Book review: Rebel Ideas by Matthew Syed

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There are a lot of non-fiction books which pick up a psychological or social topic and delve deeper into it. But a lot of such books end up repeating the same idea, from multiple angles, all through the book. And that is one aspect in which I found Rebel Ideas quite different. The author did have an idea to start with, but he moves much beyond the original idea along the book, which made it a lot more interesting to read (and easier to finish) than a lot of the other books I have read in this genre. And thats why I would recommend reading Rebel Ideas. Its written well and you definitely won't get bored 😊.

The overall theme of the book is a case for diversity. In life, in organisations, in thought and so on. And the author gives reasons why diversity matters, why it is important, and also shares examples to show why it works better than not having diversity. I am sharing below a few thoughts in the book which struck with me...
  • The biggest reason why it makes sense to have more diversity in teams is to avoid blind spots. Its when people from different backgrounds or experiences join a group can the group as a whole see things in a different light, or identify blind spots which they could not have earlier as they all had the same world view
  • The outsider view is critical and a lot of times successful. That is what makes immigrants the biggest enterpreneurs. You can see that in US, a lot of the rich enterpreneurs are people who have come from outside the system. As they dont know (and accept) the status quo, they are able to disrupt the market a lot more easily
  • If you look at some of the biggest innovations nowadays, they come by, by a combination of ideas across different topics or industries. So it is always a good idea to have multi-functional teams, or people from different backgrounds on the board and so on. The cross-pollination of ideas is quite under realised by the world
  • Human beings are different as we have the ability to learn from each other and build on that knowledge. This exchange of ideas is the bedrock of human progress. And contrary to what we would think, to make good technology also, its more important (and successful) to be social than smart. As working alone won't get you the right answer which the combined power of multiple human minds working together can
  • However, even after diversity, sometimes because of hierarchy and group dominance, diversity and rebel ideas are ignored. So  along with having those ideas, it is also very important to make sure all the diverse ideas are also heard
  • It becomes even more critical when things get uncertain and pressure increases. As those are the times when dominant leaders are preferred over prestigious ones and that is always the wrong decision. At such critical times, it becomes even more important to listen to diverse ideas in any group
  • Standardising everything based on human averages is wrong. Each human is different and diverse. The best example would be diets - they may work for some and not for some. In fact, they can have opposite reactions for some. So its always important to see what works for you before accepting a single truth

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