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CHAPTERS
Chapter summaries
Why I passed on Warby Parker—and what that taught me about “originals”
Adam Grant opens with the story of turning down an investment in a slow-moving student startup that later became Warby Parker. He uses the mistake to introduce his research focus: “originals,” non-conformists who generate new ideas and take action to champion them.
- •A student pitches an online retail idea, but the team keeps internships and backup jobs and still lacks a working website close to launch
- •Grant declines to invest; the company later becomes Warby Parker, recognized as highly innovative and valued over a billion dollars
- •Grant defines “originals” as people with new ideas who also act on them
- •Sets up three lessons on recognizing originals and becoming more like them
Precrastination vs. procrastination: a personal confession
Grant explains that his instinct is the opposite of procrastination—he “precrastinates,” feeling deadline panic months early. He shares personal anecdotes to illustrate how rushing to finish early shaped his identity and work style.
- •Grant calls himself a “precrastinator” and describes feeling urgency far ahead of deadlines
- •Childhood anecdote about mastering Nintendo games obsessively
- •A joke about trading hair for teeth underscores time passing and intensity
- •He finished a college senior thesis four months early and felt proud—until later evidence challenged that pride
Procrastination’s “sweet spot”: field data on creativity
A student, Jihae, claims her best ideas come while procrastinating, prompting Grant to test the idea with data. Surveys and manager ratings show that moderate procrastinators are seen as more creative than both precrastinators and chronic procrastinators.
- •Jihae reports having her most creative ideas while procrastinating
- •In multiple companies, employees report procrastination frequency and bosses rate creativity/innovation
- •Precrastinators who rush early are rated as less creative than moderate procrastinators
- •Chronic procrastinators don’t show the same benefit, implying too much delay undermines idea generation
Experiments: why moderate delay boosts originality (incubation)
Grant describes experiments where participants generate business ideas and are randomly assigned to start immediately or to procrastinate briefly. Moderate procrastination improves creativity because the task remains active in the mind, allowing ideas to incubate and diverge.
- •Participants generate business ideas; independent readers rate creativity and usefulness
- •Some do the task immediately; others are assigned to procrastinate with Minesweeper for short periods
- •Moderate procrastinators produce ideas rated 16% more creative than the other groups
- •The boost occurs when procrastination happens after the task is introduced, keeping it mentally active
- •Grant explains incubation: time enables divergent, nonlinear thinking and unexpected leaps
Meta-procrastination and historical examples of “slow finishing”
While writing about procrastination, Grant tries delaying on purpose and finds new ideas emerge when he returns. He connects this pattern to notable originals who were quick to start but slow to finish, using Leonardo da Vinci and Martin Luther King Jr. as examples.
- •Grant tries to procrastinate deliberately while writing a chapter on procrastination
- •He stops mid-sentence for months and later returns with new ideas
- •Quote cited: “You call it procrastinating, I call it thinking”
- •Leonardo da Vinci worked on the Mona Lisa on and off for 16 years; diversions influenced his painting through optics
- •Martin Luther King Jr. rewrote his speech late and improvised “I have a dream,” which wasn’t in the prepared text
Debunking the first-mover obsession: different-and-better beats first
Grant revisits what he misread about Warby Parker’s slow start, arguing they were refining how to make customers comfortable ordering glasses online. He claims “first mover advantage” is mostly a myth, citing research comparing pioneers versus “improvers.”
- •Grant thought Warby Parker missed first-mover advantage by delaying
- •He reframes the delay as time spent solving customer comfort and adoption issues
- •He says first-mover advantage is mostly a myth
- •A study across over 50 product categories: first movers show a 47% failure rate vs. 8% for improvers
- •Examples given of later entrants succeeding: Facebook after Myspace/Friendster; Google after AltaVista/Yahoo
Doubt isn’t the enemy: self-doubt vs. idea doubt
Grant explains he also doubted Warby Parker because the founders had backup plans, which he mistook for lack of courage. He distinguishes between paralyzing self-doubt and productive doubt about the idea, arguing that idea doubt fuels testing and refinement.
