Amanda Penn, Author at Shortform Books

Flywheel and Doom Loop: Why Businesses Take Off or Fail

What are the flywheel and doom loop from Jim Collins’s book Good to Great? Why do you want to emulate the flywheel, and how do you avoid the doom loop? The flywheel and doom loop are concepts from Jim Collins’s book Good to Great. Collins likens the process of going from good to great to the turning of a heavy flywheel. To get the flywheel moving takes continuous effort and dedication, but once it’s spinning, its momentum keeps it going. The opposite of the flywheel is the doom loop, a painful cycle of decline. We’ll cover the flywheel and doom

Hillbilly Highway: Hillbillies Come to Town, Alarming Locals

What was the “Hillbilly Highway”? How did this phenomenon start, and where? The “Hillbilly Highway” is a name for stretches of U.S. Route 23 and Interstate 75. It earned its moniker from the mass migration of “hillbilly” families from Kentucky to the midwest in search of jobs. We’ll cover how the “Hillbilly Highway” came to be and how JD Vance’s family arrives in Ohio in Hillbilly Elegy.

Education in Appalachia: How a Culture Is Failing Its Kids

How is the system of education in Appalachia? How is education in Appalachia portrayed in JD Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy? In Vance’s book on life in Appalachian Ohio, education in Appalachia is in a sad state. Learn how he views the education system in his home community and why he thinks that the culture puts such little emphasis on education.

JD Vance’s Sister: Lindsay’s Shocking Appalachian Childhood

What is JD Vance’s sister Lindsay Vance like in Hillbilly Elegy? How do she and Vance cope with an abusive mother and a town that prizes violence and devalues education? Hillbilly Elegy sets out to explore the struggles of the rural white working class in 21st-century America through the personal story of its author, JD Vance. Learn how JD Vance and his sister Lindsay Vance overcome the odds and achieve lives of success and respectability outside of the hillbilly culture from which they came—but at a heavy personal cost, and with many struggles along the way.

Culture of Discipline: Good to Great Businesses + Examples

What is a culture of discipline? Why do the most successful companies have one? How do you foster a culture of discipline in your own workplace? A culture of discipline is a workplace culture in which everyone gauges his or her actions according to the company’s common goal. The concept is detailed in Jim Collins’s book Good to Great, in which he argues that truly great companies have a culture of discipline. We’ll cover Jim Collins’s culture of discipline, why it leads to success, and how to develop one.

The “Stop Doing” List: Better for Business Than a To-Do List?

What is a “stop doing” list? Why is it an essential tool for business? A “stop doing” list is a list of things you or your company are not going to do. It’s a counter-intuitive technique for maintaining an organization’s discipline from Jim Collins’s book Good to Great. We’ll cover the benefits of the “stop doing” list and why it can be more effective than a “to-do” list, from Jim Collins’s Good to Great.

The 2 Greatest Advantages of Checklists, for Work and Life

What are the advantages of checklists? How can they make you more efficient and less liable to make careless mistakes at work and at home? We’ll cover the benefits it checklists and look at examples of the advantages of checklists in the worlds of aviation and medicine.

How to Avoid Silly Mistakes: The Simple, Proven Strategy

People are pretty amazing: we can predict dangerous storms, explore distant planets, and save people from life-threatening conditions and injuries. Yet highly trained, experienced, and capable people regularly make avoidable mistakes. Do you ever wonder how to avoid silly mistakes? In The Checklist Manifesto, Boston surgeon Atul Gawande contends the reason is that knowledge and complexity in many fields have exceeded the capacity of any individual to get everything right. Under pressure, we make simple mistakes and overlook the obvious. Drawing lessons from spectacular successes and failures in recent years, he argues that the solution is a checklist. While not a

“The Ghost Soldiers”—The Things They Carried: Complete Guide

What happens in the chapter “The Ghost Soldiers” in The Things They Carried? How does the “The Ghost Soldiers” chapter reflect the themes of the novel? We’ll look at the basic elements of the chapter “The Ghost Soldiers” (The Things They Carried) and look at how its themes of revenge convey the brutality of men on the same side of the battlefield.

Appalachian Culture: As Dysfunctional as in Hillbilly Elegy?

What are the hallmarks of Appalachian culture? Are these hallmarks actually stereotypes? JD Vance says they’re not. Hillbilly Elegy sets out to explore the struggles of Appalachian life in 21st-century America through the personal story of its author, JD Vance. Part autobiography, part sociological text, and part political manifesto, the book tells a story of dysfunctional families; substance abuse; the material, spiritual, and moral decline of Appalachian culture; and the struggles to achieve true economic and social mobility in the United States.