superconnector Concepts

Smartcuts: How Hackers, Innovators, and Icons Accelerate Success

by Shane Snow · 8 Sep 2014 · 278pp · 70,416 words

with Masters: “The Vocal Thief” 3 Rapid Feedback: “The F Word” PART II: LEVERAGE 4 Platforms: “The Laziest Programmer” 5 Waves: “Moore and Moore” 6 Superconnectors: “Space, Wars, and Storytellers” PART III: SOAR 7 Momentum: “Depressed Billionaires” 8 Simplicity: “Hot Babes and Paradise” 9 10x Thinking: “The Rocketeer” Epilogue Acknowledgments Notes

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the water to experiment. And if you’re in the sweet spot when that superwave does come, Sonny says, “It’s pure energy.” Chapter 6 SUPERCONNECTORS “Space, Wars, and Storytellers” I. Playa Las Coloradas, on the southern coast of the island of Cuba, is named for a density of red mangrove

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to take you around and meet everyone whom you should know. You soon meet a dozen people, with very little effort. Your friend is a superconnector.* That’s the role that mass media has played in our lives for the past two centuries—superconnecting sources of information to relevant audiences all

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’s hands just because he says to on the radio. Tapping networks is not as easy as simply shouting a message. Guevara became a successful superconnector not because he broadcast, but because he managed to build a relationship with the people. This chapter, and the third lever of this book, is

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, you know, filming Star Wars. Initially, Abrams helped out better-connected people than himself, and doing so helped him superconnect. But once he was the superconnector, he still helped people. That’s how to tell if someone is a giver, or a taker in giver’s clothing. “If you do it

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. “The number one problem with networking is people are out for themselves,” says Scott Gerber, founder of the Young Entrepreneur Council, who coined the term superconnector. “Superconnecting is about learning what people need, then talking about ‘how do we create something of value.’” This is a twist on the classic networking

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to Congo and Bolivia to teach them and join their freedom fights. In the end, Castro’s revolutionary message reached a massive audience through a superconnector—a radio—but the rebels won the people’s hearts because they showed that they sincerely cared. The movement harnessed the power of the

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superconnector by giving service as a publisher and educator. J. J. Abrams built his career by collaborating with talented, fast-rising, and well-connected people and

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then helping the members of those people’s networks through meaningful content. No matter the medium or method, giving is the timeless smartcut for harnessing superconnectors and creating serendipity. What happens post-serendipity—as we’ll learn in the final part of this book—is where things start to get really

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“Double Rainbow.” These two YouTube sensations shared a spotlight in the same summer. Tens of millions of people watched them, because of a couple of superconnectors. So where are Vasquez and Phan now? Bear Vasquez has posted more than 1,300 videos now, inspired by the runaway success of “Double Rainbow

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for more videos. Phan upgraded her camera and started recording. Phan’s backlog of content allowed her to take the momentum caused by waves and superconnectors and capture it. Those viewers became hers. When she posted more videos, they kept her swinging from ring to ring. And by constantly feeding them

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headlights. So, he made a few bucks from advertisements, got to be on TV, and stopped at the second set of Olympic rings, where the superconnectors deposited him. Michelle Phan, on the other hand, spent years building up potential energy. She worked hard to hone her craft, stealing from the master

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big talent. They force us to rethink convention and hack the ladder of success. To engage with masters and to leverage waves and platforms and superconnectors. To swing and to simplify, to quickly turn failure into feedback. To become not just bigger, but truly better. And they remind us, once again

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shallows and in miseries. William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/julius_4_3.html. (Hat tip to Robert Baron.) CHAPTER SIX: SUPERCONNECTORS 123 Playa Las Coloradas, on the southern: Descriptions of Cuba, its geography, and the manglar rojo came from Nicki Agate, The Rough Guide to the

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–86 operating systems, 83 teaching children tools, 88–90 writing code in C vs. binary, 83n Condé Nast, 111 Conlogue, Courtney, 112–15 connectors. See superconnectors constraints, 164–66 constructionism, 89–90 constructive interference, 106–7 conventional wisdom application to rocket science, 173 breaking patterns to surpass, 4–5 hard work

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, 132 media censorship, 125 creating new avenues, 55, 72 & n, 218n72 educational potential, 135–36, 205n9 Internet as new avenue, 142, 149, 156, 162 as superconnector tool, 128–31 See also social media/networks medical issues cardiac surgery survival, 40–43 cost of prescription drugs, 173 preterm birth and infant mortality

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to success The Success Principles (Canfield), 38 sudden wealth, impact on success, 143–47, 229n145 Super Bowl XLVII, 147–50 superconnectors defined, 127n, 134 momentum from, 141–43 exemplifying the process, 197 superconnectors, examples Aaron Patzer, 135–36 BuzzFeed (blog), 142, 154 Ernesto “Che” Guevara, 126–31, 136–38 Fidel Castro, 123

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’s a causation-versus-correlation question. But data is clear that big cities are better places for creative people to create and inventors to invent. * Superconnectors are a subset of the “Connectors” Malcolm Gladwell writes about in The Tipping Point, people whose many acquaintances span social circles and who can facilitate

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in the spreading of ideas and epidemics. While Connectors are often passive links between groups, superconnectors actively use their networks to help individuals reach many people at once. For a bonus discussion on Gladwell and

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superconnectors, check out shanesnow.com/superconnectors. * Though we have to give Abrams credit for being a memorable storyteller, too. * Full disclosure: I freelanced as a designer and writer for Mint during

superconnector

Smartcuts: How Hackers, Innovators, and Icons Accelerate Success

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