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  • 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 (46 ratings)

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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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  • Sam
  • 20-11-2016

Good starting point, no actionable takeaways

Great for someone looking to get inspired, but may be disappointing for anyone looking to find meaningful takeaways in this book. The book does not touch on how you find smartcuts, but rather is a series of stories about people who did. After listening to the book I understand what a smartcut is, but there's nothing I would change in my daily approach to my work based on the read. There's no actionable takeaways or clear guidance on what to do once you know what they are besides "look for them."

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Good listen but lacks real bang

I enjoyed the message but felt it lacked giving any real method. More a motivation story.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Loved this book!!

Love this book. Easy to listen to, great stories, modern examples. I didn't want it to end.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

great insight into the minds of the famous

great content and shared hacks from the famous. easy listening and good stories i recommend listening to this one. Who new Skrillex was so entrepreneurial

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  • Joh
  • 11-04-2016

essential distuption technique pointers.

if you understand what that means, buy this book. It describes lucidly how to hack meaningfil outcomes.

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