1/ I just finished one of the best books I've EVER read. Comes out next week. My friend @DavidEpstein (Range, The Sports Gene) has written a masterpiece on the virtue of constraints, of not thinking OUTSIDE the box but "INSIDE the BOX"... As a few quick excerpts that 🤯...

As much as I was hoping @DavidEpstein new book was about the science of pondering in a sauna 😉, it turned out to be even better. Exceptional! Application to my biz, running, parenting & more. Blows up mythical concept of total freedom being optimal & replaces it w/ practical approaches to SO many aspects of daily life. Thank you David!

Heads up: I think we just read the BEST business book of 2026. The kind that makes one think. We are always encouraged to think outside the box, as that is equated with being more creative. But you know what? Thinking INSIDE the box can often be more practical and productive. That's the line taken by bestselling author @DavidEpstein in his latest book, the very appropriatelty titled "Inside the box: How constraints make us better," which we have reviewed for @IndianExpress It is a terrific read and packed with examples of how the existence of limits actually helped in the making of many iconic products. Tony Faddell, for instance, actually demanded deadlines for the iPod, and the director of The Incredibles had to be pulled away after his being obsessed with the animation of an aquarium was delaying the film. Pixar's Ed Catmull even says : “I found early on that an abundance of resources leads to sloppiness.” This is hands down a must-read for not just corporate executives, but anyone in any profession or walk of life. David Epstein might make you love those limitations. Read our review here: #InsideTheBox #DavidEpstein #BusinessBooks #Books #Reading #BookReview #BestOf2026 (@BarshaPanda, @ushrit2020, @indranil9, @VatsMusings, @anandkumarn, @BackInBlack_DG, @s_anuj ) indianexpress.com/article/bo…

In 1984, Apple tried hiring “professional management.” Steve Jobs: “It didn’t work at all.” “Most of them were bozos.” “They knew how to manage. But they didn’t know how to do anything.” He spent 4 minutes explaining what actually works: "The greatest people are self-managing. They don't need to be managed." "Once they know what to do, they'll go figure out how to do it. They don't need to be managed at all." "What they need is a common vision. And that's what leadership is." "Having a vision. Being able to articulate it so the people around you can understand it. And getting a consensus on a common vision." So who should manage? "If you're a great person, why do you want to work for somebody you can't learn anything from?" "You know who the best managers are?" "They're the great individual contributors who never ever want to be a manager." "But decide they have to be a manager because no one else is going to be able to do as good a job as them." Apple hired two professional managers from outside the company. Fired them both. Then Jobs gambled on Debbie Coleman. A member of the Macintosh team. 32 years old. English literature major with an MBA from Stanford. A financial manager with no experience in manufacturing. Put in charge of manufacturing. Debbie Coleman: "There's no way in the world anybody else would give me this chance to run this kind of operation. I don't kid myself about that." "It's an incredible high risk. Both for myself personally and professionally. And for Apple as a company. To put a person like myself in this job." "We're betting that my skills at organizational effectiveness override all lack of technology, lack of experience, lack of time in manufacturing." "I'm just an example. Almost every single person on the Mac team, you could say that about." "This is a place where people were afforded incredibly unique opportunities to prove they could write the book again." Hiring was the most important job. "I consider the most important job of someone like myself is recruiting." "We agonized over hiring." "Interviews would start at 9 or 10 in the morning and go through dinner." "A new interviewee would talk to everybody in the building. At least once. Maybe a couple times." "Then come back for another round of interviews. Then we'd all get together and talk about it." "And then they'd fill out an application." He laughs. "No. They never filled out an application." Here's how they knew someone was right. "The critical part of the interview, at least to my mind, was when we finally decided we liked them enough to show them the Macintosh prototype." "We sat them down in front of it." "If they were just kind of bored, or said 'this is a nice computer,' we didn't want them." "We wanted their eyes to light up. For them to get really excited." "Then we knew they were one of us." Once you get the right people, something changes. "When you get a core group of ten great people, it becomes self-policing as to who they let into that group." "Everybody just wanted to work. Not because it was work that had to be done." "But because it was something we really believed in. That was going to really make a difference." "We all wanted exactly the same thing. Instead of spending our time arguing about what the computer should be, we all knew what the computer should be." "And we just went and did it." Inside the casing of every Macintosh, unseen by the consumer, are the signatures of the whole team. Apple's way of affirming that their innovation is a product of the individuals who created it. Not the corporation. This 4 minute video will teach you more about hiring, leadership, and why professional managers fail than every business book combined. Bookmark & give it 4 minutes today, no matter what.

Watched this reel about “The Road Not Taken” on instagram by @DavidEpstein No one else would’ve explained it any better than him. Two roads diverged in a wood, and I - I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. instagram.com/reel/DZLYIsPDM…

Just finished @DavidEpstein's Inside The Box, a compelling case that constraints, not blank canvasses, are the real engine of creativity and innovation. Counterintuitive but well-argued - rules don't hamper ideas, they shape and sharpen them. More choice isn't always the departure lounge for original thinking we imagine it to be. Take it with nuance - but worth taking seriously. #Innovation #Creativity #bookreviews

Once you read @DavidEpstein’s new book you start seeing its applications everywhere. Really great concept.

The Phantom Menace presents the vision of a man with absolutely no restraints, whether they be creative, technical, or financial. I know many consider that to be one of the film's greatest faults, and George Lucas himself even toned some things down like Jar Jar and midichlorians in Episodes II and III in response to fan backlash. But I actually really appreciate that Phantom Menace is arguably the one Star Wars film that just projects George's brain directly onto the screen with zero filters. Everclear Lucas if you will. Such a fascinating, imaginative, and colorful movie that has weathered the criticisms and stood the test of time. There will never be another film like it.

I’m starting to think that the @CleGuardians @RaysBaseball @Brewers were all given advance copies of the brilliant book ‘Inside the Box’ by @DavidEpstein. All small market teams with considerable financial constraints dominating @MLB. Pitching sorcery! ⚾️🧠

I have spent the week on a sunbed letting this brilliantly written book seap into me...I took enormous amounts from his first 2 books but this is superb, he has reinforced some of what I do whilst rigorously challenging everything else - cant thank you enough @DavidEpstein