Articles about Business
Favorite quotes from “No Rules Rules”
From Reed Hasting's book "No Rules Rules" "My head started to spin. I was young and unpolished and after she stopped, I said: “Is that how all HR people speak? I couldn’t understand a word. If we are going to work together you are going to have to stop talking like...
Why do you need to consult with other people to see things more objectively?
From Annie Duke's "How to Decide" Why do you need to consult with other people to see things more objectively? “It works to your benefit to assume that you may not know as much as you think you do, that your beliefs may not be as accurate as you think they are, and...
When should you make decisions slowly and when should you make decisions quickly?
From Annie Duke's "How to Decide" When should you make decisions quickly? When should you make decisions slowly? "The smaller the penalty, the faster you can go. The bigger the penalty, the more time you should take on a decision." "The smaller the impact of a poor...
The power of negative thinking.
From Annie Duke's "How to Decide" The power of negative thinking. "Negative thinking helps you identify things that might get in your way so you can identify ways to reach your destination more efficiently." (p. 212) "Gabriele Oettingen, a professor of psychology at...
How can you prevent outcome bias or resulting?
From Annie Duke's "How to Decide" How can you prevent outcome bias or resulting? First of all what is outcome bias or resulting? Outcome bias/Resulting- "a mental shortcut in which we use the quality of an outcome to figure out the quality of a decision." (p. 3) "When...
When you are trying to get other people’s opinion, don’t tell them your opinion.
From Annie Duke's book "How to Decide" When you are trying to get other people's opinion, don't tell them your opinion. "One of the best tools for improving your decision-making is to get other people's perspectives. But you can only do that if you get their actual...
Key takeaways from “How to Decide”
From Annie Duke's book "How to Decide." Key takeaways from "How to Decide" Beware of overconfidence. Be skeptical of yourself. "The tendency toward overconfidence vexes decision-making. In general, we don’t question our own beliefs enough. We have too much confidence...
Why do you need to use the “outside view” or base rates to make decisions?
From Annie Duke's "How to Decide" Why do you need to use the "outside view" or base rates to make decisions? First of all, what is the "outside view"? The outside view- "What is true of the world, independent of your own perspective. The way that others would view the...
Why is it important to use probabilities in decision making?
From Annie Duke's book "How to Decide" Why is it important to use probabilities in decision making? "Adding probability estimates to the decision tree will significantly improve the quality of your decisions versus simply identifying the possibilities and your...
If you want to see reality better, you must form a truthseeking group.
From Annie Duke "Thinking in Bets" If you want to see reality better, you must form a truthseeking group. "A good decision group is a grown-up version of the buddy system. To be sure, even with help, none of us will ever be able to perfectly overcome our natural...
To make better decisions, make a bet or pretend you are making a bet.
From Annie Duke's book "Thinking in Bets" To make better decisions, make a bet or pretend you are making a bet. "“Wanna bet?” triggers us to engage in that third step that we only sometimes get to. Being asked if we are willing to bet money on it makes it much more...
We are really bad at changing our minds and updating our beliefs.
From Annie Duke's book, "Thinking in Bets" We are really bad at changing our minds and updating our beliefs. "Truthseeking, the desire to know the truth regardless of whether the truth aligns with the beliefs we currently hold, is not naturally supported by the way we...
To prepare for the future, time travel.
From Annie Duke's "Thinking in Bets" To prepare for the future, time travel. "One of our time-travel goals is to create moments like that, where we can interrupt an in-the-moment decision and take some time to consider the decision from the perspective of our past and...
Key takeaways from “Thinking in Bets”
From Annie Duke's "Thinking in Bets" Here are the key takeaways from Annie Duke's "Thinking in Bets." Beware of outcome bias or "resulting" At one such tournament, I told the audience that one player would win 76% of the time and the other would win 24% of the time. I...
How to make decisions in a group setting
From Annie Duke's "How to Decide" Why is it important we get other people's perspectives? "One of the best ways to improve the quality of your beliefs is to get other people’s perspectives. When their beliefs diverge from yours, it improves your decision-making...
How to use decision trees according to Raiffa.
From Raiffa's book "Smart Choices" Identify the key uncertainties. “Virtually any decision involves uncertainties, but most uncertainties don’t influence consequences enough to matter. Selecting the uncertainties important enough to include in a risk profile requires...
Beware of the four defaults.
From Shane Parrish's "Clear Thinking" Beware of the four defaults "Knowing Your Defaults While there are many such instincts, four stand out to me as the most prominent, the most distinctive, and the most dangerous. These behaviors represent something akin to our...
How can you learn from your decisions?
From Shane Parrish's "Clear Thinking" How can you learn from your decisions? "If you’re a knowledge worker, you produce decisions. That’s your job. The quality of your decisions eventually determines how far you go and how fast you get there. If you learn to...
How can I prevent myself from fooling myself? Make the decision-making process visible.
From Shane Parrish's book "Clear Thinking" How can I prevent yourself from fooling myself? Make the decision-making process visible. The Transparency Principle: Make your decision-making process as visible and open to scrutiny as possible. "Evaluating other people’s...
You need to create fail-safes such as tripwires to overcome inertia and biases.
From Shane Parrish's book "Clear Thinking" You need to create fail-safes such as tripwires to overcome inertia and biases. "The Fail-Safe Principle: Implementing fail-safes will help ensure that your decision is executed according to plan." Example: "Imagine standing...
Shoot Bullets before the Cannonball
From Shane Parrish's "Clear Thinking" You want to shoot bullets before the cannonball. "If you’re still gathering information, don’t get overinvested in just one option. Keep your future options open by taking small, low-risk steps toward as many options as possible...
Margin of Safety
From Shane Parrish's book "Clear Thinking" Why do you need margin of safety? "You don’t always need to have the ultimate solution to make progress. If it remains unclear which path is best, often the next best step is just to eliminate paths that lead to outcomes you...
How can I get accurate information?
From Shane Parrish's book "Clear Thinking" How can I get accurate information? "When it comes to getting information that’s accurate, there are two principles you should know: the HiFi Principle and the HiEx Principle. The first will help you find the best intel...
Evaluate the options
From Shane Parrish's book "Clear Thinking" How do you evaluate the options? "You’ve worked out some potential solutions in detail. Each suggests a course of action that might work. You now need to evaluate the options and pick the one most likely to make the future...
Key Takeaways from “100M Offers”
From Alex Hormozi's "100M Offers" "As entrepreneurs, we make bets everyday. We are gamblers ― gambling our hard-earned money on labor, inventory, rent, marketing, etc., all with the hopes of a higher pay out. Oftentimes, we lose. But, sometimes, we win and win BIG....
Favorite Quotes from the Success Equation
From Michael Mauboussin's book, "The Success Equation" “Much of what we experience in life results from a combination of skill and luck. A basketball player's shot before the final buzzer bounces out of the basket and his team loses the national championship. A...
Create a Kill Criteria before you start a project
From Annie Duke's "Quit" Create a "Kill" Criteria with a date before you start a project. "We already know that we’re not particularly good at responding rationally in the moment to signals that tell us that we ought to quit. In fact, we tend to react to bad news by...
