The universal hack: Why the friction principle applies everywhere | Bob Sutton for Big Think+

[@matthewsermons7247]

5:45 "You need to slow down and think before you make a dumb decision". Great advice, good luck actually executing it. I live by the axiom: "Thou Shall Not Expect Others to Think". It saves my brain cells when others are lacking.

[@roronoazero814]

the thing is if you do that "You need to slow down and think before you make a dumb decision" , you run into decision paralysis and then you end up procrastinating a lot more

[@sukhi_3]

Getting reimbursed (for travel expense) & claiming a medical bill from Insurance companies is like fighting a battle in INDIA. But paying to Govt or Insurers is like two clicks on some App.

[@zeeshanehtisham442]

it is by design....

[@CraftyF0X]

It is for a reason. Same here in middle eastern europe if you want to claim social assistance even if its literally only 56 Euro/ month you have to jump through many hoops and get through immense paper work. On the other hand, if you need to pay a fine or a social security fee, it's oddly easy and convineint. There is a serious effort to make giving up your money as frictionless as possible while recieving money as complicated and cumbersome as it can be made.

[@Jay-yh1od]

I feel it bro system is fckued up not sure even if this is deliberate and Govt doesn’t give a fcuk until they get taxes from all parties

[@Mr_Penguins_Pet_Human]

A refund can take over a week to reach your account. Yet, when you buy something, the money leaves your account instantly.

[@nikhilPUD01]

Black hole

[@hansk1976]

Wait, what was the 'hack' that I can apply everywhere?!

[@jstoner9029]

Don’t worry about it. You’re not that guy.

[@sparker-gg2ez]

@@jstoner9029 neither is the delusional twat that not only uses phrases like "that guy" but probably has convinced himself that he is totally "that guy"

[@sergiofitch4378]

Ugh, from what I can interpret, it's this: 1. Look at the friction in a process/system: Does it serve a purpose? Or does it need to be fixed? 2. If it needs to be fixed, ask yourself: A) do you know what you're doing (ie. How good can you estimatethe expected outcome)? B) is the decision reversible? Honestly, not really sure if this is the hack, but it's the take-home message for me. The editor and interviewer framed his thesis poorly.

[@nikhilPUD01]

Sit and meditate All energy is yours Supercharged being. Super hacker you

[@diseno2040]

Sutton did some very good research years ago. Now? Not so much. The clue is how he introduces himself as best-selling author of eight books... sit down Bob, enjoy your retirement

[@dinarkarani]

So, friction is an "obstacles that make it slower, harder, and more frustrating for customers, employees, and senior leaders to do something." It could be constructive or destructive. And a friction fixer should ask which one is which by asking 2 questions? Edit: * "Do I know what I'm doing?" This gets at the heart of constructive friction. If you're struggling because you're learning something new, stretching your abilities, or tackling a complex problem, that's often good friction. It means you're pushing boundaries and growing. If the answer is "no", it might be a sign that this friction is leading to valuable learning and improvement. * "Is it reversible?" This helps identify destructive friction. If the obstacle is causing permanent damage, creating insurmountable barriers, or leading to irreversible negative consequences, that's bad friction. Think of things like burning bridges with clients, creating hostile work environments, or making decisions that can't be undone. If the answer is "no", it's a red flag that this friction needs to be addressed immediately. Thanks Gemini for clarifying that for me😅

[@josephyeung2606]

Does Gemini have that summariser like that of the POE app?

[@ChocookieMonster]

Wait, that's wrong though? If an obstactle is leading to irreversible negative consequences, that's not bad friction? You WANT things that lead to irreversible negative outcomes to be hard - similarly if the answer to "is it reversible?" is no, that's not a sign that you need to address the friction "immediately", it's a sign that you should tread carefully and friction might be a GOOD thing. If the answer is "yes", THEN you should take a look at whether there's unnecessary friction. This is why you shouldn't trust generative AI blindly 😅

[@dinarkarani]

@@ChocookieMonster I don't trust generative AI blindy. I was confused about the talk. Thanks for your input.

