Smarter Faster Better

by Charles Duhigg

Posted by Anton Katunin on 7 October 2018
Tags: books

This was an audiobook, and I did an experiment with it. I’ve listened to this book three times in a row. The goal was to see how the second and the third rounds would be different.

After the first round, I liked the book. Each point is backed by real life example. That makes the listening a joy.

The second round wasn’t much different. I’ve picked up some missed details. However overall understanding of the book is only improved by 10%.

For the last round I created a mind map while listening to it. To my surprise that made a huge difference. The mind map forced me to become an active listener. The overall understanding doubled. That shocked me because that was the third time I’ve listened to it.

My favorite part is about goal setting. There are ‘smart goals’ and ‘stretch goals’. Smart goals are achievable and measurable. These are your everyday goals. They prioritise efficiency of what you are already doing. In contrast stretch goals are about the direction.

To better understand them, think of the running analogy. Smart - is how fast you are running. Stretch - is where you are running to.

While the book has a great content, it feels disjointed. It would be nice to combine all knowledge into a recipe to follow. I guess it’s up to the reader to do so.