My Favorite Quotes from Quit
From Annie's Duke's "Quit" My Favorite Quotes from Quit "The second is that making a plan for when to quit should be done long before you are facing the quitting decision. It recognizes, as Daniel Kahneman has pointed out, that the worst time to make a decision is...
Key Takeaways from “I will Teach you to be Rich.”
From Ramit Sethi's book "I will teach you to be rich" How is weight and health related to money? "In the ten years since I wrote my book, weight and health have become such controversial topics that I was advised to delete my references to them. But after my own...
Enshrine your core priorities.
From Chip Heath's book "Decisive" Enshrine your core priorities. "By identifying and enshrining your core priorities, you make it easier to resolve present and future dilemmas." Examples: "Ramirez continued to agonize about the decision until, eventually, she realized...
Create a precommitment contract
From Annie Duke's book "How to Decide" Create a precommitment contract. Precommitment Contract (also known as Ulysses contract)- “An agreement that commits you in advance to take or refrain from certain actions, or raising or lowering barriers to those actions.Such...
How to invest according to the Bogleheads
From Taylor Larimore's book, "The Bogleheads Guide to Investing" What is the most important key to wealth? "This above all: Saving is the key to wealth. As you will soon learn, the Boglehead approach to investing is easy to understand and easy to do. It’s so simple...
Flex Your Market Power
From Gabriel Weinberg's book "Superthinking" Flex Your Market Power Arbitrage- "When you take advantage of price differences for the same product in two different settings." Sustainable competitive advantage- "describes a set of factors that give you an advantage over...
Unlocking People’s Potential
From Gabriel Weinberg's book "Superthinking" Unlocking People's Potential "Both Joy and Rumsfeld acknowledge that organizations hardly ever have perfect resources, nor can they always afford to wait until they have better ones before moving forward. Joy’s law further...
Dealing with Conflict
From Gabriel Weinberg's book "Superthinking" Dealing with Conflict "arms race. The term was originally used to describe a race between two or more countries to accumulate weapons for a potential armed conflict. It can also be used more broadly to describe any type of...
Decisions, Decisions
From Gabriel Weinberg's book "Superthinking" Decisions, Decision "grass-is-greener mentality, causing you mentally to accentuate the positives (e.g., greener grass) and overlook the negatives." "One simple approach to improving the pro-con list is to add some numbers...
Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics
"Superthinking," by Gabriel Weinberg Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics "It is human nature to use past experience and observation to guide decision making, and evolutionarily this makes sense. If you watched someone get sick after they ate a certain food or get hurt...
Becoming One With Nature
"Superthinking," by Gabriel Weinberg Become One with Nature “It is not the most intellectual of the species that survives; it is not the strongest that survives; but the species that survives is the one that is able best to adapt and adjust to the changing environment...
Spend Your Time Wisely
"Superthinking," by Gabriel Weinberg Spend Your Time Wisely "In the business world, there is a mental model that draws on Polaris for inspiration, called north star, which refers to the guiding vision of a company. For example, DuckDuckGo’s north star is “to raise the...
Anything That Can Go Wrong, Will
"Superthinking" by Gabriel Weinberg "tragedy of the commons. However, unbeknownst to him, his hypothetical situation had really occurred in Boston Common two hundred years earlier (and many other times before and since). More affluent families did in fact keep buying...
Being Wrong Less
"Superthinking," by Gabriel Weinberg Being Wrong Less "The concept of inverse thinking can help you with the challenge of making good decisions. The inverse of being right more is being wrong less." "Or consider healthy eating. A direct approach would be to try to...
Consequences Tables
From Raiffa's book "Smart Choices" Use a Consequence Table: “You’ve defined your problem, you’ve structured your objectives, and you’ve established the set of alternatives you have to choose from. Now, to make a smart choice, you need to compare the merits of the...
Favorite Quotes from Scout Mindset
From Julia Galef's "The Scout Mindset" "So I’ve given it one. I call it scout mindset: the motivation to see things as they are, not as you wish they were. Scout mindset is what allows you to recognize when you are wrong, to seek out your blind spots, to test your...
How do you deal with Uncertainty?
From Howard Raiffa "Smart Choices" How Do You Deal With Uncertainty? "Decisions under uncertainty should be judged by the quality of the decision making, not by the quality of the consequences." (p. 111) "To make sense of uncertainty, you need to find a way to...
How to Avoid Stupidity
From Shane Parrish's Decision Making Course How to Avoid Stupidity You can be the smartest and most prepared person in the room, but certain predictable situations will reduce or eliminate this advantage. Why? Because certain situations overload our mental processing...
Preparation Over Prediction
From Shane Parrish's Decision Making Course Preparation Over Prediction The Automatic Behavior: Position for multiple possible futures. When I first started observing the masters of decision making, I thought they predicted the future. Now I know that’s not true. Most...
The Most Important Thing
From Shane Parrish's Decision Making Course The Most Important Thing The Automatic Behavior: Identify and communicate the most important thing. In this lesson, we’re going to teach you techniques for achieving perfect clarity on identifying what you want. This is so...
When to Decide
From Shane Parrish's Decision Making Course When to Decide? The Automatic Behavior: Decide as soon as possible or as late as possible but never in between. Bad decisions are the result of information we wish we knew at the time of the decision so it makes sense that...
Find the Root Problem
From Shane Parrish Decision Making Course. The Automatic Behavior: Never let anyone define the problem for you. one of the most common things I see distracting great decision makers from taking charge and moving intentionally towards their objectives: accepting the...
Find the Lead Domino
From Shane Parrish's Decision Making Course. Find the Lead Domino While a lot of people fear and avoid decisions, by embracing them instead, and intentionally learning how to master them- we step out of a passive role in our lives and into an active one...we step into...
Second Order Thinking
From Shane Parrish's Decision by Design Course Second Order Thinking We often miss opportunities when we don’t ask the question “And then what might happen?” And we often miss inevitable problems when we don’t ask “What are the potential consequences?” As part of our...
Falsifiability
From Shane Parrish's "The Great Mental Models" Falsifiability Karl Popper wrote “A theory is part of empirical science if and only if it conflicts with possible experiences and is therefore in principle falsifiable by experience.” "The idea here is that if you can’t...
Inversion
From Shane Parrish's "The Great Mental Models" Inversion "Inversion is a powerful tool to improve your thinking because it helps you identify and remove obstacles to success. The root of inversion is “invert,” which means to upend or turn upside down. As a thinking...
Second Order Thinking
From Shane Parrish's "The Great Mental Models" Second Order Thinking "Second-order thinking is thinking farther ahead and thinking holistically. It requires us to not only consider our actions and their immediate consequences, but the subsequent effects of those...
First Principles Thinking
From Shane Parrish's "The Great Mental Models" First Principles Thinking "First principles thinking is one of the best ways to reverse-engineer complicated situations and unleash creative possibility. Sometimes called reasoning from first principles, it’s a tool to...
The Map is not the Territory
From Shane Parrish's "The Great Mental Models" The Map is not the Territory "The map of reality is not reality. Even the best maps are imperfect. That’s because they are reductions of what they represent." "We use maps every day. They help us navigate from one city to...
