1 hr 20 min
14: A Simple Theory to Never Stop Improving: The Goal by Eliyahu M Goldratt Made You Think
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- Society & Culture
The goal is essentially to increase net-profit while increasing return on investment and increasing cash flow.
Today we’re discussing The Goal by Eliyahu M. Goldratt. It is a business novel that Eliyahu used to introduce the “Theory of Constraints”, a sort of meta-theory for business (and life, really) that you can use to advance the output of just about any system. It is very much a “zero-to-one” book, where you’ll see the world differently after reading.
We cover a wide range of topics, including:
Improving all of your systems with the Theory of Constraints Discovering bottlenecks in various systems and effectively optimizing them Identifying your goal and making positive progress towards it Becoming a better manager or employee by using the Theory of Constraints Improving your time-management skills, productivity, and workflow Useful mental hacks for waking up easier and for making habits stick And much more. Please enjoy, and be sure to grab a copy of The Goal and to check out Nat’s Notes on the book!
If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to check out our other episode on How to Think Like Elon Musk, to emulate Musk’s way of thinking for extreme advantages, and our episode on Antifragile, to learn how to profit from chaos.
Mentioned in the show:
The Theory of Constraints [1:13] AlphaLab [5:31] Sumo [7:35] Zirtual [12:13] Unlimited Brewing Company [13:21] Growth Machine [18:26] Joe Rogan Podcast [28:20] Nat’s article on how to start a podcast [39:37] Deep House Relax on Spotify [40:28] (Nat and Neil’s favorite playlist for deep work) Last of the Mohicans’ soundtrack [40:39] Halo soundtrack [40:45] Matrix soundtrack [40:51] Tron soundtrack [40:52] The Magician on Soundcloud [43:05] OWSLA and Skrillex mix [43:24] Praxis on Medium [45:45] Medium [45:45] Getting Stuff Done Like a Boss course [46:34] Building a Second Brain course [46:45] The Forcing Function [47:00] Nat Chat podcast [47:02] Nat Chat episode with Chris Sparks [47:02] Tiago Forte’s main courses [47:09] Neil’s post on viewing books similar to VC [48:00] Four Sigmatic’s Mushroom Coffee [1:02:18] Athletic Greens [1:02:28] Game of Thrones [1:05:48] Stranger Things [1:05:49] Buffer [1:07:57] Made You Think episode on Thinking Like Elon Musk [1:09:18] Tesla [1:09:18] Boosted Board [1:11:28] How to Legally Own People article [1:13:26] Books mentioned:
The Goal (Nat’s Notes) Antifragile [4:29] (Made You Think episode) (Nat’s Notes) Work Clean [50:22] (episode coming 12-19 or 12-26) (Nat’s Notes) Principles [52:17] (episode coming 12-5) (Nat’s Notes) Emergency [1:19:43] (Made You Think episode) (Nat’s Notes) People mentioned:
Eliyahu M. Goldratt Zak Slayback [4:04] Joe Rogan [28:20] Daft Punk [40:55] Rapper Nas [41:55] Lil Wayne [41:58] Future [42:02] Ivan Pavlov [43:22] Adil Majid [43:29] Tiago Forte [45:32] Chris Sparks [46:59] Elon Musk [1:09:18] Nassim Nicholas Taleb [1:13:26] 0:00 - Introductory quote, a bit of background on the book and the author, and how you can use this book to help you out in both business and in life.
7:24 - Some examples from the book applied to the real-world and some flaws in various business systems.
10:36 - What the actual goal is for various systems, some details on the goal’s infrastructure, and why these three metrics are important. “The goal is essentially to increase net-profit while increasing return on investment and increasing cash flow.”
19:40 - The next part on the daily goal metrics (throughput, inventory, and operational expense) and some details on those.
21:10 - How to use these metrics if you’re not a manager or a CEO and are without a big-picture perspective. Also, some discussion on these metrics, applying them to members of a system, and some real-world examples.
