Samuel 's Key Ideas from Clear Thinking
by Shane Parrish

If you want better-than-average results, though, you'll have to think clearly. And thinking clearly is thinking independently. Sometimes you have to break free of the social default and do something differently from those around you.

Doing something different means you might underperform, but it also means you might change the game entirely. Best practices aren’t always the best. By definition, they’re average.

The inertia default pushes us to maintain the status quo. Starting something is hard but so too is stopping something. We resist change even when change is for the best.

You unconsciously adopt the habits of the people you spend time with, and those people make it easier or harder for you to achieve progress toward what you want to achieve. The more time you spend with people, the more likely you start to think and act as they do. Find new friends whose default behavior was their desired behavior.