Probabilistic Thinking
From Shane Parrish's "The Great Mental Models" Probabilistic Thinking "Probabilistic thinking is essentially trying to estimate, using some tools of math and logic, the likelihood of any specific outcome coming to pass. It is one of the best tools we have to improve...
Causation vs. Correlation
Form Shane Parrish's "The Great Mental Models." Causation vs Correlation "Confusion between these two terms often leads to a lot of inaccurate assumptions about the way the world works. We notice two things happening at the same time (correlation) and mistakenly...
Circle Of Competence
From Shane Parrish's "The Great Mental Models" Circle of Competence "When ego and not competence drives what we undertake, we have blind spots. If you know what you understand, you know where you have an edge over others. When you are honest about where your knowledge...
The Mediating Assessments Protocol
From Kahneman's "Noise" The Mediating Assessment Protocol. (From page 299) At the beginning of the process, structure the decision into mediating assessments. (For recurring judgments, this is done only once.) Ensure that whenever possible, mediating assessments use...
Strategy 6: Understand Biases in Others.
From Max Bazerman's "Judgement In Managerial Decision Making" STRATEGY 6: UNDERSTAND BIASES IN OTHERS "The nature of managerial life requires you to work closely with the decisions of others, reviewing recommendations, transforming recommendations into decisions, and...
Strategy 5. Take an Outsider’s View
From Max Bazerman's "Judgement In Managerial Decision Making" Take an Outsider's View (from page 232) Kahneman and Lovallo (1993) explain this apparent contradiction by theorizing that we all have two perspectives on decision making: an insider view and an outsider...
Strategy 4: Reason Analogically
From Max Bazerman's "Judgement In Managerial Decision Making" Reason Analogically (from p. 232) Analogical reasoning, or the process of abstracting common lessons from two or more situations, turns out to be a remarkably simple debiasing approach (D. Gentner, G....
Strategy 3: Debias Your Judgement
From Max Bazerman's "Judgement In Managerial Decision Making" Debias Your Judgement: (from p. 226) Debiasing refers to a procedure for reducing or eliminating biases from the cognitive strategies of the decision maker. Fischhoff (1982) proposed four steps that...
Strategy 2: Acquire Expertise
From Max Bazerman's "Judgement In Managerial Decision Making" Acquire Expertise (P. 223) Many of the biases we have examined in this book were identified in experiments with student participants who were not rewarded for accurate performance and who were making...
Strategy 1: Use Decision-analysis Tools
From Max Bazerman's "Judgement in Managerial Decision Making" USE DECISION-ANALYSIS TOOLS (P. 218) "Because we do not make optimal decisions intuitively or automatically, when decision quality really matters, it makes sense to rely on procedures that can help direct...
Beware of Overconfidence, the Mother of all Biases!
From Max Bazerman's "Judgement in Managerial Decision Making" Beware of Overconfidence, the Mother of All Biases! "Overconfidence. We lead with an exploration of this bias for two reasons. First, it is one of the most potent and pervasive biases to which human...
How to lessen “Noise”
From Kahneman's "Noise" How to Lessen "Noise" Select better judges. Click here to see how."A radical application of this principle is the replacement of judgment with rules or algorithms. Algorithmic evaluation is guaranteed to eliminate noise—indeed, it is the only...
What kind of people make better judgements?
From Kahneman's "Noise" What Kind of People Make Better Judgements? "Judgments are both less noisy and less biased when those who make them are well trained, are more intelligent, and have the right cognitive style. In other words: good judgments depend on what you...
Favorite Quotes From “Noise”
From Daniel Kahneman's "Noise" My Favorite Quotes From "Noise" "wherever there is judgment, there is noise—and more of it than you think." (p. 16) “Experiments show large disparities among judges in the sentences they recommend for identical cases. This variability...
How to “Debias” Bias
From Kahneman's "Noise" How to "Debias" Bias Apply a percentage to adjust predictions.The Green Book- "The book urges planners to address optimistic biases by applying percentage adjustments to estimates of the cost and duration of a project. These adjustments should...
How to conduct better Interviews
From Kahneman's "Noise" Why are Traditional Interviews Bad? "if your goal is to determine which candidates will succeed in a job and which will fail, standard interviews (also called unstructured interviews to distinguish them from structured interviews, to which we...
Improving Hiring Decisions
From Max Bazerman's "Judgement in Managerial Decision Making" Improving Hiring Decisions (From P. 222) "Hiring decisions are among the most important decisions an organization can make. Virtually every corporation in the world relies on unstructured, face-to-face...
Linear modeling
From Max Bazerman's "Judgement In Managerial Decision Making" By contrast, it would be easy to set up a linear program to avoid this error. Indeed, Dawes (1971) did just that in his work on graduate-school admissions decisions. Dawes used a common method for...
Moneyball
From Max Bazerman's "Judgement In Managerial Decision Making" Lewis (2003) argues that baseball executives were consistently guilty of three mistakes. First, they overgeneralized from their personal experiences. Second, they were overly influenced by players’ recent...
Prepare to be wrong.
From Chip Heath's book "Decisive" The 4th villain of decision making- Overconfidence. "the fourth villain of decision making is overconfidence. People think they know more than they do about how the future will unfold. We have too much confidence in our own...
How do you estimate probabilities? (according to Annie Duke)
From Annie Duke's "How to Decide" How do you estimate probabilities? (according to Annie Duke) First make an educated guess. "There’s a lot of value in making an educated guess. The more willing you are to guess, the more you’ll think about and apply what you know. In...
Only the Rich are Poisoned, by Nassim Taleb
From Nassis Taleb's "Skin in the Game" Only the Rich are Poisoned: The Preferences of Others "When people get rich, they shed their skin-in-the-game-driven experiential mechanism. They lose control of their preferences, substituting constructed preferences for their...
The Minority Rule by Nassim Taleb
From Nassim Taleb's "Skin in the Game" "a certain type of intransigent minority—with significant skin in the game (or, better, soul in the game) to reach a minutely small level, say 3 or 4 percent of the total population, for the entire population to have to submit to...
The Intellectual Yet Idiot by Nassim Taleb
From Nassim Taleb's "Skin in the Game" "What we saw worldwide from 2014 to 2018, from India to the U.K. to the U.S., was a rebellion against the inner circle of no-skin-in-the-game policymaking “clerks” and journalists-insiders, that class of paternalistic...
How to Legally Own Another Person by Nassim Taleb
From Nassim Taleb's "Skin in the Game" How to Legally Own Another Person. "In short, every organization wants a certain number of people associated with it to be deprived of a certain share of their freedom. How do you own these people? First, by conditioning and...
Favorite Quotes from Skin in the Game
From Nassim Taleb's "Skin in the Game" "in academia there is no difference between academia and the real world; in the real world, there is." (p. 3) "In case you are giving economic views: Don’t tell me what you “think,” just tell me what’s in your portfolio." (p. 4)...
Motivational Interviewing
From Adam Grant's "Think Again" Motivational Interviewing "Instead of attacking or demeaning his clients, Miller started asking them questions and listening to their answers." (p. 146) "Together, they developed the core principles of a practice called motivational...
