So good they can't ignore you

Similarly to Cal Newports book Deep Work this book does provide some value but could have been trimmed down by a lot. I found the amount of repetition and bloat to be annoying and had to skip paragraphs at times.

Still, there was some value for me in this book:

• The idea of becoming the Purple Cow
• The Research Bible Routine
• His mission-development system

Become the Purple Cow #

Strive for uniqueness and innovation. You should be remarkable and stand out from the competition, attract attention and create a memorable impression on the audience. This concept emphasizes the importance of creativity, differentiation, and being bold in order to thrive in a crowded marketplace.

The Research Bible Routine #

Start a document titled Research Bible (or whatever) and summarize an article, blog post, framework, idea, paper or anything else that interests you in your profession. The summary must include a description, how it compares to other work, and the main strategies. Those summaries should be a holistic overview and not a in-depth exploration. Only that way you are able to them do once a week.

Cal Newports mission-development system #

A three level pyramid.

Top Level: The Tentative Research Mission #

A rough guideline for the type of work I'm interested in doing. In order to identify this mission description you need career capital in your field.

Bottom Level: Background Research #

Every week you expose yourself to something new in your field (re: Research Bible). According to Steven Johnson (author of Where good ideas come from), access to new ideas and to the liquid networks that facilitate their mixing and matching often provides the catalyst for new breakthrough ideas.

Middle Level: Exploratory projects #

This is responsible for most of the work. Create small projects (little bets) that can be completed in less than a month. These force you to create new value and produce a concrete result that you can use to gather feedback. Keep deadlines and track your hours spent to hold yourself accountable. Use the concrete feedback to drive your research forward.