• Smartcuts

  • How Hackers, Innovators, and Icons Accelerate Success
  • By: Shane Snow
  • Narrated by: Shane Snow, Erik Bergmann
  • Length: 5 hrs and 55 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (1,223 ratings)

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Smartcuts  By  cover art

Smartcuts

By: Shane Snow
Narrated by: Shane Snow, Erik Bergmann
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Publisher's summary

Entrepreneur and journalist Shane Snow (Wired, Fast Company, The New Yorker, and cofounder of Contently) analyzes the lives of people and companies that do incredible things in an implausibly short time.

How do some startups go from zero to billions in mere months? How did Alexander the Great, YouTube tycoon Michelle Phan, and Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon climb to the top in less time than it takes most of us to get a promotion? What do high-growth businesses, world-class heart surgeons, and underdog marketers do in common to beat the norm?

One way or another, they do it like computer hackers. They employ what psychologists call "lateral thinking": rethinking convention and breaking "rules" that aren't rules.

These are not shortcuts, which produce often dubious short-term gains, but ethical "smartcuts" that eliminate unnecessary effort and yield sustainable momentum. In Smartcuts, Snow shatters common wisdom about success, revealing how conventions like "paying dues" prevent progress, why kids shouldn't learn times tables, and how, paradoxically, it's easier to build a huge business than a small one.

From SpaceX to The Cuban Revolution, from Ferrari to Skrillex, Smartcuts is a narrative adventure that busts old myths about success and shows how innovators and icons do the incredible by working smarter - and how perhaps the rest of us can, too.

©2014 Shane Snow (P)2014 HarperCollins Publishers

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Delivers & Excellent

I'm probably not a very good book critic. I like learning so much I have a tough time criticizing any book I learn from. This is a great book. Inspiring and encouraging illustrations. I would highly recommend for anyone interested in doing more with less.

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A must read, or listen

A must read, or listen if you want to accelerate your success, bet a social cause, educational endeavor or a financial goals.

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Great book

I don't normally listen to books twice but I have every intention of listening to this one twice. One of the best books I've listened to so far.

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Loved it!!

Super great book with super great ideas. You won't regret listening to this one. So put it in your cart today.

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must read for the guy swinging for the fences

I'm a crazy CEO of a small company (25 ppl) and we are going for 10X. this book helped me balance the fear and drive for momentum I deal with daily.

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Quite original

Loved the change of perspective that the book suggests. Although the theme of approaching problems from a different angle is not new, I found the way in which the book proposes it quite original. Also bringing illustrative and real-life stories of people who did it.
The final note was mindblowing for me, where the author encourages us to apply 10x thinking to solve macro problems of the society: poverty, hunger, social injustice, etc.
Really worth to read/listen!

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Great stories, ideas--could change your life.

Great book on how to radically accelerate your life and your influence. It shows how things like mentoring and leveraging platforms and the ability to see "waves" coming can make the difference from incremental change to big leaps forward. He challenges us to reject the idea of slowly working our way up the ladder, spending years of paying dues before you can finally do something big or meaningful. He says that if you are willing to rethink some assumptions you can leap forward and instead of taking shortcuts for 10% improvements you can take what he calls smartcuts and get 10X improvement.

With gripping stories as examples and solid social science to back it up, this is one of the better books I've read. Highly recommend it.

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Ok but not memorable

The information included was pretty similar to other personal development books—network, get a “mentor” (dead or alive)...But there was an additional idea that sometimes big goals are “easier” to find success in than goals that vary more slightly from what others are doing.

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Brilliant book

A very relevant book in this fast paced world of start ups, has great pointers

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An absolute must read to be smarter

This book inspires your soul and stretches your imagination. You need to take time and read it twice to gain the most nuggets.

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