You need an Organizational Chart for Business.
From Michael Gerber's "The E-Myth Revisited" Why Do You Need an Organizational Chart? "Everyone wants to "get organized." But when you suggest that they start by creating an Organization Chart, all you get is doubtful- and sometimes hostile- stares." (p. 166)"Don't be...
Your business needs Innovation, Quantification, and Orchestration.
From Michael Gerber's "The E-Myth Revisited" You Business Needs Innovation, Quantification, and Orchestration: "Innovation, Quantification, and Orchestration are the backbone of every extraordinary business." (p. 127) Innovation: Innovation is finding ways to improve...
Favorite Quotes from “The E-myth Revisited”
From Michael Gerber's "The E-myth Revisited" My Favorite Quotes from "The E-myth Revisited." "The question has often been asked of me, “What do the owners of extraordinary businesses know that the rest don’t?” Contrary to popular belief, my experience has shown me...
My favorite quotes from Ben Horowitz
From Ben Horowitz's "The Hard Thing About Hard Things" My Favorite Quotes From Ben Horowitz: "There are no shortcuts to knowledge, especially knowledge gained from personal experience. Following conventional wisdom and relying on shortcuts can be worse than knowing...
Favorite Quotes from “Getting to Yes”
From Roger Fisher's "Getting to Yes" "Any method of negotiation may be fairly judged by three criteria: It should produce a wise agreement if agreement is possible. It should be efficient. And it should improve or at least not damage the relationship between the...
Beware of These 18 Biases and Illusions Before You Make a Decision!
From Daniel Kahneman's "Thinking Fast and Slow" Beware of These 18 Biases and Illusions Before You Make a Decision! Availability Heuristic- If you can easily recall an event, you will think it happens more frequently than reality. "The process of judging frequency by...
Beware of the Narrative Fallacy!
From Daniel Kahneman's "Thinking, Fast and Slow" Beware of the Narrative Fallacy! "Taleb introduced the notion of a narrative fallacy to describe how flawed stories of the past shape our views of the world and our expectations for the future." (p. 199)"Narrative...
Beware of the Illusion of Skill and Validity
From Daniel Kahneman's "Thinking, Fast and Slow" Beware of the illusion of Skill and Validity! "We knew as a general fact that our predictions were little better than random guesses, but we continued to feel and act as if each of our specific predictions was valid. I...
The Psychology of Money (Chapter 11-20)
From Morgan Housel's "The Psychology of Money" Chapter 11. "Reasonable Rational" "Aiming to be mostly reasonable works better than trying to be coldly rational.""Do not aim to be coldly rational when making financial decisions. Aim to just be pretty reasonable....
The Psychology of Money (Chapter 1-10.)
From Morgan Housel's "The Psychology of Money" Chapter 1. "No One's Crazy" "Here’s the thing: People from different generations, raised by different parents who earned different incomes and held different values, in different parts of the world, born into different...
The Totalitarian Ego wants you to Fight or Flight.
From Adam Grant's "Think Again" When your Beliefs are Challenged, You Will Want to Fight or Flight. "Neuroscientists find that when our core beliefs are challenged, it can trigger the amygdala, the primitive “lizard brain” that breezes right past cool rationality and...
Why you need a challenge network
From Adam Grant's "Think Again" Why You Need a Challenge Network. "My favorite bias is the “I’m not biased” bias, in which people believe they’re more objective than others. It turns out that smart people are more likely to fall into this trap. The brighter you are,...
Inside View vs Outside View
From Daniel Kahneman's "Thinking Fast and Slow" When people make predictions, they often make them without consulting Base Rates or the "Outside View". This is an illusion. You must use the Outside View when making predictions. “There are two ideas to keep in mind...
How to build Psychological Safety
From Adam Grant's "Think Again" What is Psychological Safety? It’s fostering a climate of respect, trust, and openness in which people can raise concerns and suggestions without fear of reprisal. It’s the foundation of a learning culture." (p. 209)"When I was involved...
My Favorite Quotes from “Think Again”
From Adam Grant's "Think Again" My Favorite Quotes From "Think Again." "As we think and talk, we often slip into the mindsets of three different professions: preachers, prosecutors, and politicians. In each of these modes, we take on a particular identity and use a...
Don’t think like a Preacher, Prosecutor, or Politician. Think like a Scientist.
From Adam Grant's "Think Again" Most People Think and Talk Like a Preacher, Prosecutor, or Politician. This is not Good! "As we think and talk, we often slip into the mindsets of three different professions: preachers, prosecutors, and politicians." (p. 18)"The risk...
How to rethink in organizations.
From Adam Grant's "Think Again" How to Rethink in Organizations. (p. 255) Have More Nuanced Conversations: "Complexify contentious topics. There are more than two sides to every story. Instead of treating polarizing issues like two sides of a coin, look at them...
How to Persuade Other People to Rethink Their Opinions.
From Adam Grant's "Think Again" How to Persuade Other People to Rethink Their Opinions. (p. 253) "When we’re trying to persuade people, we frequently take an adversarial approach. Instead of opening their minds, we effectively shut them down or rile them up. They play...
How to think clearly or “Think Again”
From Adam Grant's "Think Again" How to Think Clearly (From p. 251) Develop the Habit of Rethinking Again: "Think like a scientist. When you start forming an opinion, resist the temptation to preach, prosecute, or politick. Treat your emerging view as a hunch or a...
Motivational Interviewing is good for people who have a hard time changing
From Adam Grant's "Think Again" Motivational Interviewing is Useful for People who have a Hard Time Changing. "the core principles of a practice called motivational interviewing. The central premise is that we can rarely motivate someone else to change. We’re better...
Scarcity Principle
From Robert Cialdini's "Influence" The Scarcity Principle "opportunities seem more valuable to us when their availability is limited—" (p. 238)"If it is rare or becoming more rare, it is more valuable." (p. 239) Examples: The Mormon Church was just renovated. Cialdini...
Authority Principle
From Robert Cialdini's "Influence" Authority Principle When people see an "Authority" figure, they tend not to question them, and simply follow their orders. People underestimate the power of Authority. Milgram sets up an experiment. There is a subject who must answer...
Liking Principle
From Robert Cialdini's "Influence" Liking Principle People are influenced by people or things they like. "Take, for instance, the growing number of charity organizations that recruit volunteers to canvass for donations close to their own homes. They understand...
9 Traps in Decision Making
9 Traps in Decision Making The Storytelling Trap"Storytelling makes us construct a coherent story from a selection of facts. But this is never the only possible story, and it can lead us into error." (p. 35) The Imitation Trap"Attribution error leads us to attribute...
Favorite Quotes from “You’re About to Make a Terrible Mistake.”
Oliver Sibony's "You're About to Make a Terrible Mistake!" Favorite Quotes From "You're About to Make a Terrible Mistake" "Even if you are a competent, careful, and hardworking executive, you might end up making avoidable, predictable mistakes. This is precisely the...
Social Proof Principle
From Robert Cialdini's "Influence" Social Proof Principle "The principle of social proof states that we use information about how others have behaved to help us determine proper conduct for ourselves. But as the dropped-wallet experiment showed, we are most influenced...
