Little Bets Summary According to Uzi AhmedThe book Little Bets brings out a new idea to look at creativity. It argues that the future belongs to the innovators not the linear knowledge consumers and regurgitators. It provides a blue print on how to achieve this on your own. Here are the core ideas to the book:Experiment: You have to learn by doing, and by failing quickly to learn fast. Set a deadline for a small bet and see how it goes. Instead of developing grand ideas and looking at what you can make, look at it as how much you are willing to lose risk. Develop ideas and prototypes to gain insights, and explore these ideas and prototypes with others to get feedback. Play: A playful, not judgemental and improvisational group reduces inhibitions which is a incubator for creativity. Immerse: Get out and take time to get out into the world to gather fresh ideas and insights, understand deep human motivations and desires and really see how things work from the ground up. Also called getting field experience. Define: Search for problems, and be as specific as you can so you can solve them. Use your added insights from various experiments to come up with a specific problem that you can address. Reorient: Be flexible in your pursuit of a larger goal and aspirations, use small wins to propel you in the right direction. No win is too small and it wont be linear or predictable. Take it for it is. Iterate: Repeat, refine and test frequently as you gain better insights and improve your assumptions. Always make these bets. Chapter 1: Big Bets versus Little Bets The top down approach isnt working for creativity. The world changes too fast and you dont know what to do unless its done at the ground level. The tyranny of large numbers is what kills creativity as the company gets bigger and bigger. Ideas that are big are already too crowded and its big for a reason. You have to exploit small opportunities without much competition. Just look at what you are willing to lose and then go for that and this is called the affordable loss principle. That can be your small bet and its from the ground up so you know what the people really want. The illusion of rationality is when ideas seem logical in plan or spreadsheet but do not work in the real world. Chapter 2: The Growth MindsetThere is nothing wrong against bold ambition, those are what drive people but its how you achieve these big ambitious goals. A big vision is what proves the direction and inspiration through which to channel aspirations and ideas. Vinod Khosla Microsystems CofounderI believe in bumbling around long enough to not give up at things. And eventually success comes your way, because you tried to fail in every possible way, the only way thats left is the one successful way, and always, for the entrepreneurs, seems to come last. Its so obvious when it comesBy expecting to get things right at the start, we block ourselves psychologically and choke off a host of opportunities to learn. Fixed Mindset: Abilities and intelligence are set in stone and we have to repeat our successes to prove these abilities. Failures or setbacks threaten their sense of worth or identity and they are over concerned with seeking validation such as grades, titles or social recognition. Growth Mindset: Believe that intelligence and abilities can be grown through effort, and tend to view failures or setbacks as opportunities for growth and have a constant desire to stretch and grow themselves. Your mindset can be strongly influence by what you think is more important: ability or effort? Chapter 3: Failing Quickly to Learn FastBe rigorous about spotting flaws and continuing to push toward excellence by becoming a perfectionist yet accept failure in the development of new ideas. Healthy perfectionism: Striving for excellence and holding others to a similar standard, includes planning ahead and strong organization skills and its internally motivated by personal values.Unhealthy perfectionism: Concerns over perceived parental pressures, needing approval, tendency to ruminate over past performances or worrying about making mistakes. The whole concept for failing quickly is to introduce concepts to the market as fast as possible and get quick feedback. The idea should not be fully developed but in a prototype manner and get feedback quickly to see if it works. Its the idea of falling forward.Write shitty first drafts whenever you start a written project. Chapter 4: The Genius of PlayCreating an atmosphere that allows for playfulness and improvisation is one of the most effective ways to inspire the experimentation that leads to the best ideas and insights. Improvisation principles:1) Accept every offer - Never say no or shut down an idea and it makes your partner look good.Example of excellent feedback:I like Woodys eyes and what if we Notice the and instead of the butChapter 5: Problems are the New SolutionsConstraints shape and focus problems and provide clear challenges to overcome Use constraints to limit focus and isolate a set of problems that need to be solved. No need to copy what has been done before but you need to have limits or you will suffer paralysis by too much choice. You can also try self-imposed constraints if no one gives you any. The key is to take a larger project or goal, and break it down into smaller problems to be solved. This way you add a constraint to the scope of work to solve a key problem and then another key problem. Pretty much look at the big project and break it down into small problems you can solve.

Chapter 6: Questions are the New AnswersThe best way to get new ideas is gain experience and to go out in the field. This is because new ideas and solutions arent obvious; they are hidden beneath the surface. You dont know the right questions to ask unless you partake in the discovery process. Like Muhammad Yunus the man who is responsible for launching the microfinance industry. He did it because he went out to the field instead of theorizing. There is no such thing as a dumb question, it doesnt matter what you ask. You should always be curious, the right answer doesnt matter, its asking questions that matters. Its the foundation of the Montessori learning method. Chapter 7: Learning a Little from a LotEveryone from little kids to the 80 year old seniors have something to teach you, it doesnt have to be much. You should always listen to what people are saying regardless of social status or intelligence, there is always something, no matter how small you can learn. And the idea is to learn a little bit of something from a lot of people. You can see connections that others cant this way. Lucky people tend to be curious and open to what can come along from chance interactions. They have open body language and smiled twice as much as unlucky people. They pay more attention to what is going around then than unlucky people and willing to interact with different types of people. The network of luck:Lucky people are effective at building secure, and long-lasting attachments with the people they meet. They are easy to know and most people like them. They tend to be trusting and form close relationships with others. As a result, they often keep in touch with a much larger number of friends and colleagues than unlucky people. And time and again, this network of friends help promotes opportunity in their lives.

Chapter 8: Learning a lot from a LittleThe early users, also known as the active users are responsible for 75% of innovation and if you have something this is the audience you want to get feedback from. Chapter 9: Small WinsSmall wins are small successes that emerge out of our ongoing development process. They can serve as landmarks to tell us we are heading in the right direction or as pivotal points. This is how you can change your habits, just doing small things and doing them well it turns into a snowball effect and everything else sets in motion. This is how you generate momentum. A series of wins at small but significant tasksreveals a pattern that may attract allies, deter opponents, and lower resistance. They enable the development of the means to attain goals. You cant get too attached to a single idea, you test it out and see if it works or doesnt and thats what determines your path. Also you have to understand the process itself is very difficult and you will be spending a lot of time in the valley of darkness. There is always a valley of darkness that you have to go through; its a rite of passage.