How to Change the World
summary
Concrete playbook for making other people change: pick one precise goal, map who must change versus who you can actually influence, then shrink scope or recruit allies until those sets overlap. Use two levers—give information and ask for a specific change—and tie the ask to clear benefits and metrics (example: the Stop Teaching C talk reaches 175,000 views and shifted curricula; tools like Compiler Explorer changed teaching practices). Use named tactics that stick, e.g. the Pac-Man move, test with real users, iterate, and expect failures and pushback.
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chapters (20)
- 0:00Why changing the world feels scary
- 1:14What it means to change the world
- 3:40Changing the world means changing people
- 7:30Standing up to make a change
- 10:00Who you can influence and how
- 13:13Why teammate techniques fail on strangers
- 15:22Using authority to drive change
- 18:53When you can't convince anyone to join you
- 21:22Going together is better
- 24:13Shrinking scope to make change
- 27:45Building change power over time
- 31:20Two things to persuade anyone
- 33:06Asking truth-revealing questions
- 36:38Focusing on benefits not guilt
- 41:39Naming ideas to make them inevitable
- 43:25Finding common ground
- 46:14Overcoming common objections
- 51:52Handling pushback and attacks
- 57:53If not you who and if not now when
- 58:13Summary and how to get started
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