Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die (Summary)
A businessman travels to a foreign city for a meeting. He has a drink at a hotel bar with an attractive woman, and the next thing he knows, he wakes up in a bathtub full of ice. His side is in agony, and a note taped to the wall says, 'DON'T MOVE. CALL 911.' A small voice on the phone tells him, 'Sir, I want you to check your back. Is there a tube coming out of your lower back?' He finds the tube and says yes. The voice replies, 'Sir, don't panic, but you've had a kidney stolen.' This story is a complete fabrication, yet it has spread for decades. Why does a lie like this stick so powerfully, while critical, life-saving truths are instantly forgotten?
Simplicity is About Finding the Core
To make an idea simple, you must strip it down to its most critical essence. This isn't about dumbing down; it's about finding the single most important thing, like a proverb or a core mission statement.
Instead of giving soldiers a complex, multi-page battle plan that would inevitably fall apart, the U.S. Army adopted the 'Commander's Intent.' This is a simple, plain-talk statement that specifies the mission's goal (e.g., 'My intent is to position the 3rd battalion on the high ground to control the valley'). This simple, core idea allows individuals to improvise and make smart decisions even in chaotic situations.
Surprise is the Enemy of Apathy
To get attention, you must break a pattern. Our brains are wired to notice what’s different. Surprise acts as an 'attention bulldozer,' clearing the way for your message.
Nora Ephron's journalism teacher gave her class an assignment to write the lead for a story about a faculty meeting. The facts were simple: the principal announced that the entire faculty would be traveling to the state capital. Every student wrote a standard lead. The teacher then revealed the real lead: 'There will be no school next Thursday.' This violated the students' expectations and revealed the core message that actually mattered to the audience.
Concrete Details Make Ideas Real
Abstract language is the enemy of memory. Our brains are built to remember tangible, sensory information. Grounding your ideas in concrete images and actions makes them far more memorable and easier to grasp.
A charity wants to illustrate the problem of movie-theater popcorn being unhealthy. Saying it contains '37 grams of saturated fat' is abstract and meaningless to most people. Instead, the Center for Science in the Public Interest framed it this way: a medium popcorn at a typical theater contains more artery-clogging fat than a bacon-and-eggs breakfast, a Big Mac and fries for lunch, and a steak dinner with all the trimmings—combined. This concrete, visceral image stuck instantly.
People Care About People, Not Statistics
To make people care, you must appeal to their emotions. The most effective way to do this is to focus on an individual. We feel for a person, not an abstract number.
A study tested two different donation requests for the charity Save the Children. One letter used large-scale statistics about the millions of children suffering in Africa. The other letter told the story of a single, seven-year-old girl from Mali named Rokia who was facing starvation. The letter focusing on Rokia raised more than twice as much money as the one using statistics.