[@craigmerkey8518]

Great! As someone who has worked in the same industry for over 30 years, my advice is trust your instincts!

[@rjstewart]

I work in IT and the 2 step decision tree really hit home. I often just go ahead and do things without wasting my boss’s time getting approval if they make sense, I know what I’m doing and most importantly IT’S REVERSIBLE!!!

[@MLIIKNAD]

Here’s a paradox: If the guy had encountered more friction toward spreading this idea, he might have realized it was dumb and wouldn’t have said it. Ironically, that would prove his point! But the real problem isn’t that people make bad decisions due to a lack of friction. It’s that they’re bad at communicating clearly. Friction just makes them frustrated, rushing through things to ‘get it over with,’ leading to worse decisions. The solution is better communication, not more bureaucracy/friction.

[@youarelegend-bio]

00:25 Love the race car analogy! 🏎 Sometimes we need to pump the brakes and take pit stops in life, whether leading a team or just managing day-to-day tasks. Balance is everything! 💡

[@BBeu-i6t]

I recognize the pattern. Basically it’s being able to view things at an organizational macro view. I don’t know why most people don’t have the experience and operational thought but this makes sense logistically

[@1GoodWoman]

FYI you don’t brake going into corners, you sit, pull off the accelerator, steer and coast then accelerate out.

[@AhirZamanSairi]

Most friction is bureaucracy, selfishness. If everyone were an altruistic friction decreaser, we'd all be gliding along like butter on a banana peel.

[@JOGA_Wills]

For being an organization psychologist this was not an organized discussion.

[@teodorhagiu7945]

I wanted to share this with my organization and before presing send I noticed the horrible clikbait title and changed my mind.

[@suzannecarter445]

When I had Project Mgrs working under me, I taught them how to make it easy to get people to respond to your requests - everything you need to know (including reference links only if absolutely necessary) in ONE communication.) When teaching a skill, like doing a Project Mgmt plan, shoe them what good looks like (an almost perfect plan for a complex tech project) and ask them to tell you (after a few hours) what's good about it. Make it as easy as possible to do exactly what you want, folks - it's not rocket science (although it could be). Once you get a reputation for doing this, your future time will be conserved and people will respond almost immediately with any questions.

[@peteraugust5295]

The Universal Hack: "Take the right decisions at the right time and be lucky enough to manage to do it 5000 times in a row". Fantastic information. I love this channel, its so valuable! Not to mention the absolutely random examples that mean jack shit that underline the message communicated :)

[@spk_eze]

Yeah this felt like post rationalisation garbage.

[@siobhanvidaashmole9009]

I usually like big think but this was awful.

[@Dom2Wan]

So what's the universal hack? This video wasted my time.

[@jackalope2302]

Organizational friction

[@montegrifo]

Decide if the changes you make are reversible and/or low risk, just do it when they are, stop to think if they don't. Something obvious like that, but he's mostly about selling books and have people investing in some company he holds equity.

[@biggSHNDO]

They don’t explain the big picture. They just jump right into the details but I watched the whole video on two times speed and this is what I understood: Decisions are always more competent and risk-averse if you run them through these checks: 1) Do I know what I’m doing? - if you don’t have full comprehension of the subject, don’t be hasty to make the decision. Do your homework. 2) Is the decision reversible? - if yes, do it and see what happens. If no, slow all the way down and go back to educating yourself via step one

[@callmejusttsar]

Really valuable persons, cause people's time is treasure.

[@NicolasGonzalez-ii1fi]

Easy explaining, easy learning

[@jmoeshotyamobile380]

Big think making a future black billionaire right now

[@Mr.Miller9]

You’re correct.

[@el7683]

No one cares that you’re black. You’re human just like the rest of us. You’re just a future billionaire. Your skin color is irrelevant.

[@accurategamer7085]

Future billionaire do not degrade yourself by adding your race, no one would say an alive billionaire or a male billionaire. You should be unique, different from all the 10 billion. 1 out of 10 billion.

