The Leader as a Mensch

Have you ever wondered why some people and organizations seem to innovate effortlessly, while others get lost in endless planning? In Innovation that Sticks, Lars Sudmann argues that the secret lies not in perfect plans but in fearless experimentation. His central metaphor—the Spaghetti Principle—is refreshingly simple: to know whether spaghetti is cooked, you throw it at the wall and see if it sticks. Likewise, in business and life, the only way to know if an idea works is to test it against reality. The book is a manifesto for action over analysis, randomness over rigidity, and humble trial-and-error as the engine of progress.

Why We Need a New Approach to Innovation

Sudmann opens by challenging the traditional planning mentality. Most people, he says, design intricate strategies—complete with flowcharts, meetings, and theoretical “perfect” solutions—that crumble when they meet reality. The world is too complex, too dynamic, and filled with too many unknowns for linear planning to work. Borrowing from startup thinking (as Eric Ries does in The Lean Startup), Sudmann insists that today’s world is a realm of uncertainty and dynamism. Using the Spaghetti Principle, you can adapt continuously by throwing small, tangible experiments into the world—products, habits, meeting styles, or new routines—and learning from what sticks.

Throwing Spaghetti: Testing Ideas Against Reality

The core process is brilliantly democratic: everyone, from CEOs to students, can throw Spaghetti. In environments with short operating history and high uncertainty—startups, creative industries, rapidly changing teams—this approach helps you test fast, fail cheaply, and learn deeply. Instead of clinging to predetermined outcomes, Sudmann advocates moving quickly from thought to action and letting results guide you. For example, Google’s Matt Cutts created the now-famous 30-day challenge to experiment with habits—adding and subtracting behaviors in short bursts (like biking to work or quitting sugar). The Finnish Opera, too, broke tradition by experimenting outside its comfort zone with musicals like “The Phantom of the Opera.” Both show that innovation thrives only when we move from theory to experimentation.

The Science and Psychology Behind Spaghetti Thinking

Why does the Spaghetti Principle work? Sudmann ties it to psychology and behavioral science. Drawing from Daniel Kahneman’s research, he warns that biases like anchoring distort our thinking and keep us stuck in old paths—our personal “QWERTYs.” Like the outdated keyboard layout, our habits and organizational processes often exist merely because “that’s how it’s always been done.” Path dependence locks us in. The Spaghetti Principle breaks these constraints through exposure to random and diverse ideas—testing the unfamiliar and occasionally the absurd—to escape mental and organizational ruts.

Structured Randomness: The Portfolio Approach

One of Sudmann’s most distinctive insights is that randomness needs structure. Innovation shouldn’t be chaotic; it should be managed like a portfolio. He suggests categorizing ideas into “Spaghetti types”: tried-and-true (Type 1), new but uncomfortable (Type 2), and radical or random (Type 3). A healthy portfolio might follow Geoff Tuff’s 70/20/10 rule—70% proven ideas, 20% new experiments, and 10% wild innovations. This balance keeps you grounded while still exploring the unknown. In nature, bees use a similar system—a 10% “built-in error” in their waggle dance ensures discovery of new food sources beyond the obvious. Innovation, like the bee’s dance, works best when we build controlled randomness into our patterns.

Living the Spaghetti Principle

Sudmann turns theory into practice in later chapters, showing how to apply the Spaghetti mindset personally and organizationally. He explains how leaders can embrace failure cultures—where mistakes lead to learning rather than punishment (as Elon Musk famously says: “If you’re not failing, you’re not innovating enough”). Teams can avoid the “ant mill” effect—blindly following each other in circles—by rewarding those who explore offbeat ideas. Individuals can cultivate experimentation by exposing themselves to randomness: new people, questions, and experiences. And when resistance arises, Sudmann offers ten concrete ways to make innovation contagious, from showcasing success stories to tying rewards to creative risks.

Thinking Inside the Box and the Art of Constraints

Paradoxically, freedom flourishes within limits. Sudmann’s concept of “Think inside the box” encourages creating creative boundaries—time-boxing, ritual-boxing, or resource-boxing—to deepen innovation. Constraints foster clarity and creativity (as design thinkers or authors like Austin Kleon would agree). For example, writing a vision in eight words or running a 24-hour hackathon forces depth instead of breadth. When people can play safely within a sandbox—like test markets or prototypes—they dare to experiment more effectively.

