How NOT to Quit Early, Lose Big. The not to do list by Rolf Dobelli
BigIdeas.FM: Audiobooks delivered as conversational podcasts!Show Notes
Have you ever: * Got stuck in your career? * Said 'yes, sure' when you should have said 'sorry, no'? * Tried to change someone? * Listened to your inner voice? These are all examples of habits, decisions and behaviours that will derail your efforts to build a life of success - of better decisions, career and relationships; of happier and healthier living.In his new international bestseller, Rolf Dobelli reveals 52 of life's biggest mistakes, and shows why the key to living well is so much simpler than you might think. Just understand what the pitfalls are... then avoid them. Key Summary of The Not To-Do List Rolf Dobelli’s The Not-To-Do List is a witty, inversion-based guide to avoiding life’s pitfalls. Instead of preaching success formulas, Dobelli catalogs 52 behaviors to steer clear of, drawing on Charlie Munger’s idea that knowing where you’ll “die” helps you avoid it. From neglecting maintenance to indulging in hypocrisy, each chapter exposes a path to misery with sharp anecdotes and research, then offers a “quiet voice of reason” for a better way. Below are 12 key ideas, distilled in Dobelli’s irreverent tone, to help you dodge life’s traps and thrive. Don’t Let Things CrumbleNeglecting your house, health, or relationships is a surefire way to ruin everything. Like the man who ignored his leaky roof, you’ll watch life collapse if you skip upkeep. Be the unsung hero: monitor your life like a jet engine engineer, fixing small issues before they’re catastrophic. “Maintenance is by no means a heroic deed. It is boring and unsexy… but more important than any other.” Embrace Your Inner Sloth at Your PerilYour “inner pigdog” loves laziness, whispering to stay in bed. Feed it, and you’re doomed to stagnation. Our ancestors conserved energy for survival, but today’s world rewards disciplined effort. Self-motivation is a muscle—train it through consistent action, not external carrots. Dobelli warns against procrastination movements, urging you to act despite your sloth’s protests. “Self-motivation is like a muscle. If you overexert yourself, the muscle will get tired… But by making demands on that muscle, you are simultaneously training it.” Unreliability: The Fast Track to RuinWant to tank your reputation? Be unreliable. Promise the moon, then vanish. Charlie Munger nailed it: “If you will only master this one habit, you will more than counterbalance… all your virtues.” Reliability, not genius, drives success—look at the Long-Term Capital Management collapse, where high-IQ Nobel laureates flopped. Build trust by keeping your word; it’s worth millions in future opportunities. “It takes ten years to build a reputation, but just ten seconds to ruin it.” Arrogance Is a One-Way Ticket to IsolationAct like an a*****e, and you’ll be friendless. Flaunt your ego, dismiss feedback, and hog glory—misery awaits. Dobelli shares Munger’s funeral anecdote: one mourner said of the deceased, “His brother was worse.” Success hinges on cooperation, not self-worship. The Mayo Clinic rejects “I”-heavy candidates, favoring team players. Stay modest; gratitude wins hearts. “Success is merely the final link in a long chain of coincidences for which we ourselves can take zero credit.” Lower the Bar for HappinessHigh expectations breed disappointment—in marriage, parenting, or daily life. Warren Buffett credits his long marriage to “low expectations.” Your brain’s Bayesian wiring overestimates outcomes for new experiences, so deliberately dial hopes down by three points on a 0-10 scale. Be real from the start in relationships to avoid disillusionment. “If you have your sights set on a life of contentment… Rate your hopes… Then deliberately deduct three points.” Stop Drifting, Start PlanningAimless days kill productivity. Treat to-do lists as fairy godmother wishes, and you’ll achieve nothing. Successful people, like Eisenhower, give themselves orders, scheduling tasks in strict time blocks. J.P. Morgan paid $25,000 for this advice: “Every morning, writ
More from BigIdeas.FM: Audiobooks delivered as conversational podcasts!
The expansion of AI infrastructure has significant environmental costs. Training large models can consume vast amounts of energy; generating text can use as much energy as charging a smartphone nearly four times, and generating one thousand images is equivalent to charging a smartphone 242 times! Big ideas from the book Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmare…
Hola! Welcome to BigIdeas.FM - we bring you conversational podcasts and sexy newsletters curated from world’s best and latest non-fiction books. Today, it’s time to Click, the latest book on startups by designer-authors who have been involved in Google ventures as well as many successful products.
