Decision Making - Abhishek Chakraborty

Opportunity v FOMO

Competition gives us a framework to measure ourselves against others. It tells us where we stand in the world, how far ahead or behind we are from those similar to us. But too much of it is detrimental.

Truth is Ruthless

If your wife asks you if she looks overweight, you will utter “no” without flinching, whatever you actually think. On the other hand, all of us consider it morally wrong (under all circumstances) to make sexual advances on children. This fuzziness however creates some interesting dilemma.

The Problem With Too Much Conviction

There are times when you may not know for sure if this is the right decision. There are times when you don’t know anything about something, and you’re still asked to do something about it. These kinds of situations are in fact more common than others. What do you do then?

The Problem With Too Much Logic

It doesn’t pay to be logical if everyone else is also being logical. Conventional logic is a straightforward mental process that is equally available to all and will therefore get you the same place (and same life partner) as everyone else.

Black Swan Bias: Rare Events Don’t Happen Everyday

There’s wisdom in the saying, “Lightning never strikes (the same place) twice.” Black Swan events maybe rare but the distortions caused by them don’t disappear for a long time.

Problem Trading: Why We Should Learn to Live With Our Problems

It’s interesting that the most practical problem-solving lessons are business lessons. It’s because the stakes are real in business and you have real skin in the game. If you don’t make the right decisions, death is certain. In fact, the default outcome for any startup is death. This means you have

The Problem with Too Much Fairness

We care so much about fairness that we are willing to sacrifice economic well-being to enforce it. Research shows that just to ensure shirkers get what they deserve, we are prepared to make ourselves poorer.

Counterfactual Reasoning: How to Ask Better What-if Questions

Suppose Jonny takes a drug and dies a month later, how do we go about investigating whether the drug might have caused his death? To answer this question (correctly) we need to imagine a scenario in which Jonny was about to take the drug but changed his mind.