The Formula: The Universal Laws of Success - Albert-László Barabási  ## Metadata - Author: **Albert-László Barabási** - Full Title: The Formula: The Universal Laws of Success - Category: #books ## Highlights - And then there are the Wright brothers, the inventors of the airplane according to the schoolbooks. Never mind that the first powered flight was executed nine months prior to theirs, by a New Zealander named Richard Pearse. Seemingly, it’s the last person who makes a discovery that really matters, not the first. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jmxq6k8ba5x0gff7zkq9smxm)) ## New highlights added February 25, 2025 at 9:06 PM - But details aside, the key distinction between the two men is that one was useful to his network and the other was not. The Red Baron’s success was about what was happening politically and socially during the war, not only about how many planes he shot down, or how vain he was, or how he felt about his accomplishments. We remember him today because he was once vital to the German propaganda machine. His reputation was left in the hands of those desperate for a hero to galvanize their spirit. The broad public, responding to the Red Baron’s performance, created a myth about him that served its purposes. In other words, the network found him useful and chose to amplify his success. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jn09n7tjptc7ab3zw8hckxzj)) - The Laws of Success will help us understand how to jump-start this kind of community interest, so that our performance resonates widely. If our goal is that our work matters to others—and who doesn’t want that?—then we need to understand how collective interest in our contributions is generated through the intricate webs we are embedded within. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jn09nhted44eff3g2j20z711)) ## New highlights added March 1, 2025 at 5:42 PM - “His entire identity and sense of self was taken away by the scandal. Shame is among the most powerful and destructive of human emotions, and Woods has been marinating in it ever since,” Alan Shipnuck writes in Golf. “During his heyday, Woods could hit any shot and putted better than anybody ever has, but what separated him from everyone else was his heart and his head. His belief in himself was absolute, and unshakable.… Success begat success. But all of that is gone now.” It’s almost as if Tiger Woods was overshadowed by his former self. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jna7hts1xwqdc8mkdkrvtgfd))