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Cargo Cult Science: When You Follow The Instructions But Don’t Understand The Process

Cargo Cult Science looks like science, and follows all the basic traits of a scientific experiment. But it blindly copies instructions without understanding them, confuses correlation and causation, and is overtly focussed on outcomes without having clear fundamentals.

Via Negativa: We Know What is Wrong With More Clarity Than What is Right

When we set goals—both personal and professional—we tend to focus on what we should do, rather than focussing on what we should avoid. Humans naturally know more about what is wrong, what is bad, what is harmful, or what won’t work, more than they know about what is right and what would work.

Negative Visualisation: Contemplating The Worst to Make The Best

Humans are unhappy in large part because we are insatiable. After working hard to get what we want, we routinely lose interest in the object of our desire. Negative Visualisation helps us learn to appreciate the things we posses, and make the best of what we already have.

Regret Minimisation Framework: How to Live With Minimal Regret

Regret is the result of comparing what we actually did with what would have been best in hindsight. You cannot—in theory or practice—have a life completely devoid of regret. But you can achieve the next best thing: a life with minimal regret.

Green Lumber Fallacy: The Disconnect Between Academic Knowledge and Practical Wisdom

What works in real world may not match our stories of why or how it works. Unimportant details and post-hoc narratives can often distract us into thinking we know the reasons for something when we really don’t.

What is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy?

Your brain is good at making you feel exactly what you’re thinking. We have automatic negative thoughts that lead us to get upset or frustrated over things that may not be true. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy can help you get rid of irrational thought, and improve your mental health.

The Tyranny of Small Decisions

Before it was a park, Boston Commons was a grazing pasture for cows. Local families used it collectively. Then a problem arose. Each additional cow that a farmer got benefited their family, but when all the farmers kept getting new cows, the commons started getting depleted.

Self-Perception Theory: What You Do Affects What Attitudes You Build

Self-Perception Theory asserts that people develop their attitudes by observing their own behaviour and concluding what attitudes must have caused it, especially when there is no previous attitude due to a lack of experience, and the emotional response is ambiguous.

Einstellung Effect: When Prior Knowledge Harms Performance

During creative problem-solving, prior knowledge and experience can enhance performance by efficiently guiding us towards solutions that worked in the past. However, prior knowledge can also harm performance if the problem requires a novel solution.

How to Think About Your Life’s Work

Being a doctor is not the way it’s portrayed on House. Being a lawyer is not the way it’s portrayed on Suits. Being a gangster is not the way it’s portrayed on The Sopranos. It’s hard to get an accurate picture of most jobs from stories and narratives.

Action Bias: Why Waiting and Watching Is Torture

Do Something Syndrome is the outcome of our tendency to always do something by intervening when, in fact things should be left as they are. This bias is a mix of a lack of patience and a strong desire to intervene without thinking, or considering the possibility of a downside.

The Benjamin Franklin Effect: Why It’s Better to Ask For a Favour Than Do One

He that has once done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another, than he whom you yourself have obliged. The better way to build rapport is to ask for a favour rather than doing one.

Seneca: “Take Some of Your Own Time For Yourself Too”

We often get more engrossed in the balance-sheet of a business than that of our own life. We convince ourselves that we’ll live for ourselves later, after we have accomplished what we have set out to do.

Externalities: Handling Things That Are Out of Your Control

An externality is something that affects us without us agreeing to it. Externalities can be both positive and negative. Understanding the types of externalities and how they impact your life can help you improve your decision making, and how you interact with the world.

The Minimum Validation Principle: How to Stay Motivated in Life and Business

When you create something new, you put immense pressure upon yourself to make it grow. Growth usually means more sales, more customers, more subscribers, etc. It makes sense to grow a venture. But this mentality has major side-effects. It has a strong propensity to make you miserable.

The Ethics of Manipulation

Reid Hoffman says that he doesn’t invest in businesses that don’t exploit one of the Seven Deadly Sins. But when it comes to building a company, you also gotta ask yourself if your end goal is to make the world a better place, or is it to exploit and cash out.

Inversion: Working Backwards to Solve Problems

Inversion is an interesting way to relook a problem by turning it upside down. It is immensely helpful when you are stuck and there’s no way to move forward. Inversion forces you look at a difficult problem backwards, or from a completely new perspective.

The Psychology of Optimism

Optimists see the world differently. No matter how bleak the outside world is, their mental image is different. In their head, their chances are more favourable than usual. But it’s not all sunshine and rainbow. Optimism may sound like a superpower, but it isn’t without its kryptonite.

Mental Models: The Best Way to Make Better Decisions

What are Mental Models? Why should you use them? How can they help you understand how things work? How can they help you solve problems, and make better decisions?

When Life Gives You Lemons, Make a Stoic Lemonade

Reality is often different from your mental image. And it’s not always easy to deal with. No matter how smart or how cautious you are, reality always finds a way to hit you in the head with a brick. The sooner you beat it to the ground, the sooner you would get rid of anxiety and negative emotions.

3 Lessons from Arnold Schwarzenegger

Arnold Schwarzenegger is not only a successful actor, but also a brilliant strategist and a businessman. Here are three lessons on life and strategy that you can learn from him.

Second-Order Thinking: How to Uncover Hidden Consequences While Making Decisions

First-order consequences often have opposite desirabilities from second-order consequences. This results in big mistakes in decision making. Especially when you are treading in uncharted territories.

Capturing The Value You Create

There is a difference between the value you create and the value you capture. If you only create value you won’t be able to make a living. If you only capture value you’ll go out of business.

A Better Way of Saying, “I Don’t Know”

It’s better to stay quiet than blabber endlessly without any logic or coherence. While this way of thinking definitely helps you grow, it does have some downsides. Downside not in your growth, rather, downside in how others perceive you.

The High-Ground Manoeuvre: A Better Tactic to Justify Your Position

High-Ground Manoeuvre is a tactic used to get out of a debate when one is cornered. High-Ground Manoeuvre takes the debate out of the details, and elevates it to a level where there can be no disagreements.