Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World

I was traveling a few months ago and had a big delay, so I ventured into the bookstore and grabbed Originals, by Adam Grant.

Truth be told, the books cover is what grabbed my eye and the endorsements on the front and back cover sealed the deal.

I found this book to be interesting but I can’t say it dramatically changed the way I view creativity and originality.

One thing that I thought I was going to like about this book was how much science and data it had in it.

In fact, the last 20+ pages of the books are cited sources from the text (which is a big bonus for me).

But what I found when reading Originals was that Adam Grant went out and found tests to back up his thinking and sometimes the tests seemed very concentrated on micro-actions and ignored a lot of other variables.

It seems rather easy to make a point and then find an obscure test somewhere that backs up your claims.

Reading through each chapter felt really long and drawn out. I had a tough time finding the major points of each section and the book in general.

Maybe the ideas and thoughts just weren’t hitting me at the right time but this book was a little tough for me to get through.

I also notice that he uses the same examples (like Martin Luther King and Carmen Medina) throughout the book, which might be nice for some to have a common theme, but became a little repetitive for me.

Biggest Insights

The “Actions For Impact” section at the end of the book was most beneficial to me.

If I were to write this book I would use those as chapters and write a couple of pages about how each can be implemented and why.

These are actionable items like

• Question the default, realize that processes aren’t set in stone.
• Procrastinate strategically
• Don’t try to calm down, but rather think about the excitement an opportunity presents
• Picture yourself as the enemy
• Stop advocating a devil’s advocate and unearth them. Meaning,
  don’t designate someone to disagree for the sake of disagreeing but rather find someone who really disbelieves in your idea and get to the bottom of the issue