I just finished reading Switch, a book about how to effect change. Very Dale Carnegiean, the substance of the book was nothing revolutionary, per se. But I liked the way the Heath brothers broke things down to the Rider and the Elephant (borrowed from The Happiness Hypothesis). Here are a few of my favorite pointers from Switch.

One of the few lessons from high school science classes that has actually stuck with me is the difference between velocity and acceleration. Simply put, the velocity is the speed at which an object is traveling, whereas acceleration is how much an object is increasing in speed.

To put it another way, one is an indication of a current status and one is an indication of rate of change.

People love ranking things. Best business school. Best company to work for. Best mustache. Rankings are designed to show how something compares to similar items in a particular category. It shows velocity. And people like that because it helps them make judgements based on what they see.

Velocity has played a part in a lot of the decisions I have made in my life, including what schools I have chosen and what companies I have worked for (not so much with mustache decisions :{ ). Despite this, my view on velocity as an important decision metric has begun to change. Lately, I've been learning to appreciate acceleration as a better measurement.

I just found this video from an excellent TED talk, and I couldn't resist sharing it. Enjoy!

Scott Cook, founder of Intuit, recently spoke to our group of MBAs. Among many valuable insights, he pointed out the need to continually ask the following three questions as it pertains to business.

How can we improve the current game?

How can we change the game?

What new games should we play?

He noted that the second and the third questions are the most important to focus on, yet most businesses dwell primarily on the first.

In Cars, one car tells another car how her town, Radiator Springs, became desolate and abandoned. She explains that a new freeway bypassed her town "just to save ten minutes of driving", as if this was some sort of travesty. This is amusing to me because the car she is telling is Lightning McQueen, a racecar who loves driving fast.

The town in this movie, Radiator Springs, was based on the real-life story of Seligman, Arizona. Built on historic Route 66, Seligman shriveled to almost nothing after the completion of Interstate 40.


One Seligman resident, Angel Delgadillo, fought to preserve his town's legacy and livelihood. A barber by trade, Angel created the first Historic Route 66 Association. Through Angel's efforts, Seligman has become an icon of Route 66 history and also a popular attraction for tourists traveling between Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon. A few years ago I became friends with Angel, visiting his barbershop-turned-giftshop two or three times a week while working as a tour guide. Meeting Angel and hearing his story was inspiring for me (You can watch an interview with Angel in the special features of the Cars DVD).


It is often said that the only constant in life is change. The key to making it through is not to gripe and mope if you get left in the dust. Changing jobs, acquiring new skills, and making an effort to adapt will only help you in the long run. It surely worked for Angel.