Technological change is accelerating exponentially, allowing people to achieve success faster. Innovators find unconventional solutions by breaking conventions, using lateral thinking, and developing "smartcuts" - sustainable successes that create value. People can reach high levels of success more quickly by "hacking the ladder" through pivoting careers, training with masters, gaining rapid feedback, leveraging platforms, recognizing patterns ("waves"), maintaining momentum, simplifying, and thinking extremely big ("10x thinking").

2. As retold by…
Katie Sears

3. Technological change is
exponential
Meaning people are getting
richer and achieving their
dreams faster

4. And there’s a
pattern:
Innovators break
convention to find
better routes, like
computer hackers

5. They also use
LATERAL THINKING
Where problems are attacked sideways and basic assumptions are questioned

6. The difference between a
SHORTCUT
and a SMARTCUT
is that shortcuts get you
rapid, short-term gains while
smartcuts are sustainable
successes that create value.
They are ‘shortcuts
with integrity’

7. HACKING
THE
LADDER

8. ‘The average president spent just seven
years as an elected official before
reaching the White House. Five were
never elected to any office before
becoming president.’
They did this by
hacking the ladder.
They ‘parlayed’ or
moved forward
after each small
win, to reach a
different ladder.

9. Ladder switching, or pivoting, makes
‘overnight success’ possible
(See: Zoe Saldana, Nintendo, James Patterson, and the iPhone)
Companies that pivot perform
much better than others who stay
on the same course.
Note: paying your dues does not matter!

10. TRAINING
WITH
MASTERS

11. How did J-Biebs get so famous so
fast??
Two music industry mentors pulled
him to the top of the ladder

12. Train with successful people to
achieve success faster.
For example…
But not just any mentor…
the student and the master have to come together
on their own and form personal relationships.

13. NOT TO WORRY!
Don’t live near your mentor?
Mentor died a long time ago?
Becoming a ‘first class noticer’ can help you
model your mentor and pick up the same
skills from afar

14. RAPID
FEEDBACK

15. Failing in business doesn’t make us
better or smarter…
BUT, succeeding makes
us more likely to continue to succeed
‘Failure makes you wiser’
isn’t actually true

16. Interestingly…
surgeons who saw
their colleagues fail
did better in the
future, while those
who saw a colleague
perform
successfully saw no
effect on their future
success.
This is because when we fail, we blame it on
external conditions and when we succeed we
says its because internally we are

17. Bad Feedback?
- high-pressure
- Focuses attention on ourselves
- A barrage of feedback
Failure=Feedback
Good feedback?
- Depersonalized
- Turns experiences into experiments
(low pressure, low stakes)
- Focuses on task, not person
- Early and often!

18. PLATFORMS

19. Hackers, like David Heinemeier Hansson, find and
build layers of abstraction in business and life that
allow them to multiply their effort.
With platforms you
can search for the
least wasteful way to
learn something. DHH
calls this ‘selective
slacking’
(Aka PLATFORMS)
A+

20. IN AN AGE OF PLATFORMS, CREATIVE
PROBLEM SOLVING IS MORE IMPORTANT
THAN COMPUTATIONAL SKILL. WE SHOULD
RETHINK OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM BASED
ON THE PLETHORA OF NEW PLATFORMS.

21. WAVES

22. There are 2 ways to catch a wave:
1. Exhausting hard work
OR
2. Pattern recognition (placing yourself at the right place at the
right time, seeking opportunity instead of waiting for it)

23. Deliberate pattern spotting can compensate
for experience. A wave like…
can take an amateur farther faster than an
expert can swim.
Online music communities
EDM Electronic mail

24. THE 20% DOCTRINE
Companies should
always have a toe
in the water,
constantly
tinkering with
potential trends.
Budget time
for swimming!

25. First Movers
- 47% fail
- Don’t have the advantage
- Miss the best technological and market opportunities
- Acquire the ‘wrong’ resources
It is better to
be a fast
follower or an
early leader

26. SUPERCONNECTORS

27. “The act of making mass
connections by tapping into
hubs with many spokes”
These superconnectors actively use their networks to help individuals reach
many people at once

28. Aaron Patzer of Mint says ‘when we give and teach,
we build up fan bases that become more likely to
support us.
Superconnectors are GIVERS: it is the
smartcut for creating serendipity
=

29. MOMENTUM

30. If you keep moving,
you’ll be happy!!
Why are billionaires so depressed?
Lack of progress!

31. Investors are so sure that momentum is a
powerful predictor of success, they will
place huge bets on companies that are
rapidly growing, even if the company is
losing money

32. SIMPLICTY

33. Creativity comes easier without
constraints
For example:
Tell me something funny (overwhelming)
OR
Tell me a knock-knock joke
Knock-knock.
Who’s there?
Ach.
Achoo?
Bless you!

34. This is why important people
like (Obama and Steve Jobs)
wear the same colored suits or turtlenecks.
They minimize distractions and
maximize good decision

35. 10X
THINKING(The art of the extremely big swing)

36. “In order to get really big improvements, you
usually have to start over in one or more ways.
You have to break basic assumptions.”
-Astro Teller
This includes…
creating the first privately-made spaceship
building self-driving cars
creating infant incubators for $20
making augmented reality glasses
To do these things, one must think radically
different, use creativity, and come up with
smartcuts

37. 10X better is easier than 10% better
10% 10%
Better at sales and mktg,
have to convince people to
change their behavior for a
marginal increase in value
Produce huge amounts of new value,
the money will find you.

38. Le
End