15 Interesting Things We Learned in 2024
As we near the end of another year (scary, we know), it's time to reflect on some of the most interesting stuff we’ve learned in 2024.
The 42courses team are constantly reading and getting lost down various rabbit holes.
It’s worth it, though, for all the fascinating things we discover.
Let’s delve into 15 interesting things we've learned this year, each a riveting tidbit in its own right.
We guarantee you won’t be short on conversation topics over the holidays…
1. How To Write A Decent AI Prompt
Millions of people have used ChatGPT, but that doesn’t mean they’re getting the most out of it.
The best way to get a better answer is to ‘prompt’ the AI with clearly structured instructions. The more specific, the better the outcome.
Here’s a guide from Ethan Mollick, an author and Professor of Management at Wharton, on how to write a good prompt:
Step 1 - Role: Specify the persona the AI should take on, e.g., a professional copywriter, therapist, negotiator, etc.
Step 2 - Task: Define what you want the AI to do.
Step 3 - Audience: Clarify who will use the AI’s output.
Step 4 - Create: Provide detailed instructions on the format of the response.
Step 5 - Intent: Explain the end goal, e.g., is it’s goal to help someone learn a topic or persuade them to buy something?
Why not try this method for yourself?
Source: Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI by Ethan Mollick
2. How To Grow A Brand On A Teeny Tiny Marketing Budget
Nearly all the literature on how brands grow is only relevant for well-established brands: Little is written about how you grow big enough for this advice to be relevant.
So, if you’re a small brand with only loose change, here are five top tips for making the most of your limited funds:
1. Leverage PR and ‘earned’ media
Founder-centric PR can be very powerful, as demonstrated by the influence of Elon Musk’s media exposure on Tesla’s growth. Similarly, Sir Richard Branson’s PR stunts did a lot to promote Virgin Atlantic and other Virgin products.
2. Partner Up
How can a small brand get exposure? Easy: by partnering with a bigger brand. When you partner with a larger brand, you ‘leverage’ that brand’s equity by association. Clever stuff.
3. Leverage owned assets
Think of the most creative ways (see…it’s that magic word again) to make the most of what you ‘own’. This includes packaging and owned media, such as newsletters, company websites, and social media profiles.
4. Influencers
Try using influencers to help cut the cost of driving consideration by leveraging their audience. But be careful who you choose! Don’t make the same mistake as Budweiser.
Source: WARC.com
3. The King and the Chessboard
Einstein allegedly called it the ‘8th wonder of the world’. In financial terms, it explains how money makes money.
We’re talking here about the magic of ‘compounding’ illustrated by this wonderful story of an Indian king and a chessboard:
A long time ago, a clever mathematician invented the game of chess and showed it to his king. The king loved the game so much that he told the mathematician, “Ask for any reward, and I’ll give it to you.”
The mathematician thought for a moment and made a humble-sounding request: “I would like some rice, Your Majesty. Place one grain of rice on the first square of the chessboard, then double it on the next square - two grains. Then double that - four grains on the third square, and so on - until all 64 squares are filled.”
The king laughed and said, “That’s all you want? A little rice? Granted!”
But as his servants started doing the math and placing the rice, the king realised the request was anything but small.
By the 10th square, they needed 1,024 grains of rice.
By the 20th square, it was over 1 million grains.
By the 40th square, it was over 1 trillion grains!
By the 64th square, the total was 18,446,744,073,709,551,615 grains of rice.
That’s enough to cover the Earth's entire surface in rice several times!
The king learned an important lesson about the power of compounding: small beginnings can grow into something unimaginably large when they multiply exponentially.
Source: YouTube (N.B. many versions of this legend exist, but the point still stands)
4. The Faster You Drive, The Less Time You Save
Driving at high speeds isn’t worth it if you're late for something.
It’s not just that you risk lives but also because it doesn’t save much time.
That’s right. The amount of time saved by speeding decreases as you increase your speed.
For example, going from 40 mph to 50 mph saves 3 minutes, but going from 80 mph to 90 mph only saves 50 seconds.
This phenomenon is known as the time-saving bias, and here’s a handy video explaining it.
So remember this fact next time you’re tempted to put the pedal to the metal.
Source: Rory Sutherland’s fantastic 2024 Nudgestock keynote.
5. The Humble Secretary Who Retired With A $7 Million Fortune
Grace Groner was born in 1909 in a small farming community in Lake County, Illinois.
Along with her twin sister, she was orphaned at 12 years old and taken in by a kind member of the local community.
After graduating from Lake Forest College in 1931, she began working as a secretary at Abbott Laboratories, where she worked for 43 years.
In 1935, Groner purchased three $60 shares in the company and reinvested the dividends.
She lived a modest life in a two-bedroom apartment and enjoyed travelling and helping others.
On January 19th, 2010, Grace sadly passed away at the ripe old age of 100!
After her death, it was revealed that her estate totalled $7.2 million, left to a foundation to benefit Lake Forest College students.
Grace’s story shows you what's possible with the right approach to investing.
Source: Wikipedia
6. The Six Priorities For Living A Long And Happy Life
What should you focus on if you want to be happy and live a long life?
