Little Bets: How breakthrough ideas emerge from small discoveries

lucky people tended to be curious and open to what can come along from chance interactions.

You can create your own luck. “I discovered that being in the right place at the right time is actually all about being in the right state of mind,” he argued. Lucky people increase their odds of chance encounters or experiences by interacting with a large number of people.

Immerse: Take time to get out into the world to gather fresh ideas and insights, in order to understand deeper human motivations and desires, and absorb how things work from the ground up.

would hear people say was that they would do something new—take an unconventional career path or start a company—but that they needed a great idea first.

do things to discover what they should do.

Even when we are taught problem solving, such as solving math problems, the focus is generally either on using established methods or logical inference or deduction, both highly procedural in the way they require us to think. There is much less emphasis on developing our creative thinking abilities, our abilities to let our minds run imaginatively

As Barnholt recalls, “It was very much a deductive, analytical process to identify a grand set of opportunities.” Possibilities included areas like flat screen displays, uninterruptable power supplies, or smart utility monitoring of homes. “We had all these ideas. And they were all big,” Barnholt recalls, “but they all failed!” Able to grin about i

Reorient: Be flexible in pursuit of larger goals and aspirations,

“But by the time they are six and a half years old they stop asking questions because they quickly learn that teachers value the right answers more than provocative questions.”