Abhishek Chakraborty (Page 15)

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.