Why Experimentation Matters More Than Perfection

Ultimately, Innovation that Sticks is a celebration of humility. “Experimentation is an act of humility,” Sendhil Mullainathan says in one of Sudmann’s quoted reflections—an acknowledgment that you simply cannot know without trying. The Spaghetti Principle invites you to drop the illusion of perfect control and embrace the messy, glorious process of trial and discovery. Whether testing a new hobby, business model, or meeting format, the message is clear: throw it at the wall, see if it sticks, learn, adjust, and throw again. Innovation is not a masterpiece crafted in isolation; it’s an œuvre built strand by strand—one sticky spaghetti at a time.

Lars Sudmann’s philosophy starts with movement. Most people stall at the planning phase—discussing, analyzing, outlining—but the moment of truth arrives only when an idea collides with reality. Throwing spaghetti on the wall is the metaphorical act of experimentation, where reality replaces theory as the ultimate teacher. Reality is the ‘wall’ that decides what sticks.

Planning vs. Reality

Sudmann criticizes the obsession with perfect planning that leads to “Homer-mobiles”—beautiful constructs designed in isolation but useless in practice. He contrasts traditional linear planning (“idea–plan–execute”) with the uncertainty-driven environment of startups and modern life. When past experience offers little guidance, throwing spaghetti means running fast, cheap, reversible experiments—similar to Amazon’s “Type 2 decisions.” Type 2 decisions are quick tests that can be reversed easily; they should be your playground for innovation.

Examples from Real Life

Sudmann illustrates with stories like Google’s Matt Cutts, who changed his habits through small 30-day trials, and Helsinki’s Opera House, which tested new audience segments by performing musicals instead of classical opera. These examples show that throwing spaghetti isn’t reckless—it’s pragmatic, structured risk-taking. You don’t need to know everything; you only need to be open enough to test and observe.

What to Throw: The Spaghetti Categories

• Things: new products, apps, tools, gadgets.
• Processes: new workflows, management systems, or communication routines.
• Methods: ways of selling, teaching, or interacting.
• Techniques: networking approaches, physical routines, mental frameworks.
• Metrics: the ways you measure success—perhaps shifting focus from outcomes to processes.

You can throw spaghetti in any area of life—business ideas, leadership habits, personal health. The secret is in the feedback loop: test, measure, and review. Every throw provides data, not judgment. You become your own life researcher.

When to Stop Throwing

A core dilemma is knowing how long to keep testing. Sudmann offers a wise balance between persistence and adaptability—don’t quit after five minutes, but don’t be “a damn fool” (as W.C. Fields said). Set time limits beforehand. Draw from examples like Sahil Lavingia, founder of Gumroad, who spent years pushing one idea until it worked; contrast that with entrepreneurs who pivot rapidly. The key is deliberate rhythm—define the timeframe, track metrics, and reassess without emotional attachment.

“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit.”

– W.C. Fields, as quoted by Sudmann, encapsulating intelligent persistence.

Throwing spaghetti is an antidote to overthinking and a celebration of learning. You’re not required to get it right—you’re required to get it real.

The Spaghetti Principle doesn’t just fight inertia—it helps you recognize the invisible biases that shape your thinking. Sudmann uses the metaphor of the QWERTY keyboard to reveal how traditions persist long after their purpose fades. QWERTY was designed to prevent typewriter bars from jamming, but even in the digital era we still use it, optimizing the wrong thing. Likewise, organizations optimize obsolete routines without questioning their origin.

Anchoring and Mental Shortcuts

Referencing Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky’s Nobel-winning work, Sudmann walks readers through a simple test involving Bangladesh’s population. Most underestimate it due to “anchoring”—a bias where the first number heard becomes the mental reference point. In innovation, these anchors are deadly: past success, habitual thought, or industry norms create anchors that block new thinking.

Path Dependence and Organizational Traps

Path dependence means that once you invest in a system—be it software, reports, or culture—you become locked in. Sudmann’s story of managers tediously creating ignored reports illustrates this. The solution is twofold: count your organization’s QWERTYs (processes, meetings, reports) and periodically kill one of them. Embrace Toyota’s “Five Whys” approach and the rule of “One in, One out.”

The Unknown Unknowns

Borrowing from concept frameworks used by thinkers like Donald Rumsfeld and Shane Parrish, Sudmann divides knowledge into four quadrants: known knowns, known unknowns, unknown knowns, and unknown unknowns. The last category—the things we don’t even know we don’t know—is where innovation thrives. The challenge is to intentionally expose yourself to this mysterious territory.