Commitment and Consistency Principle
From Robert Cialdini's "Influence" Commitment and Consistency Principle. "Once we have made a choice or taken a stand, we will encounter personal and interpersonal pressures to behave consistently with that commitment. Those pressures will cause us to respond in ways...
Reciprocity Principle
From Robert Cialdini's "Influence" The Reciprocity Principle. "The rule says that we should try to repay, in kind, what another person has provided us.""If a woman does us a favor, we should do her one in return; if a man sends us a birthday present, we should...
Contrast Principle
From Robert Cialdini's "Influence" Contrast Principle "the contrast principle, that affects the way we see the difference between two things that are presented one after another. Simply put, if the second item is fairly different from the first, we will tend to see it...
How to Negotiate Your Rent
By Chris Voss' "Never Split the Differenece" How to Negotiate Your Rent. (p. 208) Mishary- "At their meeting, Mishary laid out his situation. His experience in the building had been really positive, he said. And, he pointed out, he always paid on time. It would be sad...
Use the Ackerman Bargaining Technique
From Chris Voss' "Never Split the Difference" Use the Ackerman Bargaining Technique. (p. 206) Set your Target PriceSet your first offer at 65 Percent of your target priceCalculate three raises of decreasing increments (85, 95, 100)Use lots of empathy and different...
How to negotiate your flight
From Chris Voss' "Never Split the Difference" How Ryan negotiated his way to get on a flight that seemed booked. (p. 69) To start, watch how Ryan turns that heated exchange to his advantage. Following on the heels of an argument is a great position for a negotiator,...
How to negotiate your salary
From Chris Voss' "Never Split the Difference" How to Negotiate Your Salary: Be Pleasantly Persistent On Nonsalary Terms. "the more you talk about nonsalary terms, the more likely you are to hear the full range of their options. If they can’t meet your nonsalary...
General Tips for Negotiations
From Chris Voss' "Never Split the Difference" General Tips for Negotiations. "it begins with listening, making it about the other people, validating their emotions, and creating enough trust and safety for a real conversation to begin." (p. 28)"Psychotherapy research...
Get People to say “That’s right”
From Chris Voss' "Never Split the Difference" Get People to say "That's Right!" "Creating unconditional positive regard opens the door to changing thoughts and behaviors. Humans have an innate urge toward socially constructive behavior. The more a person feels...
Get people to say No
From Chris Voss' "Never Split the Difference" Getting People to Say "No", is Better Than Getting People to Say "Yes". (From page 94) "Break the habit of attempting to get people to say “yes.” Being pushed for “yes” makes people defensive. Our love of hearing “yes”...
Show respect for the other person’s opinions. Never say, “You’re wrong.”
From Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People. Show respect for the other person's opinions. Never say, "You're wrong." "Never begin by announcing “I am going to prove so-and-so to you.” That’s bad. That’s tantamount to saying: “I’m smarter than you are....
Let the other person feel the idea is his or hers.
From Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People. Let the Other Person Feel the Idea is His or Hers. "Don’t you have much more faith in ideas that you discover for yourself than in ideas that are handed to you on a silver platter? If so, isn’t it bad judgment...
The 6 Step Process for Better Decision Making.
From Annie Duke's "How to Decide" Why do I need this 6 step process? "For new decisions, you’re looking into the future, which is inherently uncertain. This six-step process will help you improve the quality of both new decisions on your horizon and your assessment of...
Why pros and cons lists are dangerous.
From Annie Duke's book "How to Decide" Why pros and cons lists are dangerous. "When we approach a decision, we have already started to form an opinion about what the right option is. Usually we don’t even know we have already formed an opinion, but that opinion can,...
Favorite Quotes from Essentialism
From Greg McKeown's "Essentialism" My Favorite Quotes from "Essentialism" "In this example is the basic value proposition of Essentialism: only once you give yourself permission to stop trying to do it all, to stop saying yes to everyone, can you make your highest...
Essentialism at Work
From Greg McKeown's "Essentialism" Favorite Quotes for Work Advice: "The executive followed the advice! He made a daily commitment towards cutting out the red tape. He began saying no." (p. 2) "Encouraged by his small wins he pushed back a bit more. Now when a request...
Essentialists vs Nonessentialists.
From Greg McKeown's "Essentialism" Nonessentialists. vs Essentialists “I have to.” vs "I choose to.” “It’s all important. vs "Only a few things really matter." "How can I fit it all in?" vs "What are the trade-offs?" "Reacts to what’s most pressing." vs "Pauses to...
Is giving interviews for job applicants a waste of time?
From Chip Heath's "Decisive" Is Giving Interviews for Job Applicants a Waste of Time? "Research has found that interviews are less predictive of job performance than work samples, job-knowledge tests, and peer ratings of past job performance. Even a simple...
What are the traits of Superforecasters?
From Philip Tetlock's "Superforecasting" Superforecasters have significantly beaten the CIA in in predicting the future, even without classified information! What Traits do Superforecasters Have? They score very high on active open-mindedness. "Beliefs are hypotheses...
How do Superforecasters make Predictions?
From Philip Tetlock's "Superforecasting" Here is the Method Superforecasters Use to make Predictions. (Wording is from me, not book) They Break Down the Question into Sub Questions. "Decompose the problem into its knowable and unknowable parts." (p. 27) They Get the...
General summary of “Decisive”
From Chip Heath's book "Decisive" "Why do people make bad decisions?" "In recent years, many fascinating books and articles have addressed this question, exploring the problems with our decision making. The biases. The irrationality. When it comes to making decisions,...
You should trust the outside view more than the inside view according the Chip Heath.
From Chip Heath's "Decisive" What is the outside view and inside view? Inside View- "Our evaluation of our specific situation.""The Inside View draws from information that is in our spotlight as we consider a decision—our own impressions and assessments of the...
Attain distance.
By Chip Heath's book "Decisive" The 3rd villain in decision making is short-term emotion. “This brings us to the third villain of decision making: short-term emotion. When we’ve got a difficult decision to make, our feelings churn. We replay the same arguments in our...
Set up a Tripwire to prevent yourself from going on Autopilot.
From Chip Heath's, "Decisive" Set up a Tripwire to prevent yourself from going on Autopilot. "Chances are you know someone who has been stuck on autopilot too long. Sometimes autopilot causes people to neglect opportunities; maybe you have a friend who has talked...
Reality test your assumptions.
From Chip Heath's "Decisive" “Confirmation bias is probably the single biggest problem in business, because even the most sophisticated people get it wrong." "Our normal habit in life is to develop a quick belief about a situation and then seek out information that...
Widen your options.
From Chip Heath's "Decisive" Widen your options. From WRAP Beware of narrow framing. "narrow framing, which is the tendency to define our choices too narrowly, to see them in binary terms." People think, "should I do this? or not?" "Nutt found that “whether or not”...
How to ask questions to get trustworthy information.
From Chip Heath's Decisive How to ask questions to get trustworthy information. "This practice of asking probing questions is useful when you are trying to pry information from people who have an incentive to spin you: salesmen, recruiters, employees with agendas, and...
Before starting a project, beware of the Planning Fallacy!
