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  • Smartcuts

  • How Hackers, Innovators, and Icons Accelerate Success
  • By: Shane Snow
  • Narrated by: Shane Snow, Erik Bergmann
  • Length: 5 hrs and 55 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (73 ratings)
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Smartcuts cover art

Smartcuts

By: Shane Snow
Narrated by: Shane Snow, Erik Bergmann
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Summary

Entrepreneur and journalist Shane Snow (Wired, Fast Company, The New Yorker, and cofounder of Contently) analyzes the lives of people and companies that do incredible things in implausibly short time.

How do some startups go from zero to billions in mere months? How did Alexander the Great, YouTube tycoon Michelle Phan, and Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon climb to the top in less time than it takes most of us to get a promotion? What do high-growth businesses, world-class heart surgeons, and underdog marketers do in common to beat the norm?

One way or another, they do it like computer hackers. They employ what psychologists call "lateral thinking: To rethink convention and break "rules" that aren't rules.

These are not shortcuts, which produce often dubious short-term gains, but ethical "smartcuts" that eliminate unnecessary effort and yield sustainable momentum. In Smartcuts, Snow shatters common wisdom about success, revealing how conventions like "paying dues" prevent progress, why kids shouldn't learn times tables, and how, paradoxically, it's easier to build a huge business than a small one.

From SpaceX to The Cuban Revolution, from Ferrari to Skrillex, Smartcuts is a narrative adventure that busts old myths about success and shows how innovators and icons do the incredible by working smarter - and how perhaps the rest of us can, too.

©2014 Shane Snow (P)2014 HarperCollins Publishers

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What listeners say about Smartcuts

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Nice Story

Enjoyed hearing how some people have accelerated themselves through live to bigger better and more helpful things.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great read

Amazing read!! I just didn't want to drop it when I started. I also thought the last chapter was icing on the cake

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Good examples taken of real life short cuts!

What made the experience of listening to Smartcuts the most enjoyable?

Real life examples from a variety of people - surfers to presidents - make the book very enjoyable!

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

very good.

A must read book. My first ever book on audible and totally worth it .

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

A bit of common sense and a lot of plagiarism

If this book wasn’t for you, who do you think might enjoy it more?

Someone who has not read about the subject.

What could Shane Snow have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Propose new ideas.

You didn’t love this book--but did it have any redeeming qualities?

The book can easily be written in 6 pages without loosing any important information.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Disappointing

Although I've not since checked, I think when I downloaded this book I did so off the back of some very positive reviews. Hmmm. Maybe I should go revisit them and see what on earth inspired the readers and listeners.
The reading style was fine (even at speed x 3)
The content was frankly too weak, too convenient, for my liking.
I understand the theory and applicability of 'smart cuts'.
The stories unto themselves were great but trying to pull it all together into 9 fundamentals of **applicable** smart cuts was where I found myself somewhat wryly thinking, "Really?!"..
I even wrote down the nine points, to study them more closely ; was I missing something?
Maybe I was, maybe I did.. Maybe that failing was more mine than the books but either which way, the simple fact is that I felt disappointed with SmartCuts.
Drat.

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