Charles Duhigg’s first book The Power of Habit spent over a year on the New York Times bestseller list. In addition to being popular, it was darn good.
So when I heard he was coming out with a second book, Smarter Faster Better, I invited him for an interview. After several back and forth emails with his friendly team of publicists, he accepted. (Although I’ve interviewed other luminaries like David Allen, this was my first experience with a publicist–other than the one I hired to help with Practice Greatness.)
The new book’s subtitle is The Secrets of Being Productive in Life and Business. I forgot to ask him which part of business is outside of life. Or if he thought he’d sell more copies calling it Dumber Slower and Worse–which has a nice ring to it, don’t you think? Otherwise, it was a good interview.
My goal is always to make my guests laugh, praise my genius, or comment on my humility. I’m not sure any of those things happened this time, but I sensed Charles smiling on a couple of occasions. Small wins, people. Small wins.
Enjoy!
Highlights
- 3:30 Who ate the chocolate chip cookie?
- 6:00 Charles’s experiments in meeting new people at conferences
- 11:00 Why psychological safety matters in produces great teams
- 16:00 Saturday Night Live’s early seasons—how even misanthropes can work well together
- 19:00 Making better decisions by thinking probabilistically
- 26:30 Subversives in nursing homes—transforming chores into choices
- 28:00 Marine Corps Boot Camp—improving self-motivation by asking why you are doing something
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You’ll be amazed by how much self-motivation gets generated by asking yourself why.
–Charles Duhigg Tweet this quote
Lorne Michaels models psychological safety and he’s not even a particularly nice person.
–Charles Duhigg Tweet this quote
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