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Value-Centric Thinking book cover
Book · In Writing

Value-Centric Thinking

A Framework for Careers, Startups, Life & Intelligence
in the Age of AI

Dr. Arman Nassirtoussi

I'm Interested
Contents

Draft Table of Contents

Part I

Seeing the World Through Value

  1. 1The Game of Life
  2. 2What Is Value?
  3. 3Value Is Perceived
  4. 4The Problem Is the Starting Point
  5. 5Defining the Problem
  6. 6Seeing What Others Do Not See
  7. 7Differentiated Perspective
  8. 8From Problem to Value
  9. 9Value Creation Is Unlimited
  10. 10The Flow of Value
Part II

Understanding, Intelligence, and Energy

  1. 11What Is Understanding?
  2. 12External Knowledge and Internal Understanding
  3. 13Ratio Cognoscendi: How We Come to Know
  4. 14The Work of Internalization
  5. 15Practice, Experience, and Embodied Understanding
  6. 16What Is Intelligence?
  7. 17Value-Centric Intelligence
  8. 18The Direction of Intelligence
  9. 19Energy, Entropy, and Order
  10. 20What Is Energy?
  11. 21Information, Uncertainty, and Understanding
  12. 22From Energy to Value
  13. 23Beauty, Simplicity, and Kindness
  14. 24Meaning as Value in a Direction
Part III

The Human Agent

  1. 25The Human Being as an Improvement Agent
  2. 26Agency and Freedom
  3. 27Attention Is Energy
  4. 28Time Management vs. Energy Management
  5. 29The Power of Perspective
  6. 30The Power of Definition
  7. 31The Power of Leverage
  8. 32Philosophical Leverage
  9. 33Strategy and the Direction of Energy
  10. 34The Decision That Changes the Trajectory
  11. 35Purpose, Motivation, and Self-Actualization
  12. 36Choosing What to Care About
  13. 37Optimism, Happiness, and the Choice of Attention
Part IV

Creating Value in the World

  1. 38The Value Creation Process
  2. 39Perceive → Understand → Articulate → Create
  3. 40Articulating the Problem
  4. 41Articulating the Value
  5. 42Customer-Centric Thinking
  6. 43Problem-Centric Thinking
  7. 44From Customer Need to Value Proposition
  8. 45The Market as a Level of Problem Awareness
  9. 46Solutions, Alternatives, and Competition
  10. 47Differentiation: Not Different for the Sake of Different
  11. 48Raising the Bar
  12. 49Value Creation and Value Capture
  13. 50The Journey of Value: Creation, Capture, Transfer, Storage, and Redistribution
Part V

The Mechanics of Business

  1. 51Why Every Business Is the Same
  2. 52Small Business, Startup, Entrepreneur: Beyond the Labels
  3. 53The Mechanics of a Sustainable Business
  4. 54The First Principles of Scale
  5. 55The Beachhead: Start Somewhere Real
  6. 56Traction Before Abstraction
  7. 57Margins, Economics, and the Flow of Value
  8. 58Offers and the Economics of “Yes”
  9. 59Leverage: Doing More With Less
  10. 60Distribution as Leverage
  11. 61Technology, Capital, People, and Organizational Leverage
  12. 62Learning the Problem Space
  13. 63Going Upmarket, Downmarket, Upstream, Downstream
  14. 64Adjacent Markets and the Expansion of Value
  15. 65When Scale Creates Complexity
  16. 66Building a Business That Can Sustain Itself
Part VI

Careers as Value Creation

  1. 67A Career Is a Value Proposition
  2. 68What Value Do You Create?
  3. 69Your Differentiated Perspective
  4. 70Choosing a Problem Space
  5. 71Developing Rare Understanding
  6. 72Becoming an Improvement Agent
  7. 73Skills, Experience, Reputation, and Trust
  8. 74Career Leverage
  9. 75Creating Optionality
  10. 76When to Specialize and When to Expand
  11. 77Work That Matters
  12. 78Finding Your Angle
Part VII

Startups as Organized Intelligence

  1. 79Why Startups Exist
  2. 80Problem Sensitivity
  3. 81Finding the Corner Where You Can Win
  4. 82Problem–Solution Fit
  5. 83Product–Market Fit as Mutual Value
  6. 84Understanding the Customer Better
  7. 85Building, Learning, and Navigating
  8. 86The Economics of Growth
  9. 87Scaling Value, Not Just Revenue
  10. 88Innovation as Recombination and Improvement
  11. 89When to Stay and When to Navigate
  12. 90From Beachhead to System
Part VIII

Intelligence in the Age of AI

  1. 91What AI Changes
  2. 92The Abundance of External Intelligence
  3. 93What AI Can Know and What Humans Must Understand
  4. 94Context Awareness
  5. 95The Human Advantage: Perspective, Judgment, and Meaning
  6. 96AI as Leverage
  7. 97AI and the Compression of Learning
  8. 98The New Economics of Knowledge Work
  9. 99What Happens When Intelligence Becomes Cheap?
  10. 100The Value of Human Direction
  11. 101From Knowledge Worker to Value-Oriented Agent
  12. 102Living and Working With Artificial Intelligence
Part IX

The Larger System

  1. 103Money as a Store of Value
  2. 104Money as Stored Energy
  3. 105The Battery: Storing and Releasing Energy
  4. 106Value as a Flow
  5. 107Power as the Ability to Channel Energy
  6. 108The Will to Power and the Pursuit of Value
  7. 109Information, Markets, and Civilization
  8. 110From Hunter-Gatherers to Farmers to Information
  9. 111The Individual and the Systems Around Them
  10. 112How Value Systems Shape Society
  11. 113Cooperation, Competition, and the Creation of Order
  12. 114Entropy and the Living System
  13. 115Can We Choose How We Channel Energy?
  14. 116Compassion, Sustainability, and Long-Term Intelligence
Part X

Living Value-Centrically

  1. 117What Is a Good Life?
  2. 118Meaning, Purpose, and Direction
  3. 119Beauty as Harmony
  4. 120Intelligence Is Simple, Beautiful, and Kind
  5. 121Doing More or Being More?
  6. 122The Value of Silence
  7. 123The Value of Action
  8. 124Choosing Your Problems
  9. 125Choosing Your Direction
  10. 126Choosing What to Build
  11. 127Choosing What to Leave Behind
  12. 128The Continuous Practice of Understanding
Closing

Epilogue

  1. 129Think Better. Create Value. Live Fully.

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