Chip Heath, Dan Heath

made-to-stick

Key Insights

  • SUCCESs — the six principles of sticky ideas. Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, Stories. The framework is diagnostic: when a message fails to stick, one of these six is usually missing. The villain the framework fights is the Curse of Knowledge — the inability to remember what it felt like not to know what you now know.
  • Simple = core + compact. Simple doesn’t mean dumbed down — it means finding the single most important idea and expressing it in the most efficient possible form. Southwest Airlines: “we are the low-cost airline.” That’s the whole strategy. Every operational decision follows. A proverb is the endpoint of simplification: the core idea in the most memorable possible form.
  • Unexpectedness — break a pattern to get attention, open a gap to keep it. The brain’s attention system is a pattern detector; surprise is what interrupts the pattern-matching and forces processing. To hold attention over time, create a knowledge gap — an unanswered question the audience needs resolved. Mystery structures, “here’s what you think you know / here’s what’s actually true,” and counterintuitive claims all exploit this mechanism.
  • Concrete beats abstract, always. Abstractions exist in the expert’s mind, not in the novice’s. “A chicken is roughly the size of a football” is more useful than “medium-sized bird.” Vivid, sensory-specific language creates genuine mental models; category labels don’t. The test: can you visualize it? If not, it’s not concrete enough.
  • Credibility — internal and external. External credibility comes from experts and authorities. Internal credibility comes from concrete details and “testable credentials” — specific facts that let the audience verify the claim themselves. Anti-authority figures (a real smoker describing lung disease, not a doctor) can be more credible than experts for certain audiences.
  • Emotional — people not statistics. “The singularity effect” — people respond to one identified victim more than to statistical millions. Emotion is triggered by individuals, not aggregates. The implication: humanize your data. Connect your message to something the audience already cares about by making it personal and specific.
  • Stories — simulation and inspiration. Stories work because they simulate experience: the brain processes narrative as if living it. Stories also function as inspiration — they show that a goal is achievable by showing someone achieving it. The best sticky stories are simultaneously: a Challenge plot (overcoming obstacles), a Connection plot (crossing a divide between people), or a Creativity plot (solving a problem in a new way).

— Drafted from external sources; review and edit to make your own.

From earlier notes:

Success for stickiness: (1) Simplicity (proverbs, exclude all possible) (2) Unexpectedness (open gaps in knowledge) (3) Concreteness (imagery, specifics) (4) Credible (5) Emotional appeal (people not abstractions) (6) Stories. The villain — the curse of knowledge. Domain: [ “[[GTMGrowth|GTMGrowth]]”, “[[Marketing|Marketing]]”, “[[Storytellingnarratives|Storytellingnarratives]]”, ] Summary: |- The best thing about “Made to Stick” is its practical framework for creating memorable and effective messages, emphasizing principles like simplicity, unexpectedness, and emotional appeal that resonate with readers. Reviewers appreciate the concrete examples and engaging stories that illustrate these concepts, making the material relatable and applicable.

On the downside, some reviewers note that the book can feel repetitive at times, reiterating similar points without adding significant new insights. Additionally, a few readers feel that the focus on storytelling may not be as applicable to all types of communication, limiting its overall usefulness in certain contexts. Tag:

  • Reread Genre:
  • GTM reading_status: Read Finished: 2021-07-01 rating: Great Format: Audiobook Source: Libby

Success for stickiness

  1. Simplicity (proverbs, exclude all possible)
  2. Unexpectedness (open gaps in knowledge)
  3. Concreteness (imagery, specifics, ambiguous)
  4. Credible
  5. Emotional appeal (people not abstractions)
  6. Stories

The villain - the curse of knowledge

  • H

Simple

  • Commanders intent. Single objective that’s the north star to align everyone’s focus. Can’t have multiple. Must exclude all but most critical
  • About getting to the core, not dumbing down. Southwest as “the low fair airline”
  • Don’t bury the lede
  • Share the core relentlessly and concretely. “Names, names and names” as priority for local paper
  • Compact expression goes a long way. Proverbs and analogies/metaphors.

Unexpectedness

  • Best way to get attention is to break a pattern
  • Stories that break precious schema and common sense
    • Eg Nordstrom stories of wrapping Macy’s items or refunding snow chains is so unusual it redefines what good customer service is
  • Create gaps in knowledge (similar to click bait headlines) that ppl want to fill
    • Set up mysteries to hold interest

Concreteness - able to visualize and make sense to a novice for whom abstractions make no sense