50 Ideas That Changed My Life - David Perell

7/13/2020 50 Ideas That Changed My Life — David Perell
DAVID PERELL
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50 IDEAS THAT
CHANGED MY
LIFE
https://www.perell.com/blog/50-ideas-that-changed-my-life?ref=alexcarpenter.me 1/21
Here are the 50 ideas that

changed my life.
These are my guiding principles and
the light of my intellectual life. All of
them will help you think better, and
I hope they inspire curiosity.
1. Inversion: Avoiding stupidity is

easier than trying to be brilliant.
Instead of asking, “How can I help
my company?” you should ask,
“What’s hurting my company the
most and how can I avoid it?”
Identify obvious failure points, and
steer clear of them.
2. Doublespeak: People often say

the opposite of what they mean,
especially in political language. It
allows people to lie while looking
like they’re telling the truth. As
George Orwell famously wrote in
1984, “War is peace. Freedom is
slavery. Ignorance is strength."
3. Theory of Constraints: A system

is only as strong as its weakest
point. Focus on the bottleneck.
Counterintuitively, if you break
down the entire system and
optimize each component
individually, you’ll lower the
effectiveness of the system.

Optimize the entire system instead.
4. Preference Falsification: People

lie about their true opinions and
conform to socially acceptable
preferences instead. In private
they’ll say one thing. In public,
they’ll say another.
5. Faustian Bargain: A man once

sold his soul to a demon in
exchange for knowledge. At first, it
seemed like a smart trade. But the
man lost in the long-run. Tragically,
what the man lost was more
valuable than what he earned. In
short, he won the battle but lost the
war.
6. Mimetic Theory of Desire:

Humans are like sheep. We don’t
know what we want, so we imitate
each other. Instead of creating our
own desires, we desire the same
things as other people. The entire
advertising industry is built on this
idea.
7. Mimetic Theory of Conflict:

People who are similar are more
likely to fight than people who are
different. That’s why Civil Wars and
family feuds create the worst
conflicts. The closer two people are
and the more equality between
them, the greater the potential for
conflict.
8. Talent vs. Genius: Society is

good at training talent but terrible
at cultivating genius. Talented
people are good at hitting targets
others can’t hit, but geniuses find
targets others can’t see. They are
opposite modes of excellence.
Talent is predictable, genius is
unpredictable.
9. Competition is for Losers: Avoid

competition. Stop copying what
everybody else is doing. If you work
at a for-profit company, work on
problems that would not otherwise
be solved. If you’re at a non-profit,
fix unpopular problems. Life is easier
when you don’t compete. (Hint:
don’t start another bottled water

company).
10. Secrets are Hidden in Plain

Sight: Most people think of secrets
as Easter eggs. They assume that if
a secret is important, it’s necessarily
going to be hard to find. The best
ideas can come from things that are
so well-known that they aren’t well-
seen.
11. The Never-Ending Now: The

structure of our social media feeds
blinds us to history, as it causes us
to live in an endless cycle of
ephemeral content consumption.
The structure of the Internet pulls
people away from age-old wisdom.
12. Demand Curves Slope Down:

The harder something is to do, the
fewer people will do it. For example,
raise the price of a product and
fewer people will buy it. Lower the
price and more people will buy it.
Economics 101.
13. Look for Things That Don’t

Make Sense: The world always
makes sense. But it can be
confusing. When it is, your model of
the world is wrong. So, things that
don’t make sense are a learning
opportunity. Big opportunities won’t
make sense until it’s too late to
profit from them.
14. The Wisdom of Paradox: Logic

is the key to scientific truths, but
paradoxes are the key to
psychological ones. When it comes
to the human condition, the deepest
truths are often counter-intuitive.
When you find two opposites that
are both true, start exploring.
15. Law of Shitty Click-Through

Rates: Most marketing strategies
have a short window of success, as
click-through rates decrease as
tactics mature. For example, the
first banner-ad has a click-through
rate of more than 70%. Now we
avoid them with ad-blockers.
16. Russell Conjugation: Journalists

often change the meaning of a
sentence by replacing one word
with a synonym that implies a
different meaning. For example, the
same person can support an estate
tax but oppose a death tax — even
though they are the same thing.
17. Opportunity Cost: By reading

this tweet, you are choosing not to
read something else. Everything we
do is like this. Doing one thing
requires giving up another.
Whenever you explicitly choose to
do one thing, you implicitly choose
not to do another thing.
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18. Overton Window: You can

control thought without limiting
speech. You can do it by defining
the limits of acceptable thought
while allowing for lively debate
within these barriers. For example,
Fox News and MSNBC set limits on
what political thoughts they
consider acceptable, but in the
grand scheme of things, they’re
both fairly conventional. The
political spectrum stretches far
beyond the ideas they entertain,
but ideas outside their limits are
shunned.
19. Planck’s Principle: Science

doesn’t progress because people
change their views. Rather, each
new generation of scientists has
different views. As old generations
pass away, new ideas are accepted
and the scientific consensus
changes.
20. Bike-Shed Effect: A group of