From Daniel Kahneman "Thinking, Fast and Slow" Before starting a project , beware of the Planning Fallacy! "When forecasting the outcomes of risky projects, executives too easily fall victim to the planning fallacy. In its grip, they make decisions based on delusional...
What is the Fermi Method?
From Philip Tetlock's "Superforcasting" What is the Fermi Method? Enrico Fermi was a physicist who helped invent the Atomic Bomb. He was also famous for answering seemingly impossible questions with little data. (During a time before the internet was invented.) "Fermi...
Is it possible to overcome Biases?
From Daniel Kahneman "Thinking, fast and slow" Biases are the enemy of good decision making. Is it Possible to Avoid Biases? Kahneman is not optimistic that you can prevent Biases easily. A big problem is you will be blind to notice your own Biases. "The message of...
How to make decisions according to Ray Dalio
From Ray Dalio's "Principles" Here are Ray Dalio's tips on how to make good decisions: The two biggest barriers to good decision making are your ego and your blind spots. Together, they make it difficult for you to objectively see what is true about you and your...
Ten Commandments Superforecasters use
From Philip Tetlock's "Superforecasting" These Are The Ten Commandments Superforecasters Use. (Please note this page is directly from page 177 from the book) Ten Commandments for Aspiring Superforecasters. The guidelines sketched here distill key themes in this book...
Why you should listen to two opposing views before making a judgement
From Daniel Kahneman "Thinking, fast and slow" "Jumping to conclusions on the basis of limited evidence is so important to an understanding of intuitive thinking, and comes up so often in this book, that I will use a cumbersome abbreviation for it: WYSIATI, which...
My favorite Ray Dalio quotes
My favorite Ray Dalio quotes from his book "Principles." "Instead of saying “I know I’m right, one should ask, “How do I know I’m right?“ “None of us is born knowing what is true; we either have to discover what’s true for ourselves, or believe and follow others. The...
Whenever you see a number, beware of the Anchoring Effect!
From Daniel Kahneman "Thinking, fast and slow" Beware of the Anchoring effect! Whenever you see a number before making a decision, this number will influence your decision unconsciously!"you should assume that any number that is on the table has had an anchoring...
Beware of the Availability Heuristic.
From Daniel Kahneman "Thinking, fast and slow" Beware of the Availability Heuristic! When you are trying to estimate the frequency of something, you will make an estimate based on how easily you can recall it in your mind. This is called the Availability Heuristic....
Don’t let stories distort your view of reality due to the Representativeness Bias
From Daniel Kahneman "Thinking, fast and slow" Don't Let Stories Distort Your View of Reality! Let's say you are trying to predict something. If you read a story or description of something, you will overweight this description as evidence and underweight the Base...
Beware of the Optimism Bias.
From Daniel Kahneman "Thinking, fast and slow" Beware of the Optimism Bias! "In terms of its consequences for decisions, the optimistic bias may well be the most significant of the cognitive biases. Because optimistic bias can be both a blessing and a risk, you should...
How much of success is due to luck?
From Daniel Kahneman "Thinking, fast and slow" How Much of Success is Due to Luck? "A recurrent theme of this book is that luck plays a large role in every story of success; it is almost always easy to identify a small change in the story that would have turned a...
Even well trained statisticians get fooled by the small numbers Bias
From Daniel Kahneman "Thinking, fast and slow" Even Statisticians Get Fooled by the Small Numbers Bias. The law of small numbers state:"Large samples are more precise than small samples.""Small samples yield extreme results more often than large samples do." (p....
You might say “I knew it!” but you probably had Hindsight Bias.
From Daniel Kahneman's "Thinking, fast and slow" What is Hindsight Bias? "The tendency to revise the history of one’s beliefs in light of what actually happened produces a robust cognitive illusion." (p. 203)"A general limitation of the human mind is its imperfect...
Smile
From Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People. Smile "Charles Schwab told me his smile had been worth a million dollars. And he was probably understating the truth. For Schwab’s personality, his charm, his ability to make people like him, were almost wholly...
How to make decisions according to Buffet, Munger and Bevelin
From Peter Bevelin's "All I want to know is where I'm going to die so I'll never go there." How to Make Decisions: "People chronically misappraise the limits of their own knowledge; that's one of the most basic parts of human nature. Knowing the edge of your circle of...
How to avoid Confirmation Bias by Buffett, Munger, and Bevelin.
From Peter Bevelin's "All I want to know is where I'm going to die so I'll never go there." How to Avoid Confirmation Bias: "It is easy to see that a quickly reached conclusion...combined with a tendency to resist any change in that conclusion, will naturally cause a...
Investing tips from Buffett, Munger, and Bevelin
From Peter Bevelin's "All I want to know is where I'm going to die so I'll never go there." Investing tips from Buffet, Munger, and Bevelin: "I pay no attention to economic forecasting. I worry about being in good business with good people. That's all I focus...
My favorite quotes from Buffet and Munger
From Peter Bevelin's "All I want to know is where I'm going to die so I'll never go there." My Favorite Quotes from Bevelin's Book: "This modern generation, which has gotten so good at doing two or three things at once- multi-tasking, aided by electronic devices- I'll...
My favorite Quotes from the Book Grit
From Angela Duckworth's "Grit" My Favorite Quotes From the Book Grit. "In sum, no matter the domain, the highly successful had a kind of ferocious determination that played out in two ways. First, these exemplars were unusually resilient and hardworking. Second, they...
Test ideas or “ooch” before leaping into them.
From Chip Heath's "Decisive" Test ideas or "ooch" before leaping into them. "To ooch is to construct small experiments to test one’s hypothesis." (p. 116) Ooching = "running small experiments to test our theories. Rather than jumping in headfirst, we dip a toe in."...
Some general principles by Ray Dalio
From Ray Dalio "Principles" 1, Instead of saying “I know I’m right, one should ask, “How do I know I’m right?" "None of us is born knowing what is true; we either have to discover what’s true for ourselves, or believe and follow others. The key is to know which path...
My Favorite Warren Buffet quotes
From Peter Bevelin's "From Darwin to Munger" My Favorite Warren Buffet Quotes: "I have learned mainly by reading myself. So I don’t think I have any original ideas. Certainly, I talk about reading Graham. I’ve read Phil Fisher. So I’ve gotten a lot of my ideas...
My Favorite Charlie Munger Quotes.
From Peter Bevelin's "Seeking Wisdom, from Darwin to Munger" My Favorite Charlie Munger Quotes: "without lifetime learning, you people are not going to do very well. You are not going to get very far in life based on what you already know. You’re going to advance in...
Naval Ravikant Quotes
My Favorite Naval Ravikant Quotes: "I don’t know about you, but I have very poor attention. I skim. I speed read. I jump around. I could not tell you specific passages or quotes from books. At some deep level, you do absorb them and they become part of the threads of...
Be “hearty in your approbation and lavish in your praise.”
Be "Hearty in your Approbation and Lavish in your Praise." "Praise the slightest improvement and praise every improvement." (p. 266) "Why, I wonder, don’t we use the same common sense when trying to change people that we use when trying to change dogs? Why don’t we...
Is Overconfidence Good or Bad?
