Google maps - I can navigate the roads without thinking about them. Macbook is a good experience because it allows me to do a lot of little things without thinking about them. Similarly, you can advance when you adopt technologies or systems that allow you to think less.

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There is a principle in human perception , the contrast principle , that affects the way we see the difference between two things that are presented one after another . Simply put , if the second item is fairly different from the first , we will tend to see it as more different than it actually is .

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In fact , studies done on the contrast principle at Arizona State and Montana State universities suggest that we may be less satisfied with the physical attractiveness of our own lovers because of the way the popular media bombard us with examples of unrealistically attractive models .

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OMG this is why Instagram makes you feel less about your own life!!! This is also why when I come back to my city and my home after a trip, it feels so less.

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The point is that the same thing — in this instance , room - temperature water — can be made to seem very different , depending on the nature of the event that precedes it .

Chapter 2: Reciprocation: The Old Give and Take … and Take

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The rule says that we should try to repay , in kind , what another person has provided us .

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Indeed , it may well be that a developed system of indebtedness flowing from the rule for reciprocation is a unique property of human culture .

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it meant that one person could give something ( for example , food , energy , care ) to another with confidence that it was not being lost . For the first time in evolutionary history , one individual could give away any of a variety of resources without actually giving them away . The result was the lowering of the natural inhibitions against transactions that must be begun by one person’s providing personal resources to another .

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Make no mistake , human societies derive a truly significant competitive advantage from the reciprocity rule , and consequently they make sure their members are trained to comply with and believe in it .

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The rule possesses awesome strength , often producing a “ yes ” response to a request that , except for an existing feeling of indebtedness , would have surely been refused .

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Hence the advice - "Learn to say no". Complying is human instinct but not-complying and acting in self-interest has to be learned.

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before a donation is requested , the target person is given a “ gift ” — a book ( usually the Bhagavad Gita ) , the Back to Godhead magazine of the Society , or , in the most cost - effective version , a flower .

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This is so true that even the beggars of kolkata have adopted it. Children sing a song in the crowded bus before they beg.

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A favorite place for free samples is the supermarket , where customers are frequently provided with small cubes of a certain variety of cheese or meat to try . Many people find it difficult to accept a sample from the always - smiling attendant ,

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I had the same experience when travelling in a train. A vendor insisted A LOT to try his bhujia for free and was smiling as he did it. He gave such samples to the entire compartment before he asked them to buy it. A lot of them did, including me.

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Although the obligation to repay constitutes the essence of the reciprocity rule , it is the obligation to receive that makes the rule so easy to exploit . The obligation to receive reduces our ability to choose whom we wish to be indebted to and puts that power in the hands of others .

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Of course , one could say that the subject had the choice of saying no to both of Joe’s offers . But those would have been tough choices . To have said no at either point would have required the subject to go against the natural cultural forces

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"Learn to say no".

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There is a strong cultural pressure to reciprocate a gift , even an unwanted one ; but there is no such pressure to purchase an unwanted commercial product .

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Free trials should be called gifts! While building a business you should give something valueable for free as a gift. Then, ask the user to buy a paid product as a favour AND because it is better than free.

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Another consequence of the rule , however , is an obligation to make a concession to someone who has made a concession to us .

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One way to increase your chances would be first to make a larger request of me , one that I will most likely turn down . Then , after I have refused , you would make the smaller request that you were really interested in all along .

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1. This feels like a derivative of the contrast principle. 2. For SaaS produts. Bring back your customers using this technique.

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the party who has made the extreme first request is not seen to be bargaining in good faith . Any subsequent retreat from that wholly unrealistic initial position is not viewed as a genuine concession and thus is not reciprocated .

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Take strong position for the first request. Provde a "because" for the extreme request.

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“ Well , if it is your feeling that a fine set of encyclopedias is not right for you at this time , perhaps you could help me by giving me the names of some others who might wish to take advantage of our company’s great offer . What would be the names of some of these people you know ? ”

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Ask this to every churned customer

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by first requesting ten dollars and then retreating to five dollars , I will have simultaneously engaged the force of the reciprocity rule and the contrast principle .