28:44 - Figuring out all of these metrics and operations and then applying them in day-to-day situations. The beginning of how the main character in the story does this.
The goal is essentially to increase net-profit while increasing return on investment and increasing cash flow.
Today we’re discussing The Goal by Eliyahu M. Goldratt. It is a business novel that Eliyahu used to introduce the “Theory of Constraints”, a sort of meta-theory for business (and life, really) that you can use to advance the output of just about any system. It is very much a “zero-to-one” book, where you’ll see the world differently after reading.
We cover a wide range of topics, including:
Improving all of your systems with the Theory of Constraints Discovering bottlenecks in various systems and effectively optimizing them Identifying your goal and making positive progress towards it Becoming a better manager or employee by using the Theory of Constraints Improving your time-management skills, productivity, and workflow Useful mental hacks for waking up easier and for making habits stick And much more. Please enjoy, and be sure to grab a copy of The Goal and to check out Nat’s Notes on the book!
If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to check out our other episode on How to Think Like Elon Musk, to emulate Musk’s way of thinking for extreme advantages, and our episode on Antifragile, to learn how to profit from chaos.
Mentioned in the show:
The Theory of Constraints [1:13] AlphaLab [5:31] Sumo [7:35] Zirtual [12:13] Unlimited Brewing Company [13:21] Growth Machine [18:26] Joe Rogan Podcast [28:20] Nat’s article on how to start a podcast [39:37] Deep House Relax on Spotify [40:28] (Nat and Neil’s favorite playlist for deep work) Last of the Mohicans’ soundtrack [40:39] Halo soundtrack [40:45] Matrix soundtrack [40:51] Tron soundtrack [40:52] The Magician on Soundcloud [43:05] OWSLA and Skrillex mix [43:24] Praxis on Medium [45:45] Medium [45:45] Getting Stuff Done Like a Boss course [46:34] Building a Second Brain course [46:45] The Forcing Function [47:00] Nat Chat podcast [47:02] Nat Chat episode with Chris Sparks [47:02] Tiago Forte’s main courses [47:09] Neil’s post on viewing books similar to VC [48:00] Four Sigmatic’s Mushroom Coffee [1:02:18] Athletic Greens [1:02:28] Game of Thrones [1:05:48] Stranger Things [1:05:49] Buffer [1:07:57] Made You Think episode on Thinking Like Elon Musk [1:09:18] Tesla [1:09:18] Boosted Board [1:11:28] How to Legally Own People article [1:13:26] Books mentioned:
The Goal (Nat’s Notes) Antifragile [4:29] (Made You Think episode) (Nat’s Notes) Work Clean [50:22] (episode coming 12-19 or 12-26) (Nat’s Notes) Principles [52:17] (episode coming 12-5) (Nat’s Notes) Emergency [1:19:43] (Made You Think episode) (Nat’s Notes) People mentioned:
Eliyahu M. Goldratt Zak Slayback [4:04] Joe Rogan [28:20] Daft Punk [40:55] Rapper Nas [41:55] Lil Wayne [41:58] Future [42:02] Ivan Pavlov [43:22] Adil Majid [43:29] Tiago Forte [45:32] Chris Sparks [46:59] Elon Musk [1:09:18] Nassim Nicholas Taleb [1:13:26] 0:00 - Introductory quote, a bit of background on the book and the author, and how you can use this book to help you out in both business and in life.
7:24 - Some examples from the book applied to the real-world and some flaws in various business systems.
10:36 - What the actual goal is for various systems, some details on the goal’s infrastructure, and why these three metrics are important. “The goal is essentially to increase net-profit while increasing return on investment and increasing cash flow.”
19:40 - The next part on the daily goal metrics (throughput, inventory, and operational expense) and some details on those.
21:10 - How to use these metrics if you’re not a manager or a CEO and are without a big-picture perspective. Also, some discussion on these metrics, applying them to members of a system, and some real-world examples.
28:44 - Figuring out all of these metrics and operations and then applying them in day-to-day situations. The beginning of how the main character in the story does this.
1 hr 20 min