It turns out that there’s a long-running study which holds the answer.
The Harvard Study of Adult Development followed 800 people throughout their lives and identified six key predictors of happiness and longevity:
1. Having a happy childhood
2. Avoiding smoking/alcohol
3. Education
4. Quality relationships
5. Healthy coping skills
6. Giving back
Which of the above could you improve upon in 2025?
Source: The Harvard Study of Adult Development
7. The Toothbrush Test
Larry Page, CEO of Alphabet (formerly Google), has a clever test for determining whether a product or service is worth investing in.
The test asks if the product or service is used regularly, like a toothbrush. That’s it.
A great example of a simple but effective decision-making filter.
Source: Nir Eyal Medium Post
8. The Simple Formula For Business Success
Alan Miltz, a chartered accountant who co-wrote Scaling Up Rockefeller Habits 2.0, once said, “Revenue is vanity, profit is sanity & cash is king!”
For many entrepreneurs, revenue is the metric they use to measure success.
If you book £20 million in annual revenue, that sounds much better than £5 million.
That’s not the whole story, however.
The £20 million company could have costs of £18.5 million, meaning the gross profit is £1.5 million.
The £5 million revenue company might only cost £2 million to run, giving a gross profit of £3 million, or double that of the larger company.
The third element is cash.
Cash is not only a safety net if sales are down but also dry powder for taking advantage of opportunities, such as buying another company or investing in a new part of your business.
The best businesses have all three.
Apple has enormous revenue and profits, so its market capitalisation is an astonishing $3.85 trillion.
Increasing your prices is a quick and easy way to boost your profits.
As marketing guru Mark Ritson says, "Business is about profit, and the thing that delivers profit more than anything is price. Not saving costs, not sales. A small incremental increase in price drives astonishing profitability for the firm."
This is part of the reason experienced entrepreneurs say that selling expensive things to rich people is the best way to make money.
What high-ticket product or service can you think of?
Source: Scaling Up Rockefeller Habits 2.0
9. Highway Hypnosis
Ever get that feeling when you're driving long-distance on a familiar route that you can’t recall the journey?
There’s a term for it: Highway hypnosis.
It describes an altered mental state in which an automobile driver can drive long distances and respond adequately to external events without consciously remembering.
It’s a good, somewhat terrifying reminder that approximately 95% of our thinking and decision-making occurs subconsciously.
Source: Wikipedia
10. Man Comes Out On Top Versus Software Giant In A Battle Over A Domain Name.
In 2003, Mike Rowe bought MikeRoweSoft.com.
It didn’t take the software giant Microsoft’s lawyers to respond, which caused a legal kerfuffle.
Fortunately, the case was later settled in exchange for an Xbox & an all-expense paid trip to Microsoft HQ.
Source: Wikipedia
11. Selling Coffee To Fund A Trip To The 1932 Olympic Games
In 1932, Brazil couldn’t afford to send its athletes to the Los Angeles Olympics.
What did they do instead?
Officials put them on a ship filled with Brazilian-grown coffee, and the athletes sold the coffee along the way to fund their trip.
It’s a brilliant example of lateral thinking and demonstrates how creative thinking can make up for a lack of financial resources.
Source: Tastingtable.com
12. The Placebo Guitar Switch
A placebo is a treatment with no active ingredients designed to look like the real thing.
The magic lies in the placebo effect, where a patient’s expectation of improvement leads to measurable physical or psychological benefits.
The legendary session bassist Leland Sklar used this psychological phenomenon to his advantage.
He put a switch on his bass guitar that does nothing. Sklar calls it the "producer switch."
When a producer asks for a different sound, he flips the switch (making sure the producer can see) and continues.
He says this placebo has saved him a lot of grief.
Source: Guitarworld.com
13. Making A South Park Episode Is Unbelievably Quick
Trey Parker and Matt Stone are the creators of the enormously successful animated series South Park.
Their company, South Park Digital Studios, is part of the giant company Viacom.
However, like Lockheed’s Skunk Works, they are free to do their own thing.
This special treatment allows for a lightning-fast creative process.
While most production companies take six months to create an episode of an animated TV show, the creators of South Park take just six days!
Source: From ‘How To Fly A Horse: The Secret History of Creation, Invention, and Discovery’ by Kevin Ashton
14. Is This The Best Recruitment Ad Ever?
It's time for something a little different.
We love good ads when we see them partly because they are rare.
This 60 seconds of brilliance from New Zealand Police must be the most entertaining recruitment ad ever.
Source: YouTube
15. 192 Creative Thinking Techniques Explained
Bill Burnbach, the advertising legend and co-founder of the advertising agency DDB, once said, “It may well be that creativity is the last unfair advantage we're legally allowed to take over our competitors.”
Creativity is a tool that anyone can use to their advantage. However, it takes a certain mindset to generate the best creative ideas.
You need to provoke your brain into thinking in a non-linear way. Creative thinking techniques are the solution, and there are many you have likely never heard of.
This list of 192 different techniques is an absolute goldmine.
You’ll never be stuck for ideas ever again.
Source: Mycoted.com
What did you learn in 2024 that stood out? Please share in the comments below. 🤓