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Even for future favors , the rejection - then - retreat strategy proved superior .

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second previously puzzling feature of the rejection - then - retreat tactic — the ability to prompt its victims to agree to further requests . Since the tactic uses a concession to bring about compliance , the victim is likely to feel more satisfied with the arrangement

Chapter 3: Commitment and Consistency: Hobgoblins of the Mind

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we all fool ourselves from time to time in order to keep our thoughts and beliefs consistent with what we have already done or decided .

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before taking his stroll , the accomplice would simply ask the subject to please “ watch my things , ”

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This actually works!!

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If I can get you to make a commitment ( that is , to take a stand , to go on record ) , I will have set the stage for your automatic and ill - considered consistency with that earlier commitment . Once a stand is taken , there is a natural tendency to behave in ways that are stubbornly consistent with the stand .

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Use this technique for one on one reach outs for growing by word of mouth.

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prisoners were frequently asked to make statements so mildly anti - American or pro - Communist as to seem inconsequential ( “ The United States is not perfect . ” “ In a Communist country , unemployment is not a problem . ” ) . But once these minor requests were complied with , the men found themselves pushed to submit to related yet more substantive requests . A man who had just agreed with his Chinese interrogator that the United States is not perfect might then be asked to indicate some of the ways in which he thought this was the case . Once he had so explained himself , he might be asked to make a list of these “ problems with America ” and to sign his name to it . Later he might be asked to read his list in a discussion group with other prisoners . “ After all , it’s what you really believe , isn’t it ? ” Still later he might be asked to write an essay expanding on his list and discussing these problems in greater detail . The Chinese might then use his name and his essay in an anti - American radio broadcast

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1. Use this technique to signup customers personally through one on one conversations. 2. Use this to get people to give thorough reviews. 3. Use this to motivate people to learn something.

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The tactic of starting with a little request in order to gain eventual compliance with related larger requests has a name : the foot - in - the - door technique .

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You can use small commitments to manipulate a person’s self - image ;

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once you’ve got a man’s self - image where you want it , he should comply naturally with a whole range of your requests that are consistent with this view of himself .

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Our best evidence of what people truly feel and believe comes less from their words than from their deeds .

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the mere knowledge that someone viewed them as charitable caused these women to make their actions consistent with another’s perception of them .

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Whatever the goal , the important thing is that you set it , so you’ve got something for which to aim — and that you write it down . There is something magical about writing things down . So set a goal and write it down . When you reach that goal , set another and write that down . You’ll be off and running .

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The contestant is to compose a short personal statement that begins with the words , “ Why I like … ” and goes on to laud the features of whatever

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But they know that for an essay to have any chance of winning at all , it must include praise for the product . So they find praiseworthy features of the product and describe them in their essays .

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we are truest to our decisions if we have bound ourselves to them publicly

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the more effort that goes into a commitment , the greater is its ability to influence the attitudes of the person who made it .

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“ persons who go through a great deal of trouble or pain to attain something tend to value it more highly than persons who attain the same thing with a minimum of effort . ”

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people like and believe in what they have struggled to get ,

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Veteran programmers or teachers who had to struggle with less sophisticated tools believe that these tools are necessary and undermine the ease of new tools.

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severity of an initiation ceremony significantly heightens the newcomer’s commitment to the group ,

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valuable information about commitment . It appears that commitments are most effective in changing a person’s self - image and future behavior when they are active , public , and effortful .

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Social scientists have determined that we accept inner responsibility for a behavior when we think we have chosen to perform it in the absence of strong outside pressures . A large reward is one such external pressure . It may get us to perform a certain action , but it won’t get us to accept inner responsibility for the act .

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The same is true of a strong threat ; it may motivate immediate compliance , but it is unlikely to produce long - term commitment .

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we should never heavily bribe or threaten our children to do the things we want them truly to believe in .