From Daniel Kahneman "Thinking, Fast and Slow" Is Overconfidence Good or Bad? "Psychologists have confirmed that most people genuinely believe that they are superior to most others on most desirable traits—they are willing to bet small amounts of money on these...
How to predict something according Daniel Kahneman
From Daniel Kahneman "Thinking, fast and slow" People forecast and predict all kind of things. Financial analysts forecast earnings, Economists forecast inflation, contractors predict the time it will take to finish their project, people forecast how much growth of...
Begin in a friendly way
From Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People. Begin in a Friendly Way “If you come at me with your fists doubled,” said Woodrow Wilson, “I think I can promise you that mine will double as fast as yours; but if you come to me and say, ‘Let us sit down and...
If you are wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically
From Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People. If You Are Wrong, Admit it Quickly and Emphatically. "When we are right, let’s try to win people gently and tactfully to our way of thinking, and when we are wrong—and that will be surprisingly often, if we are...
Get the other person saying “yes yes” immediately.
From Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People. Get the Other Person Saying Yes, Yes Immediately. "In talking with people, don’t begin by discussing the things on which you differ. Begin by emphasizing—and keep on emphasizing—the things on which you agree....
Dramatize your ideas
Dramatize Your Ideas. "This is the day of dramatization. Merely stating a truth isn’t enough. The truth has to be made vivid, interesting, dramatic. You have to use showmanship. The movies do it. Television does it. And you will have to do it if you want attention."...
Try honestly to see things from other person’s point of view.
Try Honestly to See Things From Other Person's Point of View. "Remember that other people may be totally wrong. But they don’t think so. Don’t condemn them. Any fool can do that. Try to understand them. Only wise, tolerant, exceptional people even try to do that." (p....
Be sympathetic with the other person’s ideas and desires.
Be Sympathetic with the Other Person's Ideas and Desires. "Wouldn’t you like to have a magic phrase that would stop arguments, eliminate ill feeling, create good will, and make the other person listen attentively? Yes? All right. Here it is: “I don’t blame you one...
Call attention to people’s mistakes indirectly
Call Attention to People's Mistakes Indirectly. Instead of criticizing someone of their mistakes directly, do it in an indirect way. Examples: A lady hired a construction company to build an addition to her house. She noticed the workers left a mess on her lawn each...
Begin with praise and honest appreciation
Begin With Praise and Honest Appreciation. "It is always easier to listen to unpleasant things after we have heard some praise of our good points." (p. 237) A writer wrote a speech for McKinley. McKinley didn't think it was good enough, but praised him before asking...
Talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person.
Talk About Your Own Mistakes Before Criticizing the Other Person. Before you criticize someone, to soften the blow, talk about your own mistakes first. Carnegie started to criticize his 19 year old secretary, but realized he was much worse at her age. "One day when I...
Ask questions instead of giving direct orders
Ask Questions Instead of Giving Direct Orders. "He always gave suggestions, not orders. Owen D. Young never said, for example, “Do this or do that,” or “Don’t do this or don’t do that.” He would say, “You might consider this,” or “Do you think that would work?”...
Let the other person save face
Let the Other Person Save Face "Even if we are right and the other person is definitely wrong, we only destroy ego by causing someone to lose face. The legendary French aviation pioneer and author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry wrote: “I have no right to say or do anything...
Use encouragement. Make the fault seem easy to correct.
Use Encouragement. Make the Fault Seem Easy to Correct. "Tell your child, your spouse, or your employee that he or she is stupid or dumb at a certain thing, has no gift for it, and is doing it all wrong, and you have destroyed almost every incentive to try to improve....
Throw down a challenge
Throw Down a Challenge. "Let Charles Schwab say it in his own words: “The way to get things done,” says Schwab, “is to stimulate competition. I do not mean in a sordid, money-getting way, but in the desire to excel.” (p. 229) "That is what every successful person...
Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to
Give the Other Person a Fine Reputation to Live Up to. "if you want to improve a person in a certain respect, act as though that particular trait were already one of his or her outstanding characteristics." (p. 268) "Give them a fine reputation to live up to, and they...
Make the other person happy about doing the thing you suggest.
Make the Other Person Happy About Doing the Thing You Suggest. A boy's chore was to pick up pears from under a pear tree so the lawn mower didn't have to pick them up. He didn't like this chore. The father decided not to scold him and said, ‘Jeff, I’ll make a deal...
The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it
From Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People. The Only Way to Get the Best of an Argument is to Avoid it. Carnegie attended a party. During dinner, a man told him a funny story with a quote. The man said the quote came from the Bible. Carnegie told the man...
Be careful not to over appraise someone due to the Halo Effect
From Daniel Kahneman "Thinking, Fast and Slow" Be careful not to over appraise or under appraise someone due to the Halo Effect. If you like someone, you will probably over appraise them. If you hate someone, you probably dislike them more than they deserve. This is...
How to conduct an interview with less bias
From Daniel Kahnehman "Thinking, fast and slow" If you are interviewing someone for a job, you probably will over weigh your personal impressions from the interview and under weigh the facts about the candidate. This is bad because the Halo Effect affects your...
Be careful when looking at results because you must factor in Regression to the Mean.
From Daniel Kahneman "Thinking, fast and slow" What is Regression to the Mean? Outcomes are a combination of skill and luck. If someone performs unusually well, it was due to luck. So next time they perform, they will do a lot worse. If someone performs unusually bad,...
Principle 1. Don’t criticize, condemn or complain.
From Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People." Principle 1: Don't Criticize, Condemn, or Complain. "Criticism is futile because it puts a person on the defensive and usually makes him strive to justify himself. Criticism is dangerous, because it...
Principle 2: Give Honest and Sincere Appreciation.
From Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People." Principle 2: Give Honest and Sincere Appreciation The deepest human urge is the desire to feel important. "The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated." (p. 42) Andrew Carnegie...
Principle 3: Arouse in the other person an eager want.
From Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People. Principle 3: Arouse in the Other Person an Eager Want. "Why talk about what we want? That is childish. Absurd. Of course, you are interested in what you want. You are eternally interested in it. But no one else...
Become genuinely interested in other people.
From Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People. Become genuinely interested in other people. "You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you." (p. 78)...
Beware of Base Rate Neglect!
From Daniel Kahneman "Thinking, fast and slow" Beware of of Base Rate Neglect! When people make a prediction of something, they underweight Base Rates or even neglect them. This is an illusion called Base Rate Neglect. "There are two ideas to keep in mind about...
When can you trust Intuition?
From Daniel Kahneman "Thinking, fast and slow" Some people claim to have great intuition. Should you trust their intuition? What is Intuition and When Can You Trust it? First of all, what is intuition? Is it mysterious? Is it magic? No. Intuition is simply information...
Munger’s Overoptimism Tendency
From Charlie Munger "Poor Charlie's Almanack" "What a man wishes, that also will he believe." "The Greek orator as clearly right about an excess of optimism being the normal human condition, even when pain or the threat of pain is absent." "One standard antidote to...
