Listen free for 30 days

  • Different

  • Escaping the Competitive Herd
  • Written by: Youngme Moon
  • Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
  • Length: 6 hrs and 49 mins
  • 4.8 out of 5 stars (5 ratings)

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo + applicable taxes after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
Different cover art

Different

Written by: Youngme Moon
Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
Try for $0.00

$14.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $26.32

Buy Now for $26.32

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Tax where applicable.

Publisher's Summary

Why trying to be the best...competing like crazy...makes you mediocre.

Every few years a book - through a combination of the author’s unique voice, storytelling ability, wit, and insight - simply breaks the mold. Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods is one example. Richard Feynman’s Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! is another. Now comes Youngme Moon’s Different, a book for “people who don’t read business books”. Actually, it’s more like a personal conversation with a friend who has thought deeply about how the world works...and who gets you to see that world in a completely new light.

If there is one strain of conventional wisdom pervading every company in every industry, it’s the absolute importance of “competing like crazy”. Youngme Moon’s message is simply “Get off this treadmill that’s taking you nowhere. Going tit for tat and adding features, augmentations, and gimmicks to beat the competition has the perverse result of making you like everyone else”. Different provides a highly original perspective on what it means to offer something that is meaningfully different - different in a manner that is both fundamental and comprehensive.

Youngme Moon identifies the outliers, the mavericks, the iconoclasts - the players who have thoughtfully rejected orthodoxy in favor of an approach that is more adventurous. Some are even “hostile”, almost daring you to buy what they are selling. The MINI Cooper was launched with fearless abandon: “Worried that this car is too small? Look here. It’s even smaller than you think".

These are players that strike a genuine chord with even the most jaded consumers. In fact, almost every success story of the past two decades has been an exception to the rule. Simply go to your computer and compare AOL and Yahoo! with Google. The former pile on feature upon feature to their home pages, while Google is like an austere boutique, dominating a category filled with “extras". Different shows how to succeed in a world where conformity reigns...but exceptions rule.

©2010 Youngme Moon (P)2010 Random House

What listeners say about Different

Average Customer Ratings
Overall
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    4
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    4
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    4
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Just excellent.

The rare conversational read that is thorough with ideas worth exploring. This book was a delight from start to finish.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!