A brief overview of the book Smartcuts by Shane Snow. Hits on key elements, themes, and examples from the book.

1. SMARTCUTS
Hank Vieten

3. Lateral Thinking
Who do you
pick up????

4. Be someone you’re not
But don’t
take
shortcuts,
take
smartcuts!
!

5. Hacking the ladder
Invent your own ladde

6. Bigger and Better

7. Training with Masters
Thanks to

8. Rapid Feedback
 Upworthy and their struggle against other
popular blogs like Buzzfeed and The
Huffington Post
 Turning work into experiments to track
success
 Wrote different headlines and used different
variations to multiply their reach by 186%.

9. DHH
• Full name David Heinemeier
Hansson
• Indirectly responsible for the
development of Twitter
• “Use the least amount of effort
possible”
• Created “rails” to automate
repetitive tasks when
programing.

11. Platforms
• Similar in concept to “hacking the ladder”
• Involves building layers on top of
processes that already exist to make them
run more smoothly
• Can take many different forms (tools,
technology, etc.)
• Platforms help you avoid reinventing the
wheel.

12. Waves
 Important to make sure you catch the right wave
 Many waves come and the first waves come before you
catch the more powerful ride.
 Sonny Moore AKA Skirllex caught the EDM wave at the
perfect time. He actively experimented with trends on
the web and social media so he knew which wave to
ride

14. Momentum
 “The Oreo tweet”
 One tweet during the super bowl earned Oreo
525 million earned media impressions, most
of those through tech blogs
 Keeping things constantly moving to avoid
falling into a depression, personally and in
business

16. Simplicity
 Cutting the process and curriculum down to
the core principles.
 Keep things black and white.
 “Simplification often makes the difference
between good and amazing”
 Steve Jobs refereed to simplicity as “the
ultimate sophistication”, Apples products
exemplify this point of view

18. 10x Thinking
 Having “huge” visions
 Often uses other “smartcuts” such as
simplicity, Falcon 1 and space X were like
generic acetaminophen to Boeing’s
Tylenol
 “Often easier to make something 10 times
better thank make it 10% better”

20. D’Wayne Edwards
 Used the principles of smartcuts to work his
way through the sneaker design industry
 Was Nike’s youngest design director ever
 Helped design Michael Jordan’s signature
shoe shoes, was one of 8 people to work on
the brands design.
 Has designed over $1 Billion worth of product
 Started PENSOLE, world's most prestigious
shoe design acadamy