“Scale” has become a favored buzzword in the startup world. But scale isn’t just about accumulating more users or capturing more market share. It’s about whether an idea that takes hold in a small group can do the same in a much larger one—whether you’re growing a small business, rolling out a diversity and inclusion program, or delivering billions of doses of a vaccine.
Translating an idea into widespread impact, says University of Chicago economist John A. List, depends on one thing only: whether it can achieve “high voltage”—the ability to be replicated at scale.
In The Voltage Effect, List explains that scalable ideas share a common set of attributes, while any number of attributes can doom an unscalable idea. Drawing on his original research, as well as fascinating examples from the realms of business, policymaking, education, and public health, he identifies five measurable vital signs that a scalable idea must possess, and offers proven strategies for avoiding voltage drops and engineering voltage gains. You’ll learn:
• How celebrity chef Jamie Oliver expanded his restaurant empire by focusing on scalable “ingredients” (until it collapsed because talent doesn’t scale)
• Why the failure to detect false positives early on caused the Reagan-era drug-prevention program to backfire at scale
• How governments could deliver more services to more citizens if they focused on the last dollar spent
• How one education center leveraged positive spillovers to narrow the achievement gap across the entire community
• Why the right set of incentives, applied at scale, can boost voter turnout, increase clean energy use, encourage patients to consistently take their prescribed medication, and more.
By understanding the science of scaling, we can drive change in our schools, workplaces, communities, and society at large. Because a better world can only be built at scale.
1 有用 地下宇航员 2022-02-07 09:58:27
7/10. 其实是John List二十年在政商学三界做研究实践经验的一些实用总结,用一些经济学和统计学的简单框架松散地组织起来。
0 有用 SYZZZ 2023-04-21 14:10:32 美国
前半部分非常thoughtful,五个条件互相作用,是一个很好的思维框架和一片严谨的经济学论文去。后半部分略缺乏新意,感觉是对于行为经济学、Kahneman思想的复述
0 有用 朱siri 2025-02-20 22:41:56 天津
谈论了产品与服务规模化的五个难关和四种方法,总体感觉较浅。
1 有用 Bean 2022-07-12 23:09:31
行为经济学概念的大混杂 重要的是,我一字不差全读完了🤣
0 有用 Kallas 2025-03-23 01:46:25 美国
2025/02, John List 的书,讲为什么很多项目为什么 unscalable. 但是没有说怎么能够变得 scalable,可能这类事情本来就是一事一议的。