Munger’s Excessive Self-Regard Tendency
From Charlie Munger's "Poor Charlie's Almanack" "We all commonly observe the excessive self-regard of man. He mostly misappraises himself on the high side, like the ninety percent of Swedish drivers that judge themselves to be above average." (p.473) One spouse...
Munger’s Social Proof Tendency
From Charlie Munger's "Poor Charlie's Almanack" "The otherwise complex behavior of man is much simplified when he automatically thinks and does what he observes to be thought and done around him." (p. 480) "This make it wise for parents to rely more on manipulating...
Munger’s Authority-Misinfluence Tendency
From Charlie Munger's "Poor Charlie's Almanack" "Living in dominance hierarchies as he does, like all his ancestors before him, man was born mostly to follow leaders, with only a few people doing the leading. And so, human society is formally organized into dominance...
Munger’s Availability-Misweighing Tendency
From Charlie Munger's "Poor Charlie's Almanack" "Man's imperfect, limited-capacity brain easily drifts into working with what's easily available to it." (p. 486) "The main antidote to miscues from Availablity-Misweighing Tendency often involves procedures, including...
Munger’s Twaddle Tendency
From Charlie Munger's "Poor Charlie's Almanack" "Man, as a social animal who has the gift of language, is born to prattle and to pour out twaddle that does much damage when serious work is being attempted. Some people produce copious amounts of twaddle and others very...
Influence from Mere-association tendency
By Charlie Munger's Almanack "Some seller of an ordinary industrial product will often change his product's trade dress and raise its price significantly hoping that quality-seeking buyers will be tricked into becoming purchasers by mere association of his product and...
Munger’s Envy/Jealousy Tendency
From Charlie Munger's "Poor Charlie's Almanack" "Sibling jealousy is clearly very strong and usually greater in children than adults. It is often stronger than jealousy directed at strangers." (p. 465) "Envy/jealousy is extreme in myth, religion, and literature...
Make the other person feel important- and do it sincerely
From Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People. Make The Other Person Feel Important- and Do it Sincerely. "The law is this: Always make the other person feel important. John Dewey, as we have already noted, said that the desire to be important is the...
Let the other person do a great deal of the talking.
From Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People. Let the Other Person Do a Great Deal of the Talking. "Most people trying to win others to their way of thinking do too much talking themselves. Let the other people talk themselves out. They know more about...
Remember a person’s name
From Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People. Remember a Person's Name. "Franklin D. Roosevelt knew that one of the simplest, most obvious and most important ways of gaining good will was by remembering names and making people feel important—yet how many...
Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.
From Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People. Be a Good Listener. Encourage Others to Talk About Themselves. “There is no mystery about successful business intercourse. … Exclusive attention to the person who is speaking to you is very important. Nothing...
Advice on how to deal with arguments
From Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People. How to Deal with Arguments. Welcome the disagreement. - "When two partners always agree, one of them is not necessary. If there is some point you haven’t thought about, be thankful if it is brought to your...
Munger’s Reciprocation Tendency
From Charlie Munger's "Poor Charlie's Almanack" "The automatic tendency of humans to reciprocate both favors and disfavors has long been noticed as extreme, as it is in apes, monkeys, dogs, and many less cognitively gifted animals." "The standard antidote one's...
Munger’s Inconsistency-Avoidance Tendency
From Charlie Munger's "Poor Charlie's Almanack" "When one sperm gets into a human egg, there's an automatic shut off device that bars any other sperm from getting in. The human mind tends strongly toward the same sort of result." (p. 461) "People tend to accumulate...
Incentives are superpowers
From Charlie Munger "Poor Charlie's Almanack" "I think I've been in the top 5 percent of my age cohort almost all my adult life in understanding the power of incentives, and yet I've alway underestimated that power. Never a year passes but I get some surprise that...
Doubt-Avoidance Tendency
From Charlie Munger "Poor Charlie's Almanack" "The brain of man is programmed with a tendency to quickly remove doubt by reaching some decision." (p. 459) To help prevent Doubt- Avoidance Tendency, judges and jurors are forced to delay their decisions to try to...
Munger’s Disliking/hating Tendency
From Charlie Munger's "Poor Charlie's Almanack" "Disliking/Hating Tendency also acts as a conditioning device that makes the disliker/hater tend to (1) ignore virtues in the object of dislike, (2) dislike people, products, and actions merely associated with the object...
Munger’s Liking/Loving Tendency
From Charlie Munger's "Poor Charlie's Almanack" A newly hatched baby goose is programmed to love the first creature that is nice to it, which usually is his mother. If the first thing a baby goose see is a nice human, the baby goose will "love" the human. "Each child,...
Principle 1- The Happiness Advantage
"The Happiness Advantage" by Shawn Achor Principle 1- The Happiness Advantage "thanks to breakthroughs in the burgeoning field of positive psychology, we are learning that the opposite is true. When we are happy—when our mindset and mood are positive—we are smarter,...
Does making more money make people happier?
From Sonja Lyubomirsky "The Myths of Happiness" Once you reach a basic level of living, making more money does not make people much happier. This is due to Hedonic Adaptation. While you may genuinely be happy after you purchase something, the novelty wears off. Humans...
Your brain thinks in System 1 and System 2
1 min. 10 sec. read Whenever we make a decision we use two modes of thinking, System 1 and System 2. You can think of System 1 and System 2 as two agents, each with their own character, abilities, limitations, and functions. "System 1 operates automatically and...
Principle 4- Falling Up.
"The Happiness Advantage" from Shawn Achor Principle 4- Falling Up. "Study after study shows that if we are able to conceive of a failure as an opportunity for growth, we are all the more likely to experience that growth. Conversely, if we conceive of a fall as the...
Principle 5- The Zorro Circle.
"The Happiness Advantage" by Shawn Achor Principle 5- The Zorro Circle. "Feeling that we are in control, that we are masters of our own fate at work and at home, is one of the strongest drivers of both well-being and performance. Among students, greater feelings of...
Principle 2- The Fulcrum and the lever
"The Happiness Advantage" by Shawn Achor Principle 2- The Fulcrum and the lever "Because our brain’s resources are limited, we are left with a choice: to use those finite resources to see only pain, negativity, stress, and uncertainty, or to use those resources to...
Principle 3- The Tetris Effect
"The Happiness Advantage" by Shawn Achor Principle 3-The Tetris Effect "When these kids played Tetris for an extended period, they similarly became stuck with something clouding their vision—in this case, a cognitive pattern that caused them to involuntarily see...
Principle 6- The 20 Second Rule
"The Happiness Advantage" by Shawn Achor Principle 6- The 20 Second Rule "Without action, knowledge is often meaningless. As Aristotle put it, to be excellent we cannot simply think or feel excellent, we must act excellently. Yet the action required to follow through...
Principle 7- Social Investment
"The Happiness Advantage" by Shawn Achor Principle 7- Social Investment "At the time, I remember thinking that this was a particularly cruel trick. But years later, I’m impressed at how memorably the Fire Maze training instilled in me the lesson that is at the heart...
Talk in terms of other person’s interests.
From Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People. Talk in Terms of Other Person's Interests. "For Roosevelt knew, as all leaders know, that the royal road to a person’s heart is to talk about the things he or she treasures most." (p. 121) Roosevelt was known...