136: How To Increase Your Luck Surface Area

This book, written by former FBI hostage negotiator Chris Voss and co-author Tahl Raz, provides a masterclass in influencing others through negotiation. It distills the Voss method, revealing skills such as establishing rapport, creating trust with tactical empathy, and transforming conflict into collaboration. The book is filled with real-life examples from Voss's career, illustrating how these techniques can be applied in both professional and personal life to achieve goals and defuse potential crises.

Douglas Hubbard's "How to Measure Anything" provides a practical framework for quantifying even the seemingly unmeasurable. The book emphasizes the importance of understanding uncertainty and using Bayesian methods to improve decision-making. Hubbard presents a systematic approach to identifying and addressing sources of uncertainty, helping readers make more informed choices. The book is widely used by professionals in various fields, including business, engineering, and science. It offers valuable insights into the challenges of measurement and the importance of using data effectively to improve decision-making.

The Lean Startup introduces a revolutionary approach to building and scaling businesses, emphasizing continuous innovation, customer feedback, and scientific experimentation. Eric Ries defines a startup as an organization dedicated to creating something new under conditions of extreme uncertainty. The book advocates for 'validated learning,' rapid experimentation, and the Build-Measure-Learn feedback loop to shorten product development cycles and measure actual progress. It also stresses the importance of pivoting or persevering based on data and customer needs, making it an essential read for anyone involved in starting or growing a business.

In 'Badass: Making Users Awesome,' Kathy Sierra presents a unique approach to building sustainably successful products and services. The book emphasizes the importance of helping users have deeper, richer experiences, both while using the product and in their broader context. Sierra argues that the key to success lies not in the product itself, but in the users who use it. She uses cognitive science and psychology to explain why focusing on user expertise and context is more effective than relying on marketing budgets or PR stunts. The book is filled with counter-intuitive and simple techniques that can be applied by every role in the development process, from product development to user experience and support.

In 'Drive: The Story of My Life,' Larry Bird shares his personal and professional journey, including his decision to transfer from Indiana University to Indiana State, the heartbreak of his father's suicide and his own failed marriage, and the discipline that turned him into a national superstar. The book covers his time with the Boston Celtics, the Celtic-Laker rivalry, and his interactions with other NBA legends like Magic Johnson, Dominique Wilkins, and Michael Jordan.

In this book, David Epstein examines the success of generalists in various fields, including sports, arts, music, invention, forecasting, and science. He argues that generalists, who often find their path late and juggle multiple interests, are more creative, agile, and able to make connections that specialists cannot. Epstein uses stories and research studies to show that wide sampling and late specialization can be more valuable than early specialization, especially in complex and unpredictable environments. He also discusses the distinction between 'kind' and 'wicked' learning environments and the importance of balancing specialization with range for long-term success.

In *Good Strategy/Bad Strategy*, Richard Rumelt clarifies the distinction between effective and ineffective strategies. He argues that a good strategy is a specific and coherent response to overcoming obstacles, harnessing power where it will have the greatest effect. Rumelt debunks elements of 'bad strategy' such as equating goals, motivational slogans, and financial targets with actual strategy. He introduces the 'kernel' of strategy, which includes a diagnosis of the challenge, a guiding policy, and coherent action. The book uses diverse examples from business, nonprofit, and military contexts to illustrate these concepts and emphasizes the importance of analytical rigor and focused effort in strategy development.

Published in 1937, 'Think and Grow Rich' is a seminal work in the self-help genre. The book is the result of over twenty years of research by Napoleon Hill, who studied the habits and achievements of more than 500 successful individuals, including Andrew Carnegie, Thomas Edison, and Henry Ford. Hill distills their wisdom into thirteen principles that, when practiced with persistence and faith, can transform dreams into reality. These principles include the power of desire, faith, specialized knowledge, organized planning, and the role of the subconscious mind. The book emphasizes the importance of maintaining a positive mental attitude, setting clear and specific goals, and taking consistent action to achieve success. It also explores the concept of the 'Master Mind' alliance and the need to overcome fears and doubts to achieve one's objectives.

In 'The Luck Factor,' Richard Wiseman presents the results of his extensive research on why some people are consistently lucky while others are not. The book is based on interviews and experiments involving over 1,000 people who self-identify as lucky or unlucky. Wiseman identifies four key principles that distinguish lucky people: they are skilled at creating and noticing chance opportunities, make decisions based on intuition, have positive expectations about the future, and adopt a resilient attitude that transforms bad luck into good. The book provides practical tips and scientific evidence to support the idea that luck is not random but can be influenced by one's behavior and mindset.

In 'Decisive', Chip and Dan Heath address the critical topic of decision-making, highlighting the biases and irrationalities that disrupt our choices. The book introduces a four-step process—WRAP (Widen your options, Reality-test your assumptions, Attain distance before deciding, Prepare to be wrong)—designed to counteract these biases. Through engaging stories and practical tools, the Heaths provide strategies to stop agonizing over decisions, make group decisions without destructive politics, and ensure that valuable opportunities are not overlooked.