Summary

Christensen applies theory from business to life: define strategy, balance deliberate strategy with emergent strategy, and inspect resource allocation because actions reveal priorities. Career happiness comes from motivation factors rather than hygiene alone, while durable relationships require investment before their returns are visible.

Family and character compound through JTBD, resources, processes, and priorities, formative experiences, and intentionally built culture. Avoid “just this one time” through full cost thinking, define a purpose with likeness, commitment, and measurements, and measure life by the people you help become better.

“The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it”
- Steve Jobs

“A way of working together toward common goals that have been followed so frequently and successfully that people don’t even think about trying to do them another way”

“Constrained by the capacity of our minds, we cannot always see the bigger picture”

Key Takeaways

Notes

1. The value of theory / tools

• Theories / tools to make good choices appropriate with the circumstances of your life
• How to think > what to think
  • Eg. Andy Grove / Intel + The Innovator’s Dilemma
• Theory can explain before data / experience

1: Happiness in Career

• “The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it” - Steve Jobs
• Strategy: what you want to achieve and how you’ll get there
  • Priorities
  • Balancing plans with opportunities
  • Allocating your resources

2. Motivation > hygiene

• Stuck in career / life = fundamental misunderstanding of what makes us tick
• Two broad camps of incentives vs motivation
• Agency / incentive theory:
• Two-factor / motivation theory: because they want to do it > compensation
• 2 types of job satisfaction factors:
  • Hygiene factors: status, compensation, job security, company policy, supervisory practices etc.
    • Won’t make you love it, just not hate it
  • Motivation factors: challenging work, recognition, responsibility, personal growth
• Choose work based on motivation, not hygiene (comp, status)
• Management is the most rewarding: 8-10h/d to frame their work

3. Balancing Calculation & Serendipity

• Two sources of opportunity:
  1. Anticipated opportunity via deliberate strategy
  2. Unanticipated opportunities via emergent strategy
• Get out there and try stuff
• Compile a list of all assumptions when projecting / predicting
  • What needs to be true?

4. Your Strategy Is Not What You Say It Is

• Strategy / values vs actions / revealed preferences
• The Innovator’s Dilemma: short be long-term priorities
• Personal resource allocation
• Eg. raising good children benefits aren’t seen for a long time, vs promotion is

2: Happiness in Relationships

• Clear feedback at work leads to over-investment relative to relationships
• Key: set boundaries and convince yourself of long-term benefits of balance

5. Invest early

• Theory of good money bad money: you will make mostly wrong bets, so don’t risk it all / go broke
• Growth > profits is “bad money”
• Invest in relationships before you need them
• Eg. many professionals have many shallow but few real relationships - becomes a problem later
• Investments in different parts of life can’t be sequenced
• Language dancing: using rich complex language with children increases cognitive capacity
  • Questions to invite child to think deeply
  • Applies most to ≤3 years old

6. JTBD

• People purchase based on JTBD
• Eg. why do people get a milkshake? Long boring commute
• Eg. school JTBD = feel successful + have friends
• What are you being hired to do?
• What problem does your spouse actually want solved?
  • Eg. doing chores vs someone to talk with
• ↑ “the single hardest thing to get right in a marriage”
• “Find someone who you think is worth making happy”
• Sacrifice deepens our commitment

7. Processes & priorities

• 3 components of a business:
  1. Resources: what
  2. Processes: how
  3. Priorities: why
• Over time, priorities most important and leadership must make it clear to align team
• When to outsource:
  1. Assume suppliers are dynamic and will change
  2. Figure out what capabilities you’ll need in the future (not just now)
• Children are lacking processes and priorities - agency
• ↑ also helps show the value of learning
• What were the most foundational moments in your childhood in terms of values + priorities?
• Don’t outsource this

8. Experiences as teacher

• Experiences → processes > resources + knowledge
• “What are the skills / experiences I need for X?”
• Encourage challenge, adversity, resilience, responsibility, etc.

9. Culture

• Culture: “a way of working together toward common goals that have been followed so frequently and successfully that people don’t even think about trying to do them another way”
  • “People will autonomously do what they need to do to be successful”
• Culture: “the unique combination of processes and priorities within an organization”
• ↑ can be self-running as long as environment + tech minimally changes
• Eg. Pixar, Netflix
• Actively choose what matters to you and how you do it
• Must be consistent, else culture of laziness and defiance can creep up

3: Staying Out of Jail

10. Just This Once…

• Think best move if starting anew > what’s best marginal move
  • Eg. Netflix > Blockbuster, The Innovator’s Dilemma
• Marginal cost thinking:
• Full cost thinking:
• For startups, marginal = full cost
• “Just this one time” low marginal cost, high full cost
• Basically moral backsliding
• Hard to see the cost of not investing
  • Short vs long term
• Don’t take moral concessions

Epilogue

• Importance of deliberate company + life purpose
• 3 parts of a purpose:
  1. Likeness: what to have built / become at the end of the process
  2. Commitment: deep conversion
  3. Measurements: measure progress + calibrate work
• Likeness = values + goals
• Must answer “who do I truly want to become?“
  • Then you must devote your life to becoming that person
  • ↑ “The most valuable useful piece of knowledge I’ve ever gained“
• “Constrained by the capacity of our minds, we cannot always see the bigger picture”
  • Need to aggregate to see the big picture
• Metric: “The individuals who I have helped one by one to become better people”
  • Self esteem, faith, assuaged discomfort
• Focus on resolving others problems + challenges rather than your own