Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World

The goal is to create an idea meritocracy, where the best ideas win. To get the best ideas on the table in the first place, you need radical transparency.

Once you take on a managerial role, it’s hard to avoid letting an evaluative mindset creep in to cause false negatives.

Instead of visualizing success, Pugh began to imagine failure.

the rest of this book is about closing the gap between insight and action.

The evidence suggests that social bonds don’t drive groupthink; the culprits are overconfidence and reputational concerns.

Hofmann found that a culture that focuses too heavily on solutions becomes a culture of advocacy, dampening inquiry. If you’re always expected to have an answer ready, you’ll arrive at meetings

In light of this evidence, Bryan suggests that we should embrace nouns more thoughtfully. “Don’t Drink and Drive” could be rephrased as: “Don’t Be a Drunk Driver.” The same thinking can be applied to originality. When a child draws a picture,

Third, along with being less recklessly ambitious, settlers can improve upon competitors’ technology to make products better. When you’re the first to market, you have to make all the mistakes yourself. Meanwhile, settlers can watch and learn from your errors.

When I polled executives and students about the strongest culture they had ever encountered in an organization,