One day in 2004, Gardiner Harris, early for a flight, sat down at an airport bar and started talking to the woman on the barstool beside him. She was a drug sales rep for Johnson & Johnson, and her horrific story about unethical sales practices and the devastating impact they’d had on her family fundamentally changed the nature of how Harris covered the company—and the entire pharmaceutical industry—for The New York Times. His subsequent investigations and ongoing research since that very first conversation led to new federal laws and ultimately to this book, a blistering exposé of a trusted American institution and the largest healthcare conglomerate in the world. Harris takes us light years away from the company’s image as the child-friendly “baby company” as he uncovers reams of evidence showing decades of deceitful and dangerous corporate practices that have threatened the lives of millions. He covers multiple disasters: lies and cover-ups regarding baby powder’s linkage to cancer, the surprising dangers of Tylenol, a criminal campaign to sell antipsychotics in ways that have cost countless lives, a popular drug used to support cancer patients that actually increases the risk that cancer tumors will grow, and deceptive marketing efforts that accelerated opioid addictions through their product Duragesic (fentanyl) that rival even those of the Sacklers and Purdue Pharma.Filled with shocking, infuriating, but utterly necessary revelations, No More Tears is a landmark work of investigative journalism that lays bare the deeply rooted corruption behind the image of babies bathing with a smile.
A pioneering professor of organizational behavior turns the concept of networking on its head, arguing that we must move beyond the standard mentorship model to embrace sponsorship, where we use our social networks and political capital on behalf of others."It's not what you know, but who you know." According to conventional wisdom, our social networks are a resource to exploit, and getting ahead means extracting value from our social connections. But according to Dr. Rosalind Chow, Professor of organizational behavior at Carnegie Mellon's business school, not only is this an antiquated notion, it's also useless in today's society and workplaces. And it certainly doesn't account for the fact that not everyone starts on equal footing in the workplace. Based on decades of original research analyzing social hierarchies, corporate environments, and gender and race relations, Beyond Mentorship makes a bold case for completely changing the way we network. To increase the number of women and BIPOC employees in our organizations, particularly in senior roles, we need sponsorship, not mentorship. Sponsorship involves managing others' impressions or beliefs about a protégé or colleague. Our social networks can and should be used on behalf of others. And it helps us too. What if we tried to position ourselves so that we could be the first to share new information, to elevate others to be more visible to decision makers, and to connect people to the help that they need? Suddenly, networking would become much more than just ladder climbing.At a moment the workplace is going through a seismic transformation, this book is a potent reminder that we can all build more equitable connections effectively, meaningfully, and joyously. And this book will empower readers to be smarter about cultivating authentic, supportive, diverse relationships and communities.
Are you working too much but feel like it's never enough? Have you turned the act of pretending you're "fine" into an art form? Does self-care feel like one more item on your already long to-do list? We've been taught that resilience is the secret to navigating life's most difficult moments. But according to New York Times bestselling author, organizational psychologist, and researcher Dr. Tasha Eurich, there is one problem with this assumption. Scientifically, resilience isn't an unlimited resource, especially with the growing pressure and uncertainty we're experiencing today. What if, instead of merely "bouncing back" from stressors and setbacks, we could harness them for forward growth? Whether you're grappling with work stress, personal challenges, or the chaos of everyday life, Shatterproof offers an urgent alternative to stoic endurance as the only strategy for survival. Combining cutting-edge research, practical tools, and insights from her own struggle with a life-defining health crisis, Dr. Eurich will overturn your beliefs about what it takes to thrive through adversity, offering a scientifically supported system to help you feel better, do better, and live better than before. You'll discover how to: * Reclaim your best self when stress turns you into someone you barely recognize * Uncover the unmet needs that keep you stuck in self-limiting patterns * Turn stress into strength, exhaustion into energy, and confusion into confidence * Find peace in the present and be prepared for what the future holds * And much more When we embark on this journey, we learn that the things that break us can also uniquely remake us. That is what it means to become shatterproof.