The Long Game: How to be a long-term thinker in a short-term world

Quotes

"Not every experiment is going to pay off—and we don't know in advance which ones will."

"Not everyone you invite will become your best friend. The truth is, many of [my guests] never followed up or said thank you. Some canceled at the last minute or even ghosted altogether. But some have become [very worthwhile]."

Paradigm shift

This is a cute book full of anecdotes to help readers see the value in more long-term thinking. I came away with the idea that many important investments will not have a near-term benefit or payout, meaning that we likely will need to sit with "sunk effort" for some time before reaping the rewards. These would be things like making friends, investing time in personal growth, experimenting with new ideas or innovations, etc.

With that comes the perspective of "turning the crank" on some tasks where we would really like to see a benefit quickly, but they actually take time. A couple examples of this would be finding really good friends (you're not going to hit it off with everyone you invite over for dinner) and job searching (your first job offer isn't going to be the best one for you). For both of those searches being OK with "failure" is essentially a superpower. It's almost as if in order to really succeed you need to get through a lot of unsuccessful attempts, even passing "mildly" successful ones in order to get the best result. Patience, and playing the long-game, are key.