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A book about liberty, competition, and the common good. This review is slightly different to others, in the sense that it’s over a month since I read the book, and I no longer have it with me. It’s a good test of how much really sticks. For this read, only one key idea stuck – probably the idea the author wanted to make sticky! The idea is: In markets where there is intense competition on a specific parameter, the market does not optimise effectively for the group OR for the individual....

As soon as you notice that you’ve dropped the ball, do this: Stop Look around for the ball Find the ball Pick up the ball Keep going with the ball It’s that easy. Pony up!

There seem to be two distinct categories of response when it comes to receiving critical feedback. Lean in or lean away Dig deeper or cover it up Embrace or deflect Sit with the discomfort or make the hurt go away Open or closed Detached or attached The first approach gets to the root. It’s part of the hunt for better. Leaning in, digging deeper, embracing the opportunity, sitting with discomfort, opening oneself as a target....

If you write code, it’s really clear that your code does not represent you. The product you made, the work you did – it’s not you. Code has bugs, code has inefficiencies, and code can almost always be better than it is right now. As a developer, you have an intuitive understanding that an evaluation of your work is not an evaluation of you as a person. There’s clear evidence that a body of work lives outside of you....

Something weird happens when you start drawing time-series graphs a lot. You start to assume that all continuous experiences have a predictive value. If the business has grown at a yearly 12% rate for the last 5 years, it’s probably going to do the same this year. If my last 3 relationships ended with a fight, the next one will too. The stock markets average a 6% increase in value every year, so next year is probably quite safe....