Adam Grant

I don't want to over-index on my diving experience, but one of the most valuable things that happened in diving is you do 40 or 50 dives in a practice and every single one of them you can get a score on. And when you get 40 or 50, two and a half, four, five, nowhere near, you're barely cracking the upper half of the scale on that zero to 10 in diving. No individual score really bothers you.

I don't want to over-index on my diving experience, but one of the most valuable things that happened in diving is you do 40 or 50 dives in a practice and every single one of them you can get a score on. And when you get 40 or 50, two and a half, four, five, nowhere near, you're barely cracking the upper half of the scale on that zero to 10 in diving. No individual score really bothers you.

I don't want to over-index on my diving experience, but one of the most valuable things that happened in diving is you do 40 or 50 dives in a practice and every single one of them you can get a score on. And when you get 40 or 50, two and a half, four, five, nowhere near, you're barely cracking the upper half of the scale on that zero to 10 in diving. No individual score really bothers you.

And so this is actually a habit that I've adopted. I do a lot of public speaking. And as a shy introvert, this is not something that came naturally to me at all. And so early on, I would get off stage and I would immediately ask anybody I encountered, like, what's your zero to 10?

And so this is actually a habit that I've adopted. I do a lot of public speaking. And as a shy introvert, this is not something that came naturally to me at all. And so early on, I would get off stage and I would immediately ask anybody I encountered, like, what's your zero to 10?

And so this is actually a habit that I've adopted. I do a lot of public speaking. And as a shy introvert, this is not something that came naturally to me at all. And so early on, I would get off stage and I would immediately ask anybody I encountered, like, what's your zero to 10?

And no matter what score they gave, whether they gave me a six or a three and a half, I would just ask them, how can I get closer to 10? And... I found that very rarely did anyone say 10. And then they would give me a tip or two, and then I could use that and work on it to improve my score. And anytime I talk to people about this, they're like, ah, but I don't want to be scored.

And no matter what score they gave, whether they gave me a six or a three and a half, I would just ask them, how can I get closer to 10? And... I found that very rarely did anyone say 10. And then they would give me a tip or two, and then I could use that and work on it to improve my score. And anytime I talk to people about this, they're like, ah, but I don't want to be scored.

And no matter what score they gave, whether they gave me a six or a three and a half, I would just ask them, how can I get closer to 10? And... I found that very rarely did anyone say 10. And then they would give me a tip or two, and then I could use that and work on it to improve my score. And anytime I talk to people about this, they're like, ah, but I don't want to be scored.

That's devastating. Yeah, if you only do it once a year. But if you're getting dozens of scores a week, then it just becomes second nature. And you're actually building your resilience to handle the tough scores and gaining more knowledge to avoid the tough scores. People are evaluating you all the time. Don't you want to know what they're thinking? And don't you want them to help you grow?

That's devastating. Yeah, if you only do it once a year. But if you're getting dozens of scores a week, then it just becomes second nature. And you're actually building your resilience to handle the tough scores and gaining more knowledge to avoid the tough scores. People are evaluating you all the time. Don't you want to know what they're thinking? And don't you want them to help you grow?

That's devastating. Yeah, if you only do it once a year. But if you're getting dozens of scores a week, then it just becomes second nature. And you're actually building your resilience to handle the tough scores and gaining more knowledge to avoid the tough scores. People are evaluating you all the time. Don't you want to know what they're thinking? And don't you want them to help you grow?

Oh, I love that you pointed this out, Chris. It reminds me of Lady Klotz and Gabrielle Adams' research where they show that when you ask people how to change, like, how can I improve? How can our team improve? What most people do is they add. They give you more things to do. And they forget that our plates are already pretty full.

Oh, I love that you pointed this out, Chris. It reminds me of Lady Klotz and Gabrielle Adams' research where they show that when you ask people how to change, like, how can I improve? How can our team improve? What most people do is they add. They give you more things to do. And they forget that our plates are already pretty full.

Oh, I love that you pointed this out, Chris. It reminds me of Lady Klotz and Gabrielle Adams' research where they show that when you ask people how to change, like, how can I improve? How can our team improve? What most people do is they add. They give you more things to do. And they forget that our plates are already pretty full.

And one of the best ways to improve something is to cut away what's not working, to subtract. And this sort of addition bias or addiction to always adding things, it doesn't help us as often as it seems like it would. And so I love your prompt to say, okay, if you were going to cut 20%, like, what is the fat that could be trimmed in this presentation?

And one of the best ways to improve something is to cut away what's not working, to subtract. And this sort of addition bias or addiction to always adding things, it doesn't help us as often as it seems like it would. And so I love your prompt to say, okay, if you were going to cut 20%, like, what is the fat that could be trimmed in this presentation?

And one of the best ways to improve something is to cut away what's not working, to subtract. And this sort of addition bias or addiction to always adding things, it doesn't help us as often as it seems like it would. And so I love your prompt to say, okay, if you were going to cut 20%, like, what is the fat that could be trimmed in this presentation?

And that creates room then for the gems to actually be polished.

And that creates room then for the gems to actually be polished.