Chapter 4: Social Proof: Truths Are Us

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the principle of social proof . It states that one means we use to determine what is correct is to find out what other people think is correct . The principle applies especially to the way we decide what constitutes correct behavior .

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Another reason why social learning is more effective than lonely self-learning.

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All the weapons of influence discussed in this book work better under some conditions than under others .

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Create a "Best condition" for all the influence weapons.

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In general , when we are unsure of ourselves , when the situation is unclear or ambiguous , when uncertainty reigns , we are most likely to look to and accept the actions of others as correct .

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isolate one individual from the crowd : Stare , speak , and point directly at that person and no one else : “ You , sir , in the blue jacket , I need help . Call an ambulance . ” With that one utterance you should dispel all the uncertainties that might prevent or delay help .

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Not only was this help rapid and solicitous , it was infectious . After drivers entering the intersection from the other direction saw cars stopping for me , they stopped and began tending to the other victim . The principle of social proof was working for us now . The trick had been to get the ball rolling in the direction of aid .

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The principle of social proof operates most powerfully when we are observing the behavior of people just like us .

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Of course , it would be to little Tommy , not to a six - foot - two - inch graduate student , that Chris would look for the most relevant information about what he could or should do .

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Remember this for social learning as well!

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the odds for survival when we travel change measurably for a time following the publication of certain kinds of front - page suicide stories .

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In a country like Guyana , there were no similar others for a Jonestown resident but the people of Jonestown itself . What was right for a member of the community was determined to a disproportionate degree by what other community members — influenced heavily by Jones — did and believed .

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This principle takes place in everyday life all the time!!! People in JU are influenced by what others around them do, no matter how stupid. People in one culture/religion strongly believe the same things. These strong beliefs are different in every culture. This is why Twitter is so powerful. My social beliefs as a Twitter user are influenced by those of founders across continents.

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No leader can hope to persuade , regularly and single - handedly , all the members of the group . A forceful leader can reasonably expect , however , to persuade some sizable proportion of group members . Then the raw information that a substantial number of group members has been convinced can , by itself , convince the rest . Thus the most influential leaders are those who know how to arrange group conditions to allow the principle of social proof to work maximally in their favor .

Chapter 5: Liking: The Friendly Thief

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professionals seek to benefit from the rule even when already formed friendships are not present for them to employ . Under these circumstances , the professionals ’ compliance strategy is quite direct : They first get us to like them .

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The importance of informal chit-chat before getting down to 'serious' business.

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Although it is generally acknowledged that good - looking people have an advantage in social interaction , recent findings indicate that we may have sorely underestimated the size and reach of that advantage .

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We like people who are similar to us . This fact seems to hold true whether the similarity is in the area of opinions , personality traits , background , or life - style .

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Note: polymaths are best-positioned to use this without seeming disingenuous.

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even small similarities can be effective in producing a positive response to another and because a veneer of similarity can be so easily manufactured ,

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an important fact about human nature : We are phenomenal suckers for flattery .

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this teaching process guarantees that the children will not learn to like and understand each other . Conjure up your own experience . If you knew the right answer and the teacher called on someone else , you probably hoped that he or she would make a mistake so that you would have a chance to display your knowledge . If you were called on and failed , or if you didn’t even raise your hand to compete , you probably envied and resented your classmates who knew the answer .

Chapter 6: Authority: Directed Deference

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extreme willingness of adults to go to almost any lengths on the command of an authority

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We rarely agonize to such a degree over the pros and cons of authority’s demands . In fact , our obedience frequently takes place in a click , whirr fashion , with little or no conscious deliberation . Information from a recognized authority can provide us a valuable shortcut for deciding how to act in a situation .

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It was found that with each increase in status , the same man grew in perceived height by an average of a half inch , so that as the “ professor ” he was seen as two and a half inches taller than as the “ student . ”

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I wonder if this applies to other aspects of physical attractiveness too. If yes, this can be a good way to excercise the likeability principle too.