[@vinamratatyagi6110]

Videography ,presentation ,content ...very creative and organized🎉

[@gbengaadeogun5573]

Honestly just read Aristotle's Ethics Book 6 on the concept of Phronesis. Aristotle describes it WAY better. Essentially, it is an intellectual virtue focused on doing the right thing in the right way at the right time. It is making sure your means and your ends are ethical and aligned. Its about finding your telos, your goal, and using deliberative calculations to get there. Its about finding the golden mean (the perfect balance) in all situations eg being courageous is the perfect balance between recklessness and cowardness. What he (the guy in the video) is saying is basically knowing how to act depending on the situation and more importantly how how much thought to put into the decision, and thinkong about the community at large. Its just that Aristotle breaks it down better.

[@mahxylim7983]

construct friction to certain things. if its irreversible be more careful, if reversible just try it.

[@dyodewantara5943]

Organizational friction is a good thing. Friction fixer is someone that obsessed and focus and making good things easy to do, and bad things hard to do.

[@dmtdreamz7706]

What friction tries to do is it tries to slap you awake by putting the beauty of infinite creation a little piece of it up on display for you on a pedestal so you can look at it and say oh yeah. Of course. Look there it is. It's so beautiful. It's so amazing and then that opens your eyes a little bit and you can say oh yeah look that thing's beautiful too and that's beautiful and that's beautiful and that person's beautiful and I'm beautiful. Oh my god it's all so beautiful and then that takes you to a whole new level as a human being and then you can delight in reality and you can enjoy everything as one giant work of art. Cosmic work of art.

[@jpsnyder]

I feel like this video itself is friction

[@louisguerin9929]

It feel slike it didn't even breach the other half of the behavior. Incentives are the other half. The balance between the two is what will decide on behavior (e.g. sometime paying a fine right away is cheaper than later, this is an incentive toward paying right now, not decreasing friction)

[@allenhayesmusic]

Down to get the friction on -Sir Mix a Lot

[@BeStillLittleTree]

😅😅

[@PeterZeeke]

That last example was a bit sus. Not so reversible for the people that got let go

[@TheTama8]

This one feels more like a Small Think... I usually love Big Think videos and the information conveyed by the guests, but this video felt really pointless, with no real substance and just a lot of self-promoting instead.

[@katelyn7530]

Unintentional organizational friction is incredibly pervasive in America right now. Every area where I look: medical, mechanics, retail, hospitality, etc etc etc.. I think it’s fatigue and stress and economic struggles that increases operator error astronomically. It’s very concerning.

[@ZhungyiChan]

What's the 'universal hack'? This feels like a trailer or pre-amble to a longer video

[@ggregory6611]

I hate to say it but the Colorado DMV is pretty painless…..worth a look…….

[@firefox1145]

do guys have a list of all the books your guests have written?

[@roulsche]

This guy is awesome !

[@dibofacose]

This guy is a professional yapper

[@bossgd100]

Gold medalist

[@anshultibrewal5226]

bald white guy = high yap coefficient

[@supreetsingh6038]

He is creating friction between me and usable knowledge

[@唐祥深]

this format really suits me

[@readynowforever3676]

“The teams that win…” who didn’t “die” because they got out of the car, may have won at prolonging life, but you can’t say that they won the actual race.

[@ChocookieMonster]

His comment about not knowing (and not really caring so much) whether he'll get a return on his investment in a company he believes in made me wonder if we could restructure investments ... imagine if every person had a certain budget per year that they would get a fixed return on by the government if it was invested (maybe just in research, maybe all companies, maybe have a higher return for non-profits and medical/environmental science ... ) but they would NOT get a return based on how profitable the business is. That would lead to people actually giving money to things that would benefit society, I think.

[@MarcelinoDeseo]

Some companies are making sure your subscription to them has more friction, so much you barely move 😅

[@Russell_Rieckenberg]

Some companies you need to overcome massive amounts of friction to unsubscribe.

[@WLF0X]

Oh, thanks! That was really helpful Also what a giddy fella 🤗

[@artaylor84]

Friction fixers united and worked on a project. Later the static fixers lost their minds because of all the chaos those friction fixers caused. I’ll be here all week.

