Book in a Post: Who Moved My Cheese?
The simple parable about change that fits in your pocket
This is part of my “Book in a Post” series where I extract the core concepts from influential books so you can get 90% of the value in under 10 minutes. If the ideas resonate, you'll know whether the full book is worth your time.
“Who Moved My Cheese?” by Spencer Johnson is probably the shortest business book you'll ever encounter - you can read it in about an hour. It's also one of the most polarizing. People either love its simple wisdom and allegoric story or dismiss it as overly simplistic corporate propaganda.
Having been introduced to it recently, I'm firmly in the “surprisingly valuable” camp, especially for anyone feeling stuck or frustrated with change. That said, had Substack been around when it was originally written, I’d have suggested it should have just been a Substack post.
The Story (All of It, Really)
Four characters live in a maze searching for cheese (which represents whatever you want in life - a job, relationship, money, health, etc.):
Sniff and Scurry - two mice who keep things simple
Hem and Haw - two "little people" who think and act like humans
They all find a great source of cheese at Cheese Station C and settle into a routine. Then one day, the cheese is gone.
The mice immediately start searching for new cheese. The humans? They sit around complaining, analyzing why the cheese disappeared, and waiting for it to come back. Eventually, Haw realizes the Cheese had been dwindling for a while, that it isn’t coming back and that they need to move on, and ventures into the maze to find new cheese, leaving behind Hem, who refuses to budge.
That's it. That's the whole story.
Why Such a Simple Story Works
The genius of this book isn't in its complexity - it's in its clarity. Johnson has distilled one of life's most challenging realities into a parable so simple that you can't hide behind complexity or nuance to avoid its message.
The core insights are deceptively powerful:
1. Change Is Inevitable Your cheese will move. Your job will change. Your industry will evolve. Your company will restructure. Pretending this won't happen doesn't make you strategic - it makes you vulnerable.
2. The Longer You Wait, the Harder It Gets Hem's strategy of sitting at the declining and then empty cheese station becomes more entrenched each day. In real life, this looks like staying in a declining role "just one more year" or avoiding learning new skills because you've already invested so much in the old ones.
3. Fear Is Usually Worse Than Reality Haw spends weeks terrified to enter the maze, imagining all the things that could go wrong. When he finally moves, he discovers that exploring is actually energizing and that new opportunities exist.
4. Movement Creates Momentum The hardest part is taking the first step. Once Haw starts moving, he finds strength and optimism he'd forgotten he had.
My Personal Take: Why I Like the Book
I'll be honest - I originally read this because someone recommended it to our book club as a short book after we’d tried to tackle some really chunky ones, and when I read the story, I thought it was a bit too cute and oversimplified.
But I gave it a week or two and realised that it had a serious point, and I recognised my past self at various points behaving like the foolish Hem and Haw, sitting in stagnating old roles and waiting for opportunities to return.
The book doesn't solve the complexity of change, but it labels and cuts through the emotional fog that makes change feel impossible and flags that we can slowly get comfy and then resistant to the change. Sometimes you need the simple reminder: the cheese has moved, and no amount of analysis or complaining will bring it back.
Making It Practical
Here's how to apply the book's lessons without feeling like you're oversimplifying your situation:
1. Regular "Cheese Station" Audits Ask yourself quarterly: Is my current situation still providing what I need? Are there warning signs for me or my company that I'm ignoring? This isn't about being constantly restless - it's about staying aware, and making a conscious choice even when that choice is to stay!
2. Experiment with Small Moves You don't have to quit your job or make dramatic changes. Try new projects, learn adjacent skills, build relationships in different areas. Like Haw's tentative first steps into the maze. Keeping learning something keeps those engagement/learning skills ticking over - and is fun, too.
3. Write on the Wall In the story, Haw leaves encouraging messages on the maze walls for Hem. Even when you’re comfy/worried/overloaded and don’t have energy to change now, send your future self a promise about looking for change, and what you’re moving toward. (I use outlook meetings far in advance for future notes/thoughts/reminders - I expect there’s something more complex out there, but it works for me.)
4. Separate Fear from Facts When facing change, list your specific concerns. How many are about real obstacles versus imagined catastrophes? Often our "What if" scenarios are far worse than what actually happens.
And That’s It Folks
I think I’ve covered it above, but to be really clear: the book doesn’t do, and doesn’t pretend to do anything more. It doesn't address systemic inequalities, economic realities, or the fact that some people have far fewer options for "finding new cheese." It doesn’t give detailed advice for how to prepare for change. And the mice-and-cheese metaphor can feel a bit trivialising and patronising when applied to serious life challenges.
But it fundamentally does one thing well: It forces you to confront the difference between what you can and can't control. You can't (usually) control whether the cheese moves. You can control how quickly you start looking for new cheese.
Who Should Read This Book
This book is probably valuable if you:
Feel stuck in a role or situation that used to be great but isn't anymore
Find yourself constantly complaining about changes at work instead of adapting
Are avoiding a career move you know you need to make
Lead people through organizational change
Want a simple mental model for thinking about change
A Note for Parents and Mentors
One of our book club members mentioned using this with their 11-year-old who was anxious about leaving primary school. The story format makes it good for discussing change with young people without being preachy. There's actually a "teenager" version of the same story that's designed specifically for this purpose.
Should You Read the Full Book?
If you’re in one of the groups above, probably yes - but only because it's so short. You can read the entire thing in the time it takes to watch a TV episode. The story format made the concepts stick better for me than a summary (even one written as excellently as this one!)
If you're someone who prefers practical frameworks over parables, you’ll probably not get much out of it, but if you're currently avoiding a change you know you need to make, the hour spent reading might be the push you need.
The Bottom Line
"Who Moved My Cheese?" succeeds because it doesn't try to solve all the complexities of change management. Instead, it does one thing brilliantly: it makes the cost of not changing crystal clear.
The book won't teach you how to negotiate a better salary or which skills to learn next. But it might give you the mental clarity to stop waiting for your old situation to magically improve and start taking action toward something better.
Sometimes the most profound insights are the simplest ones. Your cheese will move. The question isn't whether this will happen - it's whether you'll be Hem or Haw when it does.