“Your experiences are infinitely small compared to what’s happened in the world, yet they shape everything you think.”

– Shane Parrish, quoted by Sudmann, describing metacognitive bias.

To escape your QWERTYs, you must deliberately introduce randomness and diversity. Seek ideas beyond your field, challenge every assumption, and occasionally throw radical spaghetti—the weird ideas and perspectives that make you uncomfortable. They may not all stick, but some will transform how you see the wall itself.

Sudmann’s concept of Spaghetti Superiore upgrades the basic spaghetti metaphor with a structured portfolio. The goal isn’t to throw blindly but to design a deliberate mix of tested, new, and radical ideas. True innovation requires balancing exploration with exploitation—testing the unfamiliar without abandoning the proven.

The Bee vs. Fly Analogy

Dirk Baecker’s experiment with bees and flies makes the lesson vivid. Bees, efficient and organized, follow the light until they die trapped against the glass. The chaotic flies, by contrast, bounce randomly and quickly find the exit. Structured randomness wins. Sudmann uses this to illustrate that when we optimize locally—doing what we know—we risk missing global breakthroughs. Injecting controlled chaos lets us find new exits.

Nature’s Built-In Errors

Spaghetti Superiore mimics nature’s inherent tolerance for error. Bees’ waggle dance contains a 10% variation, which scientists found creates a perfect balance between precision and discovery. Ant colonies have random “rebels” who refuse to follow pheromone trails; this prevents disaster when others are trapped in ant mills. Diversity and randomness, when well-managed, produce resilience. (Netflix’s “Chaos Monkey,” which randomly shuts down servers to test reliability, is a modern corporate version of this principle.)

Portfolio Ratio and the Paradox of Control

Sudmann recommends a 70/20/10 ratio for innovation—70% proven methods, 20% new experiments, 10% radical ideas. Over time, you may raise the radical end to 30%. This mirrors Geoff Tuff’s innovation portfolio and Spyros Makridakis’s “Paradox of Control”—giving up the illusion of control increases real adaptability. Leaders must stop chasing “perfect strategy” and instead curate portfolios of ongoing experiments.

Two Roads Diverged: Mixing Old and New

Reframing Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken,” Sudmann suggests life isn’t one fork but many. Instead of always picking the road less traveled, think in portfolio terms—take it every third or fifth time. This rhythm keeps you grounded in proven paths while still discovering new worlds. Innovation is not reckless wandering; it’s structured curiosity.

If individuals can live the Spaghetti Principle, can entire organizations? Sudmann says yes—but warns that companies have immune systems that resist change. To become a Spaghetti organization, leaders must foster learning, embrace failure, and create frameworks that make experimentation safe and rewarding.

Learning Over Knowing

Quoting Microsoft’s Satya Nadella—“Don’t be a know-it-all, be a learn-it-all”—Sudmann builds his innovation culture on humility. Teams that view mistakes as data evolve faster. Elon Musk’s mantra (“If you’re not failing, you’re not innovating enough”) embodies this. Instead of punishment, failure should feed curiosity. Events like “F*** Up Nights” demonstrate that failure stories teach better than success.

Why Cultural Change Fails

• Too fast – Leaders expect overnight transformation; in reality, habits take months or years.
• Too aspirational – Old industries cannot instantly “be like Google.” Small wins mean more than visionary slogans.
• Too disconnected – Teams create change outside their circle of influence, ignoring systemic constraints.

Successful transformation starts small, realistic, and paced. Culture eats strategy for breakfast—but it also requires time and focus at the table.

Ten Ways to Motivate Innovation-Resistant Teams

• Start small and practical.
• Let people source their own ideas.
• Show quick wins and immediate value.
• Showcase success stories.
• Offer concrete strategies, not slogans.
• Add outside perspectives (customers or suppliers).
• Solve pain points first (“Aspirins before vitamins”).
• Create systems, not motivation drives.
• Reward experimentation.
• Lead by example.

Spaghetti organizations thrive because their leaders walk the talk, creating frameworks—like “one new idea per month” policies—where innovation becomes habit, not heroism.

Sudmann challenges the cliché “Think outside the box.” To throw spaghetti effectively, you first need a box—a clear boundary that focuses your creativity. Constraints aren’t restrictive; they’re catalytic. Within limits, people explore deeper, smarter, and faster.