[@scorcheris-empathy]

DMV appointments are one-click! SOME people think and live like this guys talks- Ugh! Others exists on a ‘friction-less plane’.

[@d.m.uu.8776]

His approach to sharing ideas feels more like a blast from 2001 than a vision for 2025, with a strong Western focus. I would recommend that he broaden his research to include successful companies and startups from the East, as well. I suspect his book resonates primarily with a white audience aged 50 and older, who likely appreciate his work. Please, remember that one approach doesn’t fit every situation. I don't really agree with the headline of the video, "Learn it once, apply it everywhere" it's not what the audience of Think Bik here is looking for. 😊

[@sunnyboy8174]

I want my time back

[@marlow769]

Does Bob feel that taking 15 years for California to put in another transit line in SanFransico is a good thing OR California taking decades to make a high speed rail line (costing billions) and only making it to Merced? Is this good or bad organizational friction?

[@PJVila]

Big Think should be called Big Obvious.

[@Familylawgroup]

@poppsych Dr. Colarossi, is this type of research similar to your day job as an organizational psychologist?

[@zedizdead]

Come on! FDA approval?! After they passed OxyCoffin that's worth 💩💩💩

[@GianmarioMarrelli]

I feel much better knowing that the department of motor vehicles is not only an Italian issue :p

[@目代雪子]

this video really clicks with some of the things I've been reading in 'Magnetic Aura' from Borlest

[@d.m.uu.8776]

He has a friendly personality, but in today’s fast-paced world, you need to make quick decisions; otherwise, you might miss opportunities that others will take. He also seems to miss an important point: trusting your team and surrounding yourself with talented people is key. It’s important to keep learning before making any big decisions. If you sit back and wait too long, you could risk losing your job because of missed chances. When he mentioned personally investing $25,000, it didn’t quite connect with the video’s headline. Also, remember that one approach doesn’t fit every situation. Dear Big Think, I really admire the work you do and enjoy your content each week. However, I suggest rethinking or rephrasing the headline of your video, as it doesn’t match the inspiring quality of your usual content. Thank you for considering this!

[@sergiofitch4378]

Ugh, from what I can interpret, the "universal hack" is this: 1. Look at the friction in a process/system: Does it serve a purpose? Or does it need to be fixed? 2. If it needs to be fixed, ask yourself: A) do you know what you're doing (ie. How good can you estimate the expected outcome)? B) Is the decision reversible? Honestly, not really sure if this is what the title suggest, but it's the take-home message for me. The editor and interviewer framed Sutton's thesis poorly.

[@ManabuIshizuka]

love this

[@youngsumac2363]

That dmv story is unreal

[@message_service]

👏Thank you 🌞👍

[@bungee7503]

Your DMV experience: perhaps the whole system is wrong. I can relicense my vehicle on-line in 5 minutes. I don’t need to go anywhere.

[@invox9490]

The poor guy at the DMV probably doesn't get paid enough for all the good it does. 😔

[@benyamin6085]

!!??, I didn't get it,

[@hole386]

Same man

[@dawiddulian2403]

I think the title is misleading - the whole video was about how to help the good/beneficial things happen easier, and how to make bad/wasteful things happen less. It's not about the actions that everyone should do to make their life easier - it's directed to the managers & CEOs who can change the ways by which final outcome is achieved by controlling the processes that lead from thier initializations to their closures.

[@pawnotdaw4559]

Why do videos now go to trouble of setting up the white backdrop and then show the surroundings?Is this trendy?Just wondering.

[@fredrikdanielsen5173]

Framing for reels and TikTok.

[@Faenwolf]

So in the last example… did they fire these 100 people they hired as an „experiment“? If the boss thinks that cutting off his mustache is a great analogy for the impact his decision had to hire them in the first place… maybe he should go as well…

[@kamilzadrozny5184]

Czyli moge wyjechac ale skape zydy nie dadza pieniedzy tak?

[@benmorris8442]

Well that was underwhelming. Don’t make big decisions quickly - err, okay thanks for that life hack.

