Mental Error - 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.

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.

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.

The Limits of Our Reasoning

Statistical concepts such as regression are confounding. While they have an explanation, they don’t have any cause. Our mind is strongly biased toward causal explanations and cannot swallow the reason for something being “mere statistics.”

Why We Fool Ourselves

We lie to ourselves through our teeth. Our minds habitually distort (or ignore) critical information. We routinely engage in what we call wishful thinking, we bury our heads in the sand, and once in a while we drink our own Kool-Aid. Is there any reason for that from an evolutionary point of view?

True Lies: How Statistics Fools Us

When an ad says 80% of dentists recommend Colgate, what do you assume? Do you believe they asked ~1,000 dentists out of which 800 recommended Colgate, or do you think they asked 10 out of which 8 recommended Colgate?

Working Hypothesis: How to Avoid Fooling Yourself

Facts don’t change our minds. The mind is stubborn, and no matter how strong the facts are, we undervalue evidence that contradicts our beliefs and overvalue evidence that confirms them. Ironically, the same brain that empowers rational thinking also skews our judgments.

You Are More Resilient than You Think

If we were asked how we would feel if we lost our job, or the person we love, we would feel devastated, and not without good reason. But the truth is that we blow it out of proportions when we imagine the aftermath of a traumatic event. We are surprisingly more resilient than we think.