One evening, as he prepared to head home, his coworker asked how he stayed so sharp despite their grueling schedule. Arthur smiled, pulled out his phone, and showed her the app that had turned his "waiting time" into "learning time."

One Tuesday, he tapped on a green icon he’d recently downloaded. It was Blinkist , an app that promised to distill the key ideas from thousands of non-fiction books into 15-minute summaries. He clicked on a title that had been gathering dust on his nightstand for months: Atomic Habits .

Arthur wasn't becoming an overnight expert, but he was becoming "the guy who knew things." He found himself contributing more in meetings and feeling more confident in conversations. He even started using the Daily Pick —a free summary chosen by the app every day—to learn about topics he’d never have picked up on his own, like astrophysics or ancient history.