people working on a project will
fight over the most trivial ideas.
They’ll ignore what’s complicated.
They’ll focus too much on easy-to-
understand ideas at the expense of

important, but hard to talk about
ideas. For example, instead of
approving plans for a complicated
spaceship, the team would argue
over the color of the astronaut's
uniforms.
21. Table Selection: This idea comes

from poker, where you’re advised to
choose your opponents carefully.
That means you shouldn’t compete
against the best people. You don’t
need to get good at doing difficult
things if you get good at avoiding
difficult things. If you want to win,
pick an easy table and nail your
execution.
22. Goodhart’s Law: When a

measure becomes a target, it ceases
to be a good measure. One hospital
took too long to admit patients so a
penalty was given for 4+ hour wait
times. In response, ambulance
drivers were asked to slow down so
they could shorten wait times.
23. Gall’s Law: A complex system

that works is invariably found to
have evolved from a simple system
that worked. A complex system
designed from scratch never works
and cannot be patched up to make
it work. You have to start over with
a working simple system.
24. Hock Principle: Simple, clear

purpose and principles give rise to
complex and intelligent behavior.
Complex rules and regulations give
rise to simple and stupid behavior.
25. Parkinson’s Law: Work expands

to fill the time available. People
don’t want to look like they’re lazy,
so they find extra tasks to tackle,
even if they’re trivial. If you have six
months to complete a project, it will
take six months to complete. Set
deadlines accordingly.
26. The Second Law of

Thermodynamics: The world tends
towards disorder. That’s why your
room becomes messier and messier
over time. It’s also why an engine
converts only ~35% of its energy
into useful work. Time moves
towards increasing one direction:
increasing entropy.
27. The Paradox of Specificity:

Focus isn’t as constraining as it
seems. In the age of the Internet,
when everybody has Google search
and personalized social media feeds,
differentiation is free marketing. The
more specific your goal, the more
opportunities you’ll create for
yourself. Narrowing your aperture
can expand your horizons.
28. Emergence: When things

interact, they often birth new,
unpredictable forms. Therefore, the

sum total of a system is more than
its component parts. As a system
evolves, its structure can transform
— just like how water becomes cold
water until it turns into ice.
29. Occam's Razor: If there are

multiple explanations for why
something happened and they are
equally persuasive, assume the
simplest one is true. In the search
for truth, remove unnecessary
assumptions. Trust the lowest-
complexity answer.
30. Hickam’s Dictum: The opposite

of Occam’s Razor. In a complex
system, problems usually have more
than one cause. For example, in
medicine, people can have many
diseases at the same time.
31. Hormesis: A low dose of

something can have the opposite
effect of a high dose. A little bit of
stress wakes you up, but a lot of
stress is bad for you. Lifting weights
for 30 minutes per day is good for
you, but lifting weights for 6 hours
per day will destroy your muscles.
Stress yourself, but not too much.
32. Robustness Principle: Be

conservative in what you do, be
liberal in what you accept from
others. It’s a design guideline for
software and a good rule for life:
Hold yourself to a higher standard
than you hold others to.
33. Legibility: We are blind to what

we cannot measure. Not everything
that counts can be measured, and
not everything that can be
measured counts. But people
manage what they can measure, so
society repeats the same mistakes.
34. Horseshoe Theory: Extreme

opposites tend to look the same.
For example, a far-right movement
and a far-left movement can be
equally violent or desire a similar
outcome. People on both sides are
more similar to each other than they
are to people in the center.
35. Availability Cascade: A self-

reinforcing cycle that creates
collective beliefs. An idea will gain
traction once it enters the
mainstream, which triggers a chain
reaction, which causes lots of
people to adopt it not because it’s
true but because it’s popular.
36. Creativity Begins at the Edge:

Change starts away from the
spotlight. Then, it moves towards
the center. That’s why the most
interesting ideas at a conference
never come from the main stage.
They come from the hallways and
the bar after sunset
37. The Copernican Principle: The

more we learn about astronomy, the
less it seems that earth is special.
It's a small part of the universe, and
each human is a small part of the
business where margins are low and

competition is high.
43. Circle of Competence: Define

the limits of your knowledge. Hint:
the limits are smaller than you think.
That’s because being an expert in
one area doesn’t make you an
expert in anything else. Be clear
about what you know and don’t
know.
44. Convexity: If you want to be

lucky, look for opportunities with big
upsides and low downsides. In
addition to increased optionality,
your errors will benefit you more
than they harm you. Convex payoffs
let you tinker your way to success
and innovation.
45. The Go-For-It Window: Large

gaps between accelerating
technologies and stagnating social
norms create lucrative new business
opportunities. But they are only
available for a short time when
people can capitalize on the
difference between the real and
perceived state of the world. For
example, 2007 was the perfect time
to launch the iPhone, but Google
Glasses launched too early.
46. Via Negativa: When we have a

problem, our natural instinct is to
add a new habit or purchase a fix.
But sometimes, you can improve
your life by taking things away. For
example, the foods you avoid are
more important than the foods you
eat.
47. The Medium Is the Message:

We pay too much attention to what
is being said. But the medium of
communication is more impactful.
For example, the Internet’s impact
on humanity has a bigger influence
than anything that’s said on the
Internet.
48. Resource Curse: Countries with

an abundance of natural resources
such as diamonds and fossil fuels
tend to have less economic growth
and worse development than
countries with fewer natural
resources.
49. The Paradox of Abundance:

The average quality of information is
getting worse and worse. But the
best stuff is getting better and
better. Markets of abundance are
simultaneously bad for the median
consumer but good for conscious
consumers.
50. The Map Is Not the Territory:

Reality will never match the
elegance of theory. All models have
inconsistencies, but some are still
useful. Some maps are useful
because they’re inaccurate. If you
want to find an edge, look for what
the map leaves out.
51. Baker’s Dozen: The key to good

hospitality is to delight your guests
with an unexpected gift. If you run a
hotel, leave a chocolate on the bed.

If you run a bakery, give your
customers one extra bagel. If you
write a tweetstorm, share an extra
idea.
Each week, I write two popular

emails. Monday Musings is a
collection of the coolest things I
learn every week. Meanwhile, Friday
Finds is a links-only newsletter
where I only share the kinds of ideas
you won’t find anywhere else.
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DAVID PERELL
THE FIVE FINGER TRIGGER

TEACHING LIKE A STATE
earth. We are all spinning through

the solar system — nowhere near
the beginning or end of time.
38. Personal Monopoly:

Corporations reward conformity, but
the Internet rewards people who are
unique. If you work in a creative
field, strive to be the only person
who does what you do. Find your
own style, then run with it. Create
intellectual real estate for yourself.
David Perell
@david_perell
The Internet rewards unique peop
Find your unique combination of s

and personality traits.
I call this a Personal Monopoly.
Become the only person in the wo

what you do.
Then, tell the world by sharing you
2:17 40.5K views
1:41 PM · May 10, 2020
943 160 people are Tweeting a
39. The Paradox of Consensus:

Under ancient Jewish law, if a
suspect was found guilty by every
judge, they were deemed innocent.
Too much agreement implied a
systemic error in the judicial
process. Unanimous agreement
sometimes leads to bad decisions.
40. Penny Problem Gap:

Economists assume demand is
linear, but people’s behavior totally
changes once an action costs
money. If the inventors of the
Internet had known about it, spam
wouldn’t be such a problem. If
sending an email cost you $0.001,
there’d be way less spam.
41. The Invisible Hand: Markets

aggregate knowledge. Rising prices
signal falling supply or increased
demand, which incentivizes an
increase in production. The opposite
is true for falling prices. Prices are a
signal wrapped in an incentive.
42. Base Rate: The average

outcome for an event over time.
They're like batting averages for life,
and they work best with big sample
sizes. For example, if you’re starting
a business, avoid the restaurant
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7/13/2020 50 Ideas That Changed My Life — David Perell

START HERE ESSAYS COURSE DAVID

Here are the 50 ideas that

1. Inversion: Avoiding stupidity is

2. Doublespeak: People often say

3. Theory of Constraints: A system

effectiveness of the system.

4. Preference Falsification: People

5. Faustian Bargain: A man once

6. Mimetic Theory of Desire:

7. Mimetic Theory of Conflict:

8. Talent vs. Genius: Society is

9. Competition is for Losers: Avoid

don’t start another bottled water

10. Secrets are Hidden in Plain

11. The Never-Ending Now: The

12. Demand Curves Slope Down:

13. Look for Things That Don’t

14. The Wisdom of Paradox: Logic

15. Law of Shitty Click-Through

16. Russell Conjugation: Journalists

17. Opportunity Cost: By reading

In it, you'll find books, articles,

After you enter your email, I'll

Your email address

18. Overton Window: You can

19. Planck’s Principle: Science

20. Bike-Shed Effect: A group of

understand ideas at the expense of

21. Table Selection: This idea comes

22. Goodhart’s Law: When a

23. Gall’s Law: A complex system

24. Hock Principle: Simple, clear

25. Parkinson’s Law: Work expands

26. The Second Law of

27. The Paradox of Specificity:

28. Emergence: When things

unpredictable forms. Therefore, the

29. Occam's Razor: If there are

30. Hickam’s Dictum: The opposite

31. Hormesis: A low dose of

32. Robustness Principle: Be

33. Legibility: We are blind to what

34. Horseshoe Theory: Extreme

35. Availability Cascade: A self-

36. Creativity Begins at the Edge:

37. The Copernican Principle: The

business where margins are low and

43. Circle of Competence: Define

44. Convexity: If you want to be

45. The Go-For-It Window: Large

46. Via Negativa: When we have a

47. The Medium Is the Message:

48. Resource Curse: Countries with

49. The Paradox of Abundance:

50. The Map Is Not the Territory:

51. Baker’s Dozen: The key to good

hotel, leave a chocolate on the bed.

Each week, I write two popular

Join 25,000+ subscribers and enter

Your email address

THE FIVE FINGER TRIGGER

earth. We are all spinning through