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Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

Chip Heath, Dan Heath · 10 HN comments
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Amazon Summary
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The instant classic about why some ideas thrive, why others die, and how to improve your idea’s chances—essential reading in the “fake news” era. Mark Twain once observed, “A lie can get halfway around the world before the truth can even get its boots on.” His observation rings true: Urban legends, conspiracy theories, and bogus news stories circulate effortlessly. Meanwhile, people with important ideas—entrepreneurs, teachers, politicians, and journalists—struggle to make them “stick.” In Made to Stick, Chip and Dan Heath reveal the anatomy of ideas that stick and explain ways to make ideas stickier, such as applying the human scale principle, using the Velcro Theory of Memory, and creating curiosity gaps. Along the way, we discover that sticky messages of all kinds—from the infamous “kidney theft ring” hoax to a coach’s lessons on sportsmanship to a vision for a new product at Sony—draw their power from the same six traits. Made to Stick will transform the way you communicate. It’s a fast-paced tour of success stories (and failures): the Nobel Prize-winning scientist who drank a glass of bacteria to prove a point about stomach ulcers; the charities who make use of the Mother Teresa Effect; the elementary-school teacher whose simulation actually prevented racial prejudice. Provocative, eye-opening, and often surprisingly funny, Made to Stick shows us the vital principles of winning ideas—and tells us how we can apply these rules to making our own messages stick.
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Hacker News Stories and Comments

All the comments and stories posted to Hacker News that reference this book.
A couple that might be worth considering:

https://www.amazon.com/22-Immutable-Laws-Branding/dp/0060007...

https://www.amazon.com/Positioning-Battle-Your-Mind-Annivers...

https://www.amazon.com/Differentiate-Die-Survival-Killer-Com...

https://www.amazon.com/What-Sticks-Advertising-Guarantee-Suc...

https://www.amazon.com/Made-Stick-Ideas-Survive-Others/dp/14...

wellthisisgreat
Thank you! How did you like 22 immutable laws? I saw it recommended elsewhere too.
mindcrime
It's been a while (several years) since I read it, so my memory of specifics is kinda fuzzy. But I recall a generally favorable impression of it. Enough that I'll probably go back and re-read it at some point.
"Made to Stick" I found to be a good book on storytelling. It doesn't position it as "storytelling" per se but more generally about how to communicate ideas in a way that captivate audiences, however large or small.

https://www.amazon.com/Made-Stick-Ideas-Survive-Others/dp/14...

The best book for explaining your product idea is "Made to Stick" [1]. It has a great process for breaking your idea down in the most concrete terms and has some useful tools such as analogy to a similar product ("like dropbox for x").

The cliche adage here is that "if you can't explain your product in one or two sentences then I'm not interested". This is why the "Hollywood pitch" developed organically because people love to overcomplicate everything. VCs look for this as well.

This is why PhDs such as the author make bad people for communicating products. They love abstract terms and advanced hand wavy generalizations. Same with how corporate marketing people are similarily bad because they love buzz words and trends.

Ethereum is full of these companies that are hyper complex and I'm convinced that it's correlated to the number of academics behind all of them. They all have great website designs, they should spend similar time and money on good copywriting - which starts with the founders understanding their own product/service.

They all have a problem with communicating anything of substance. Ethereum has the same problem.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1400064287/

oddsinfinity
Nice analysis. True in a majority of the cases.
laktek
So simplest way to explain Bancor is to call them a Bank? Has reserves, liquidates over the counter & centralized control (for better or worse).
tylersmith
How do you think it came to be called Bancor? It's a smart contract banker.
dmix
The analogy to banks is helpful but products should:

A) explain what problem they are solving (what pain point they address)

B) have an obvious target user.

In this case: Why do I need a bank when using Ethereum? Is it a bank in the context of retail bank consumers as a storage/transfer mechanism or a bank for businesses? If I'm a business building a decentralized service building on top of Ethereum can I use Bancor to address a set of particular problems that are common among decentralized services?

There's more to this than choosing a generic analogy.

Sep 02, 2014 · davidw on Ask HN: What is HN reading?
Here are the reviews of stuff I've been reading:

http://davids-book-reviews.blogspot.com

I'm currently reading "Made to Stick": http://www.amazon.com/Made-Stick-Ideas-Survive-Others/dp/140... - which I put off buying for a while, but am actually enjoying quite a bit. It's got real, actionable advice in it.

I also read the transcripts from http://www.startupsfortherestofus.com/ on a regular basis.

I asked myself the same question around 6 months ago, so I talked to the most talented designer I know and asked him for a list of the most influential books he had read whilst developing his skills.

Here is the list, in the order he recommended reading them:

Creative Process: http://www.amazon.com/Made-Stick-Ideas-Survive-Others/dp/140...

Design Thinking: http://www.amazon.com/Paul-Rand-A-Designer%60s-Art/dp/030008...

Typography: http://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Type-Designers-Critical-Stude...

Spatial Relationships - Grids: http://www.amazon.com/Making-Breaking-Grid-Graphic-Workshop/...

Reduction: http://www.amazon.com/Symbol-Steven-Bateman/dp/1856697274/

Color Theory: http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Color-Subjective- Experience/dp/0471289280/

Branding 101: http://www.amazon.com/Designing-Brand-Identity-Essential-Bra...

I've been making my way through the list, and it is amazing how much my approach to design has changed. Before I was winging it and was never really sure if I was making something that would look good, but now I feel like I have a solid foundation to build on.

About a year ago I starting becoming incredibly interested in making ideas spread. I decided to read books on how to present myself and my ideas in a way that builds my own credibility, trustworthiness, and helps people to take on my ideas.

If you are interested in these things, I highly recommend Made to Stick by the Heath Brothers [1]. It focuses on the SUCCESs framework:

S - Short

U - Unexpected

C - Credible

C - Concrete

E - Emotional

S - Stories

They elaborate in excellent detail on each of these ideas and the acronym that they coined is a perfect example.

In terms of building your own credibility, I suggest reading How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. [2] This book is instrumental in understanding the basic concepts that can have a material impact on your life. I think that Autobiography of Ben Franklin [3] teaches a few key lessons in the use of diffidence that harmonizes well with Carnegie's ideas.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/Made-Stick-Ideas-Survive-Others/dp/140...

[2] http://www.amazon.com/How-Win-Friends-Influence-People/dp/06...

[3] http://www.classicly.com/download-autobiography-of-benjamin-...

Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, by Chip Heath and Dan Heath

http://www.amazon.com/Made-Stick-Ideas-Survive-Others/dp/140...

- quite good so far (1/2 way through)

A Room with a View, by E.M. Forster

http://www.amazon.com/Room-View-Bantam-Classics/dp/055321323...

- not sure what I think of it yet (about 1/2 way through). Found some of the writing a bit opaque, where I'm not sure what he's trying to say.

Theres just too much stuff going on, on the homepage.

It makes any comprehension difficult. Two recommendations:

1) add more white space

2) try to communicate the value proposition in as little words as possible. This book is a good starting point on how to do that: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1400064287/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_0dBNob...

Definitely all three of these...

Plus recently "Made to Stick" has really changed how I think about ideas and sharing them with others. http://www.amazon.com/Made-Stick-Ideas-Survive-Others/dp/140...

Mar 16, 2008 · richesh on Best Books For a Startup?
Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

http://www.amazon.com/Made-Stick-Ideas-Survive-Others/dp/140...

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