Notes on "Made to Stick" — How to craft a compelling message

@samparr recommended this book to me. I'm halfway through and it's great. The best book I've seen on how to craft a compelling message that people remember and share.

It's worth actually reading rather than just glancing at someone else's notes, but I particularly like @nateliason's notes on it. Here are a few of my own notes from the early chapters:

Basics:

• sticky ideas are those that last and spread… if you're starting a company, giving a talk, appearing on a podcast, writing a book, etc., you want your ideas to be sticky
• to make an idea sticky: (1) simplify to its core, then (2) make it unexpected, concrete, credible, emotional, and/or story-like ("SUCCESs")

Simplicity:

• finding the simple core of an idea, ruthlessly eliminate every great detail until you are left with only the #1 detail that matters
• it's hard to be ruthlessly simple, because you're stripping things away that seem useful. if you love the complexities, this will feel like a huge loss. bear it.
• remember "commander's intent" in the military: communicate a singular core objective, and be okay with everyone filling in all the little details for themselves
• aphorisms, for example, are the Holy Grail of simple sticky ideas, and almost always leave out additional details: "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush"
• to simplify effectively, use analogies to pack a lot complex concepts into just a few words, e.g. Homejoy called itself "Uber for home cleaning"
• an example: "Asked why the Daily Record has become so successful, Adams replied, 'It's because of three things: names, names, and names.'"

Unexpectedness:

• To get people's attention, violate their expectations. Surprise them.
• To surprise people, start giving them a pattern they're used to, then violate it. For example, show a car commercial that has all the stereotypical car commercial scenes, but then has a crash.
• Your surprise has to align with your core idea. It can't be random.
• Getting people's attention isn't enough. Your next goal is to keep it.
• To keep people's attention, hook them into a mystery. Give people a ton of context about an important fact or question, but don't answer the question until the end.