
Smarter Faster Better
The Secrets of Being Productive in Life and Business
by Charles Duhigg · first published 2016
14mentions
6recommended by
14HN commenters
2016–2025first – last mentioned
43% recommend57% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Explores the psychology of productivity and decision-making through research-backed stories about goals, teams, and focus; suggested for anyone wanting practical, science-informed ideas on getting more done at work.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Redefining productivity as a discipline involving how one thinks, identifies goals, constructs teams, and makes decisions, explains how to transform thinking behaviors to increase self-motivation and shares illustrative examples.
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…Banks is an eye opening account of how broken our banking system is and the history of how we got to where we are. Business: again, a lot of good books are mentioned already, but two I've enjoyed are Smarter Faster Better by Charles Duhigg and Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss. Both are fascinating books that'll leave you thinking about how to improve your own game. --Edit-- Bonus: When Breath Becomes Air by Paul…
on “Ask HN: What book have you given as a gift?” ↗The best one I know of? I'm not sure I'm the one to ask, but I think the advice in 'Smarter, Faster, Better' by Charles Duhigg makes a lot of sense. The book is about much more than leadership, and he tries to a least be somewhat scientific about what he talks about. The gist of what he says about leadership…
on “Ask HN: What's the best book on leadership you know of?” ↗…productivity and making good decisions in order to correct your behavior. My recommendations are: - Deep Work - Cal Newport Will go into detail about how to learn new things and accomplish large projects. - Smarter Faster Better - Charles Duhigg Goes into the psychology of motivation, accomplishing large tasks, setting goals, and making better decisions. - The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You'll Ever Nee…
on “Ask HN: I started a company in Japan but I'm in over my head” ↗…excellent book about workplace conflict resolution. - There are a ton of books about emotional intelligence. Find one that sounds interesting to you and read it. I'll also recommend "Deep Work" and "Smarter, Faster, Better" for more general workplace productivity management, but feel free to sleep on those if you feel like it.
on “Ask HN: Resources for introverted devs to learn workplace politics?” ↗…as my ultimate personal tool. Day & night difference when you figure out how habits are formed how they are broken and how you can influence the process. A good companion book (from the same author) "Smarter Faster Better". 4. How to win friends & Influence people (Dale Carnegi) - I bought this book freshman year in college. I tried reading it then and gave up / got bored after the first few pages. I really wish I had…
on “Ask HN: Books you wish you had read earlier?” ↗I enjoyed listening to the book "Smarter Faster Better" in which this article is one of the chapters. http://www.audible.com/pd/Business/Smarter-Faster-Better-Aud... It also deals with how the script of movie "Frozen" evolved and I found that very interesting…
on “What Google Learned from Its Quest to Build the Perfect Team” ↗Things I completed: 1. Elon Musk: Inventing the Future 2. The Code Book - Simon Singh 3. Fermat's Enigma - Simon Singh 4. Deep Work - Cal Newport 5. Smarter Faster Better - Charles Duhigg 6. 1984 7. So good they can't ignore you - Cal Newport 8. Distributed Systems for fun and profit 9. Classic Shell Scripting Things I partially read and hope to complete some time:…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2016?” ↗…Inevitable by Aaron Ross & Jason Lemkin - Grit by Angela Duckworth - Love Sense by Sue Johnson - Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman - Working Effectively With Legacy Code by Michael Feathers - Smarter Faster Better by Charles Duhigg - Sprint by Jake Knapp - Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Taleb - Becoming a Supple Leopard by Kelly Starrett - Superforecasting by Philip Tetlock - The Inner Game Of Tennis by Timothy…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2016?” ↗…may help you work through the not so obvious sources of that "what's the point" feeling. Second, read as much as you can on the subjects of motivation, burn out and happiness. I'm currently reading "Smarter, Faster, Better" by Charles Duhigg and there is interesting stuff in there about how lack of choice can lead to lack of motivation. This is just one example of a deep subject however which is why I suggest reading a…
Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss Ask GaryVee by Gary Vaynerchuk Deep Work by Cal Newport Give and Take by Adam Grant Smarter, Faster, Better by Charles Duhigg
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2016?” ↗This article is adapted from Duhigg's book, Smarter Faster Better.[0] I remember it being an interesting read. [0] http://charlesduhigg.com/books/smarter-faster-better/
on “What Google Learned from Its Quest to Build the Perfect Team (2016)” ↗…book: > Charles Duhigg is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The New York Times and the paper’s senior editor of live journalism. He is the author of ‘‘The Power of Habit’’ and the forthcoming book ‘‘Smarter Faster Better: The Secrets of Productivity in Life and Business,’’ from which this article is adapted.
on “What Google Learned from Its Quest to Build the Perfect Team” ↗The book Smarter Faster Better introduced me to the concept of disfluency - the idea that extra friction such as awkward fonts, new environments, different tools, etc will pull you out of autopilot mode and force you to think in new…
on “As a developer, my most important tools are a pen and a notebook” ↗Thanks for sharing. I just added Smarter Faster Better to my reading list, along with Annie Murphy Paul’s The Extended Mind. Both seem to explore how breaking out of autopilot can unlock better thinking, which is exactly what I’ve been noticing in my own…
on “As a developer, my most important tools are a pen and a notebook” ↗