Quit
Business leaders, with millions of dollars down the drain, struggle to abandon a new app or product that just isn’t working. Governments, caught in a hopeless conflict, believe that the next tactic will finally be the one that wins the war. And in our own lives, we persist in relationships or careers that no longer serve us. Why? According to Annie Duke, in the face of tough decisions, we’re terrible quitters. And that is significantly holding us back. In Quit, Duke teaches you how to get good at quitting. Drawing on stories from elite athletes like Mount Everest climbers, founders of leading companies like Stewart Butterfield, the CEO of Slack, and top entertainers like Dave Chappelle, Duke explains why quitting is integral to success, as well as strategies for determining when to hold em, and when to fold em, that will save you time, energy, and money. You’ll learn: • How the paradox of quitting influences decision making: If you quit on time, you will feel you quit early • What forces work against good quitting behavior, such as escalation commitment, desire for certainty, and status quo bias • How to think in expected value in order to make better decisions, as well as other best practices, such as increasing flexibility in goal-setting, establishing “quitting contracts,” anticipating optionality, and conducting premortems and backcasts Whether you’re facing a make-or-break business decision or life-altering personal choice, mastering the skill of quitting will help you…
Stats for nerds
5recommend
14mentions
8people
2023–2026years
57% recommend43% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- > when should the persistent quit?
There is a book that addresses this question: Quit by Annie Duke
- In terms of quitting and/or level of confidence in decision making, I'd recommend Annie Duke's "Thinking in Bets" and "Quit".
Coincidentally (?), Duke's "Quit" discusses the importance of having a "board of directors" you can go to get objective and critical feedback from. Often, this could be peers / team, but in a work setting - which we often have little control - the quality is going to depend on culture.
Truth Seeking > Group Thinking
https://www.annieduke.com/books/
p.s. I recently picked up "How to Decide" but haven't read it yet. At this point I hesitate to recommend it, but given the other two I'm very optimistic.
- While not directly about playing poker, these books are poker-based life lessons written by a top poker player.
"Thinking in Bets" and "Quit" by Annie Duke
https://www.annieduke.com/books/
I do own "How to Decided" but haven't read it yet. I will say that "Bets" and "Quit" are both easy reads and are high on value and low on noise. That is, even if you have play poker you'll get something out of both.
- The specific milestones here are certainly up for debate, but the general approach to thinking this way is a good one in my opinion.
I read Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away by Annie Duke last year and found it quite illuminating, both in introducing this concept of having “kill criteria” like this to help clarify why we are doing things and when it’s “okay” to quit, and also in exploring the scope of social/cultural bias we have towards sticking with losing propositions at the expense of trying new things. Social pressure to not be viewed as a “quitter” is quite a powerful force, and it distorts our thinking about what we really want to achieve.
- Mind you, your bar might be too high for these, but I found useful bits from both of the Michael Easter books: "The Comfort Crisis" and "Scarcity Brain."
Along the same lines, the two Annie Duke books that I read, "Thinking in Bets" and "Quit", were both entertaining and insightful.
And tho' I thought it could have half the pages, I found inspriation from Rick Rubin's "The Creative Act".
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/jan/10/the-creative-a...
If you have a creative side and haven't yet read "The War of Art" then read that instead of the Rubin book. It's shorter and that focus makes it more inspiring.
- Michael Easter "The Comfort Crisis"
Michael Easter "Scarcity Brain"
Annie Duke "Thinking In Bets"
Annie Duke "Quit"
All were readable and yet informative and intriguing.
Rick Ruben's "The Creative Act" was also good, tho I felt it should have been more heavily edited (read: it was too long). That flaw makes me hesitant to recommend it.
