Recently, I read / listened to via audiobooks How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer and Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. Both of which were really great books, and I’d highly recommend both. Instead of posting plain book reviews of these two books, I’d like to highlight what I’ve learned.

1. From How We Decide, I learned that people can only be expected to take into consideration seven facts. Therefore, when managers ask for analyses that include everything but the kitchen sink, most of that information just becomes noise. In fact, such noise may distract the decision makers from the facts that are truly impactful, and they may end up making the wrong decision as a result. This is also the root cause of what sometimes people referred to as “analysis paralysis.”

2. From How We Decide, I learned that we should listen to our gut. Sometimes, we unconsciously pick up clues about a particular situation that allow our subconscious mind to lean toward a particular opinion. The example in the book was that a trained operative was able to pick up a delay in a particular radar signal that he could not consciously realize. But he followed his gut instinct and made the right decision. However, the important key to this was that your instinct has to be honed. In Outlier, it was established that it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert in a subject matter. Therefore, if you work 10 hours, 5 days a week, and 50 weeks a year (assuming 2 weeks of paid vacation), it’d take four years before you’re an expert in that particular subject. But, if you have that experience, go ahead and trust your instincts. They may be more finely tuned that you realize!

3. From Outlier, I learned that to be exceptionally successful, you have to be at the right place at the right time. For example, to be a Bill Gates, you have to be born at precisely the right time, so you get to be at the forefront of technology. If you were born too early, the technology wouldn’t be available. If you were born too late, someone would have been ahead of you. However, I also learned that “big breaks” are really just the opportunity to work really hard. All those who had become exceptionally successful had put in a lot of hours to hone their craft! I don’t know if I have been born at the right time, but I am going to work really hard. Even if I am not going to be wildly successful, honing my craft will help hone my instincts!

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