- •Grant assumed originals would be unwaveringly confident and saw backup plans as a red flag
- •He argues many originals appear confident but still feel fear and doubt
- •Two forms of doubt: self-doubt (paralyzing) vs. idea doubt (energizing)
- •Idea doubt motivates testing, experimenting, and refining, which he links to MLK’s process
- •He reframes the internal script from “I’m crap” to “the early drafts are crap, and I’m not there yet”
Doubting the default: what your web browser signals
Grant presents research suggesting browser choice predicts job performance and retention, not due to technical superiority but due to a willingness to reject defaults. The key trait is initiative: questioning what’s handed to you and searching for better options.
- •Grant claims job performance and commitment can be predicted from browser choice
- •Firefox and Chrome users significantly outperform Internet Explorer and Safari users in the study
- •He adds they stay in their jobs 15% longer
- •He argues it’s not typing speed or computer knowledge; it’s how the browser was chosen
- •Default browsers reflect accepting the default; downloading alternatives reflects doubting the default and being resourceful
Vuja de and re-seeing the familiar: the Frozen example
Grant introduces “vuja de,” the experience of seeing something familiar with fresh eyes, as the payoff of questioning defaults. He illustrates it with a storytelling example where Jennifer Lee reimagines a long-stalled script by changing assumptions about the villain.
- •Grant defines “vuja de” as the opposite of deja vu: seeing the familiar anew
- •He links vuja de to doubting defaults and reconsidering assumptions
- •A screenwriter revisits a script that couldn’t get approved for more than half a century
- •Jennifer Lee questions the default of an “evil queen,” rewrites the first act, and reframes the villain as a tortured hero
- •Frozen is cited as becoming the most successful animated movie ever
Fear and regret: originals are more afraid of not trying
Grant argues originals feel fear of failure but are even more afraid of failing to try. He says long-term regrets tend to center on inaction, and he uses Elon Musk as an example of pursuing efforts despite expecting failure.
- •Originals fear failing, but fear not trying even more
- •Grant contrasts failure by action (starting and failing) with failure by inaction (never starting)
- •He says the biggest regrets are commonly inactions—chances not taken
- •He reports Elon Musk didn’t expect Tesla to succeed and expected early SpaceX launches to fail
- •Musk is quoted in essence as viewing the attempt as too important not to try
Bad ideas are part of the process: volume increases the odds of hits
Grant counters the fear of being judged for bad ideas by arguing originals generate many of them. He explains that prolific output correlates with standout success, offering examples from invention, classical composition, and Warby Parker’s naming process.
- •Grant says many people stay silent due to fear of embarrassment; he cites 85% keeping their biggest idea/suggestion to themselves
- •He emphasizes originals have lots of bad ideas and aren’t defined by them
- •Thomas Edison example: people remember the light bulb, not a creepy talking doll invention
- •In classical music, a key predictor of acclaim is the sheer volume of compositions produced; more output yields more variety and better chances of originality
- •Warby Parker’s founders tested over 2,000 names before selecting “Warby Parker”
Putting it together: how originals really look—and why it matters
Grant summarizes the three themes: originals procrastinate strategically, manage doubt productively, and produce enough ideas to find great ones. He closes by urging listeners not to dismiss themselves—or others—based on fear, doubt, delays, or imperfect early ideas.
- •Originals aren’t radically different: they feel fear and doubt, procrastinate, and have bad ideas
- •Sometimes success comes because of these traits, not in spite of them
- •Being quick to start but slow to finish can boost creativity
- •Motivation comes from doubting ideas (not the self) and embracing fear of failing to try
- •Generating many ideas—including bad ones—helps produce a few truly good ones; Grant closes by calling originality a powerful way to improve the world
