The Voltage Effect: How to Make Good Ideas Great and Great Ideas Scale

The Voltage Effect: How to Make Good Ideas Great and Great Ideas Scale by John A. List

Why do some ideas that seem good fail spectacularly at scale? What is the key to knowing what will succeed as it grows. It is important to understand why things succeed. Sometimes a key part of success is not scalable. A pilot school that succeeds by only hiring the top 1% of teachers could not scale, because it is limited to 1% of teaching population. A program that worked well with average teachers would be a much better candidate. 

You must also understand what audience you are reaching. A product may appear to be successful and ready for a large roll out. However, in analyzing, you many discover that everyone has been a Latvian-American fan of 1970s progressive metal music. This narrow demographic may be maxed out. If a product or service cannot be expanded to other demographics, it may be best not to scale out.

The book explores many other reasons why scaling has succeeded or failed. Examples are abundant (though they felt more common on the failure side.) He had consulted with the government, ridesharing companies and local schools, and provided plenty of examples from these areas.

The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage

Cliff Stoll was an Astronomy grad student working on managing the lab's computers. One of his tasks was to manage the billing. Little did he know that this would lead to him tracking down international espionage.

He saw a difference of less than a dollar in the billing. Tracing this, he uncovered logins from a former administrator. He decided to try a few means to track the hacker. He discovered they were coming in from an off site modem. He was able to put in an intercept to catch the traffic before it made it to the computer. This allowed him to print out all the activity without the hacker realizing he was being trapped. By doing so, he was able to continue to track the activity for many months.

The hacker was using the server as a jumping off point to look at many scientific and military computers. Stoll involved the phone companies and network providers to try to trace the origin of the hacker. There were some bits (like different unix commands used and network latency) that indicated they were coming from far away. To help keep the hacker on line for a long time, they planted a honeypot of fake important documents to entice the hacker. The tracing involved multiple government entities and countries along with plenty of bureaucratic challenges. Eventually, the hacker was found (in Germany) and Stoll could marry his girlfriend and live happily in Berkeley. 

Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World

Cal Newport advocates an "Amish" approach to modern technology. On the surface, the Amish appear to reject much of modern technology. However, it is actually a very thoughtful decision process. Any new technology is evaluated for the benefit that it can provide for the community. Cars were seen to have a negative impact, so they were not adopted. Electricity is fine, but connecting to the grid is not due to the external dependency. 

In our lives, social media and modern internet technology can have benefits, but it can also have a very negative impact in our lives. Conflicting studies of social media bear that out. There are bits of social interaction that help. However, the entire ecosystem is designed to suck us in and be obsessed with the "likes" of others. We can spend so much time with these "digital friends" that we don't have time to spend with our real world friends.

News sites, games and other internet activities can also be negative. We may intend to just spend a few minutes, but we end up following links down rabbit holes. Or we may play just "one more round" of a game. The phone is easily accessible and ready to suck more of our time. It has lead to reduction in the "complex" social interaction that help us thrive as people.

Newport recommends we quit all "optional" online internet usage for one month. Anything that is not absolutely required should be stopped. Work email should probably still be checked. Facebook, probably not. After the month, any valuable activities can be added back in with a strict look at the goal and benefit provided. Other alternatives can be explored. Maybe it is better to read a physical newspaper. Perhaps calling a friend would be better than following facebook. Or maybe a short time window is allocated for social media. The solution is different for each person. Some people may even go to extreme of using a dumb phone. The goal is to get the benefits from new media without suffering the extreme costs.  

Trick

An older illustrator is called by his daughter to babysit his grandson while she and her husband are away at an academic conference. He runs into challenges watching this 4 year old boy. The boy demands his attention and makes it difficult for him to work. The difficulty culminates when the boy locks him outside on the balcony in the rain. They struggle to find ways to help the boy to call for assistance before finally getting back inside. Eventually, the boy is able to open the door and they return together in the house. 

In the process of these adventures, the older man learns a lot about himself. He had left Naples to seek seek his career as an illustrator in the big city. He thought he had a special gift. However, he sees similar ability in this young child. The child also questions his art. He doesn't see anything special in drawings he does for books. The man learns that maybe he is not so important after all.

There is also the side story of the boy's parents. They are having their marital struggles. They discover a little more about themselves in the process. The boy has characteristics of both of his parents. He inadvertently helps all the adults around him to learn more about themselves. 

Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World

From a very young age, Tiger Woods was trained in golf. Meanwhile, Roger Federer was exploring many different sports before focussing on Tennis. Both are among the greatest to play their sport. Which approach is best? In Range, Epstein argues that the general approach is preferable. Intense specialization can lead to success. However, it can also lead to burn out. More importantly, those that over-specialize are more likely to robotically follow the rules than to bring new innovations to their field. Savants are often great at "following algorithms" for their preferred endeavors. However, most innovations and scientific discoveries come from those that have interests in other fields.

The book is filled with examples in which narrow specialists miss out on a key insights that outsiders were able to bring to the table. Specialists have their place. They often work within established norms and processes to carry out small scale improvements. However, we need the generalists to apply knowledge from elsewhere to make the big improvements in society. Our current state of uber-specialization is concerning, but it also creates opportunities for generalists to achieve.

Another related topic brought up in the book is "late bloomers". We often hear about the child prodigies. However, there are also people that pivot later in life to a new field or activity. There are many examples of success, especially with people that have been able to apply learnings from other fields. People don't necessarily need to know everything. However, a breadth of experience can be helpful in putting things together in different ways for the benefit of society. 

The Bone Witch: The Bone Witch, Book 1

A bone witch is a special kind of witch in this magic system. The world is a fairly traditional society. Men do their thing. Women do their thing. Some men's roles can be adopted by women. However, dancing is a special women's thing that men just don't do. Only, there is a boy that wants to do it. There is also a girl that is training to be a warrior. However, she also does tedious things and is stuck in a not optimal role. For a lot of the novel, they are in their training. Then a giant monster appears in the middle of a performance and one of the leads helps save people. Eventually, she passes a "test". She wants to learn the art of raising people from the dead "for real", but still struggles with that. 

The book is pretty rooted in the fantasy realm. I get confused with some of the magic and politics, yet I don't find it as bad as big epic fantasy works.