Seven Types of Boxes

• Time-boxing: deadlines or hackathons ignite focus—nothing fuels creativity like urgency.
• Ritual-boxing: repeating fixed frameworks (like Japanese Kata) builds depth through practice.
• Process-boxing: structured formats like debates or P&G’s One-Page Memo focus conversation productively.
• Framework-boxing: applying systems transforms chaos into craft.
• Space-boxing: limiting physical or conceptual space fosters concision and clarity.
• Resource-boxing: scarcity builds ingenuity (India’s “Jugaad”—frugal innovation—is a prime example).
• Sand-boxing: safe testing environments allow playful experimentation without risk.

Why Boxes Work

Every box limits variables so creativity can flourish within parameters. For leaders, boxes lower psychological barriers—people are more willing to experiment when boundaries are clear. It’s no accident that music has only seven notes and infinite melodies; creativity thrives within constraint.

“There are only three colors, ten digits, and seven notes; it’s what we do with them that matters.”

– Jim Rohn, quoted in the book.

Thinking inside the box doesn’t confine imagination—it focuses it. It gives your spaghetti a direction and a wall that’s reachable.

To truly live the Spaghetti Principle, you must adopt the Spaghetti Mindset—a growth-oriented, experimenter’s perspective that transforms self-talk and daily action. Drawing from Carol Dweck’s distinction between fixed and growth mindsets, Sudmann extends it to experimentation itself.

Fixed vs. Spaghetti Thinking

Fixed thinkers say, “It is what it is.” Spaghetti thinkers respond, “Let’s try something.” Instead of assuming boundaries are fixed, you ask “Can I reframe this?” or “What if I test a new approach?” Meetings, projects, and relationships become living experiments instead of static routines.

Feedback and Systems

Innovation, Sudmann insists, relies on continuous feedback. He uses the “Start–Stop–Continue” model as a simple loop for evaluating ideas. Like Scott Adams, who prefers systems over goals, Sudmann advises building habits that make experimenting automatic—e.g., in every presentation, add one new element and remove one outdated one (“One In, One Out”).

Self-Coaching and the Power of 'What Else?'

The Spaghetti Mindset also leverages self-coaching. His “Nespresso Question”—asking “What else?” five times—pushes thinking beyond knee-jerk answers into slow, reflective creativity (echoing Daniel Kahneman’s “Slow Thinking”). This technique unveils deeper insights and hidden possibilities—the mental equivalent of finding new strands of spaghetti in your pot.

Impatience for Actions, Patience for Results

Quoting Naval Ravikant, Sudmann urges “Impatience with actions, patience with results.” You don’t control outcomes, but you do control throws. Over time, small throws compound into major breakthroughs—the personal and professional “œuvre” of your life.

The Spaghetti Mindset frees you from perfectionism. You stop waiting for the right time and start creating it. Every experiment becomes progress; every failure, a new flavor of learning.

Sudmann ends his book with a profound vision: your life itself is an œuvre—a body of work built through countless experiments. Artists like Koen Vanmechelen, known for his “Cosmopolitan Chicken Project,” didn’t start with a grand plan. His success emerged from one curious experiment that evolved into decades of creativity. Each project was spaghetti thrown at the wall; those that stuck became pillars of his life’s work.

Clearing the Mind Through Action

Sudmann shares personal examples: experimenting with advertising doubled his business, while testing piano lessons cleared a 20-year mental “what if.” Innovation lightens the mind—it turns hypothetical dreams into clarity. You discover what truly matters, not through thought but through experience.

Spaghetti as Mental Model

The Spaghetti Principle becomes a mental model—a lens for viewing reality, akin to Charlie Munger’s latticework of models. It’s a meta-skill for innovation and adaptability, transferable across domains: careers, teams, even parenting. “If you want a guarantee,” Sudmann quips via Clint Eastwood, “buy a toaster.” Everything else requires experimentation.

Be a Spaghetti Revolutionary

Finally, Sudmann calls you to rebellion against algorithmic predictability. Modern systems—Netflix, Amazon, social media—feed you only more of what you’ve liked before, reinforcing sameness. Throw spaghetti to break free from these bubbles. Seek randomness intentionally. Embrace diversity. Build a life that sticks not because it was perfect, but because you dared to throw boldly, repeatedly, with joy. As he concludes: rinse, repeat, and keep throwing—forever.