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Even though all cards were exactly the same size , those that had the more extreme values — positive or negative — were seen as physically larger . Thus it is not necessarily the pleasantness of a thing that makes it seem bigger to us , it is its importance .

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There are two lessons for us here . One is specific to the association between size and status . The connection of those two things can be profitably employed by individuals who are able to fake the first to gain the appearance of the second . This is precisely why con men , even those of average or slightly above - average height , commonly wear lifts in their shoes .

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Is there a similar connection with women's heels?

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That 95 percent of regular staff nurses complied unhesitatingly with a patently improper instruction of this sort must give us all great reason for concern as potential hospital patients .

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Note for the next time you go to a doc or hospital - you have a very good reason to doubt the doctor's 'prescription'

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A second kind of authority symbol that can trigger our mechanical compliance is clothing .

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Always wear good clothes. It's not a good idea to be conciously careless in your clothing.

Chapter 7: Scarcity: The Rule of the Few

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opportunities seem more valuable to us when their availability is limited

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people seem to be more motivated by the thought of losing something than by the thought of gaining something of equal value .

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So does that mean that punishments are better than rewards?

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As opportunities become less available , we lose freedoms ; and we hate to lose the freedoms we already have .

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whenever free choice is limited or threatened , the need to retain our freedoms makes us desire them ( as well as the goods and services associated with them ) significantly more than previously . So when increasing scarcity — or anything else — interferes with our prior access to some item , we will react against the interference by wanting and trying to possess the item more than before .

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we rarely recognize that psychological reactance has caused us to want the item more ; all we know is that we want it . Still , we need to make sense of our desire for the item , so we begin to assign it positive qualities to justify the desire .

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clever individuals holding a weak or unpopular position can get us to agree with that position by arranging to have their message restricted . The irony is that for such people — members of fringe political groups , for example — the most effective strategy may not be to publicize their unpopular views , but to get those views officially censored and then to publicize the censorship .

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We react to information restriction there , as usual , by valuing the banned information more than ever .

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Combine this with reciprocation rule by offering a concession on the ban

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According to the scarcity principle , then , we will find a piece of information more persuasive if we think we can’t get it elsewhere .

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Same for those exclusive experiences: - Overvaluing university education because it is scarce - overvaluing SF for creating startups

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The drop from abundance to scarcity produced a decidedly more positive reaction to the cookies than did constant scarcity .

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Contrast principle at work here.

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When it comes to freedoms , it is more dangerous to have given for a while than never to have given at all .

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Freedoms once granted will not be relinquished without a fight .

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parents who enforce discipline inconsistently produce generally rebellious children .

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extreme caution is advised whenever we encounter the devilish construction of scarcity plus rivalry .

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Even though the scarce cookies were rated as significantly more desirable , they were not rated as any better - tasting than the abundant cookies . So despite the increased yearning that scarcity caused ( the raters said they wanted to have more of the scarce cookies in the future and would pay a greater price for them ) , it did not make the cookies taste one whit better . Therein lies an important insight . The joy is not in experiencing a scarce commodity but in possessing it .

Epilogue Instant Influence: Primitive Consent for an Automatic Age

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With the sophisticated mental apparatus we have used to build world eminence as a species , we have created an environment so complex , fast - paced , and information - laden that we must increasingly deal with it in the fashion of the animals we long ago transcended .

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Think about minless scrolling on social media feeds.

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unprecedented and increasing rapidity of modern daily life : We travel more and faster ; we relocate more frequently to new residences , which are built and torn down more quickly ; we contact more people and have shorter relationships with them ; in the supermarket , car showroom , and shopping mall , we are faced with an array of choices among styles and products that were unheard of the previous year

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Lockdowns during the pandemic restricted access to all of these! Is this the reason why we were feeling surprisingly better staying at home?

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we will find ourselves in the position of the lower animals — with a mental apparatus that is unequipped to deal thoroughly with the intricacy and richness of the outside environment .

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