Re:Thinking with Adam GrantWhy you should study yourself like a scientist! with Jim Collins | ReThinking
At a glance
WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT
Study yourself like a scientist to discover enduring personal encodings
- Collins describes creating a “bug book” to record nonjudgmental, clinical observations about his behaviors and reactions, which helped him identify environments and tasks that genuinely energized him.
- He explains an updated daily tracking system that logs time use, creative hours (aiming for 1,000+ per year), and an immediate subjective day score, generating data for self-comparison and growth.
- Both argue that self-comparison can be a source of growth because personal data reveals what distinguishes one’s best and worst days better than copying others’ routines.
- Collins introduces “encodings”—durable, instinctive capacities revealed by life experience—and emphasizes finding roles and “seats” that bring more encodings “in frame,” in oneself and others.
- They address critiques of Good to Great by clarifying the comparison-company research design, and Collins frames later company declines as a prompt to study how greatness is lost (How the Mighty Fall) rather than a refutation of principles.
IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING
5 ideasTreat yourself as a research subject, not a moral project.
Collins’s “bug book” works because observations are descriptive rather than self-judging; this reduces defensiveness and makes patterns easier to see and act on.
Measure what you value, but allow flexibility in the cadence.
Tracking “creative hours” to a yearly total (1,000+) avoids brittle daily streaks and permits zero-days when balanced by deeper creative stretches.
Record subjective experience immediately, not retroactively.
Collins learned the day’s “+2 to -2” rating must be captured the same day because memory and mood distort the signal you’re trying to measure.
Self-comparison is often more useful than copying others’ routines.
Instead of importing someone else’s habits, analyze your own best-day/worst-day conditions to identify personal drivers of creativity, focus, and wellbeing.
Look for “encodings” beneath skills: what’s durable and instinctive.
Collins distinguishes will-built strengths from deep encodings (e.g., being good at math vs being encoded for math), and urges aligning life choices to what repeatedly lights you up.
WORDS WORTH SAVING
5 quotes"You know, you should study yourself like a scientist and observe yourself."
— Rochelle Meyers (quoted by Jim Collins)
"I decided to study myself dispassionately like a bug."
— Jim Collins
"I really have become enormously skeptical of following recipes or advice from other people at all."
— Jim Collins
"My shift went from feeling frustrated with what people are not into feeling grateful for what they are, and that shift emotionally has been-- It's like the entire color of the lens of which I look through the world and look at other people has changed."
— Jim Collins
"This whole notion of what my legacy is gonna be is ultimately egocentric. You're not gonna be here to enjoy it anyway."
— Jim Collins
High quality AI-generated summary created from speaker-labeled transcript.
