Notes on What to Make of a Life by Jim Collins

I'm a big fan of Jim Collins's books, so when I heard he had a new one out, I was excited to read it, and What to Make of a Life: Cliffs, Fog, Fire and the Self-Knowledge Imperative really delivered.

It focused on individuals rather than companies and sought lessons and patterns across people's lives. I enjoyed learning about the paths of so many people he described, and the detailed timelines and supplementary materials were rich with so much data.

It was fascinating to see how many people kept the fire burning so late in life and stayed productive and "facing forward in the saddle" until the end. I enjoyed the stories of the aviators, computer scientists, inventors, military generals, and artists.

The biggest lesson I learned was to keep discovering and staying true to my encodings through all the shifts in life. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in leadership, psychology, or even career pathing. My main takeaways and notes on the book are below.

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1 a life transformed
Life altering cliffs
Fogs as funks
Significant work well into later life

Part 1 coming into frame

1 one big thing
Discover and deploy encodings
Durable capacities of a person’s intrinsic construction that lie within awaiting discovery through the experiences of life
Flip the arrow of money
Don’t measure life by amount of money
Money as means to effort not result of it
Focus the inner fire
Crazy enthusiasm without burnout
Focus energy in alignment with encoding
Find personal hedgehog
Hedgehog knows one thing really well
Barbara McClintock
Grace Hopper
Singular hedgehogs for full life
Serial hedgehogs throughout life
Alan page
Carl eller

3 a constellation of encodings
Frame changes through life to focus on different stars in the constellation
John Glenn
Gordon cooper
Framing of encodings can change throughout life
What is visible can change
Even accomplished people can languish when encodings fall out of frame
To be in frame requires suitable hedgehog home
Toni Morrison
Encoded operating modes
A thing you cannot not do
Barbara Tuchman
Awareness of encoding
Translation to operating modes specific to the individual 

4 flipping the arrow of money
Robert plant
Jimmy page
Carol heiss
Tenley Albright
Economic streams
Mastering scarcity
Family wealth
Spousal economics
Funding for education or training
Cross funding
Salary
Creative flywheel
Business flywheel
Social cause flywheel
Earned earlier
Direct personal support
Special sources
The work is the end in itself

5 focus the fire
Alice Paul
Lucy burns
Love of the actual work
Sources of fire
Cause or noble purpose
Trying to solve puzzle
Social impact
Love of the doing
Extend out, circle back
Choosing Social responsibilities 
Do all things not for glory but for joy
Stress and drudgery tax in doing the hedgehog
Battling entrenched forces of bureaucratic resistance
Hard to change people’s minds
Envigorating side passions
Families and relationships

Part 2 navigating cliffs and fog

6 cliffs
Big changes in life

7 fog
Michael j fox
Maurice white
Fog is not a defect
Fog of youth
Fog of disappointment 
Fog of success
Fog of retirement
When lost in the fog, avoid big irreversible decisions 
The bug book
Record daily observations of how you feel and what gives you strength and your encodings
Daily spreadsheet of what you did, how many creative hours, how you felt
Scientist of the self
A compass in the fog

8 simplex stepping
Iterative small next best step
Simplex algorithm
Katherine graham
Taking little steps iteratively and learn
Raise the bar gently but relentlessly
Learn then lead
Georgia frontiere 
Preclear the fog when you foresee the cliff coming

9 roulette wheel of life
Luck plays role in finding hedgehog
There is not just one to discover
Gerald ford
Preparation plus luck
Jimmy Carter
Luck versus return on luck
What luck, who luck, zeit luck
Not all time in life is equal
Natili moments
Meet those unequal moments with unequal intensity

Part 3 feeding the inner fire long and late

10 extend out, circle back
Meryl Streep
Debra winger
Don’t confuse need for break with need to quit
Water seeds from early life
Changing color of fire
Having more fun in life

11 choosing responsibilities
Charles Colson 
John ehrlichman
But for test: what are you doing that wouldn’t get done but for you 
Mothershed mantra
Sit in the saddle facing forward not backward

12 feeding inner fire and doing great work late
Roger sherman
Benjamin Franklin
Capabilities increase with age
Raw encodings
Cumulative experience
Credibility equity
Leadership is art of getting people to want to do what most be done

13 questions are better than answers
Catalytic questions to consider
What I most want is an x life where x is a single word
What encodings have you discovered within. What do people who know you well see as your encodings. 
What portion of your energy is expended in frame with your encodings
What can you do or stop doing to come more fully into frame
What are your encoded operating modes that make you particularly effective
What activities are you ok to pay hefty stress and drudgery tax to keep doing
Have you found hedgehog
What activity can you flip arrow of money
How have your cliffs reframed your life
What simplex stepping can you do before next cliff
How to get more return on different types of luck
How might you extend and circle back
What seeds from earlier life remain dormant
What responsibilities will you choose