[@bardwiththeeternalluck7087]

😂

[@syedraza216]

wtf is this man talking about?

[@JesusGarciaParrado]

💡

[@hanzzarkov7690]

Organizational Friction. Welcome to societally essential progressive income tax, they've been writing loopholes around this for decades.

[@TaufikNaaim]

Wait what

[@HiryuuTaue]

best!!!

[@intellectus2826]

Too many words and categorization of saying "sensible actions" or "perseverance". That's what I don't like about them, every now and then there is someone who write a whole book on how to operate or do a simple thing. Everything is simple, we just made big words, even the term "business" is overvalued.

[@thanX]

Title misleading, non-informative and clickbait. Terrible service for your users.

[@joesouthborn2960]

... the Big Idea. Don't waste my time. That's it. Move on. Oh, you're welcome.

[@davidthompson9926]

Outstanding information,with world crisis,rising inflation and economic instability due to poor governance, consider digital assets as a means to attain financial freedom.

[@CarlosLocke]

Building wealth indeed requires good habits, like investing in solid opportunities such as digital currencies. Having a reliable investment manager and broker is crucial for making informed decisions and managing risks effectively. With diligence, descipline and the right guidance, success in wealth-building becomes more achievable.

[@LindaHoward-og4ym]

Thank so much for the advice been seeking means of being successful in the digital market,do you recommend any professional broker I’m ready.

[@CarlosLocke]

Anna Dorris Arthur is the best I’ve encountered so far, so I recommend her.

[@LindaHoward-og4ym]

Hey everyone! 👋 Just starting my investment journey in crypto and stocks. 🚀 how do I reach Anna Dorris Arthur? Let’s grow together.

[@CarlosLocke]

+1838

[@pauls.4529]

This is just applied common sense.

[@pierrew1532]

I feel like I didn't learn anything. Am I the only one ?

[@SFDestiny]

Click bait

[@harrypearle9781]

KAMALA HARRIS can be the first WOMAN PRES She can motivate other women and girls to become more successful But HARRIS is not, not, not, pushing herself as a WOMAN PRES, and she may lose! ============================================================== TNX

[@harrypearle9781]

TNX

[@thomasd6592]

Also consider, if DJT becomes the president then JDV is capable of creating a coup to oust DJT and become president himself which is his ultimate goal. As he said previously he's not a fan of DJT or words to that effect, so he is playing the political game to maneuver himself into a position to seize power for himself. Beware, these people, DJT & JDV and all their sycophants, are sinister. Don't rationalize for a minute what MAGA, from the leaders (and sycophants) down to the foot soldiers, won't do if they seize power. The blueprint, Project 2025, clearly spells out the future that they will implement. Please don't be complacent, confirm you're registered then vote.

[@ColivingInMallorca]

Absolute joker. Shares nothing but common sense! I agree with the comment below, a complete waste of time.

[@jackhenderson3161]

This made no sense and was just a man rambling

[@will_wtr]

This had a thumbnail of "the universal hack" as a skeleton key. Overpromised, under-delivered, effectively clickbait. Add more friction to your thumbnail & hook creation process, please. Like the DMV guy, respect our time. I don't often downvote, but I wanted to share why.

[@charlenek2502]

Nothing new

[@arthurg7894]

Absolute gibberish

[@MartinsChanny]

What’s a waste of time this video was

[@TenzDenz]

Problem and problem solver

[@MG-jv5sp]

Waste of time

[@dblaine-rg7jw]

What a whole lot of nothing.

[@АлёнаНосенко-д7к]

лол вообще ни о чём!

[@pederchristopher]

Lots of friction before getting married... AND before getting divorced. 😂

[@cyborgge1]

And now that we know Elizabeth Holmes went to prison becos she's a fraud, it makes his example a very bad one... fortunately I didn't need this video to tell me how to make smarter investment. That friction theory not a bad idea and concept but I prefer the one that says "The obstacle is the way". And like everything in life, you'd better know what you are doing or you can hurt yourself, die or hurt other people and get broke.