Thinking Out Loud: How to Use Your Voice in Knowledge Work
Used well, thinking out loud can sharpen how we work and how we think. By speaking and using our voice, knowledge workers can improve clarity, creativity, and decision-making.
✨ Better Thinking
Humans are prone to cognitive biases. Don’t rely on your intuition to make important decisions. Instead, understand the most common mental models to improve your thinking. Build your very own metacognition toolkit to face choices with a calm, informed mind.
Popular articles in this category include be careful of the optionality fallacy and the Occam’s razor fallacy, avoid falling prey to illusory correlations, use checklists when you can’t trust your brain. Learn about the curse of knowledge, The Cobra Effect, and Parkinson’s Law.
How to lead like a scientist
Leading like a scientist begins with a fundamentally different relationship with uncertainty. While leaders traditionally view uncertainty as a threat, research shows that teams that openly acknowledge what they don’t know consistently outperform those projecting false confidence.
Productive at Work, Paralyzed at Home: What to Do When You’re in a Functional Freeze
You excel at your job, and yet when you return home, a strange paralysis sets in. This is a functional freeze – a state where you’re performing well in your duties but are unable to invest energy in your own growth.
The Liberating Effect of Uncertainty
When I was seven, I wanted to be a paleontologist. I collected rocks and fossils, memorized dinosaur names, and could tell you exactly which period the Stegosaurus lived in (it’s the Late Jurassic, in case you’re wondering). Then it was veterinarian, astronaut, fashion designer – each passion consuming me completely until the next one came … Read More
Your Brain on Uncertainty
When you’re uncertain, your brain activates two key regions, but handling uncertainty isn’t about suppressing emotions in favor of logic. Instead, it’s about coordinating both parts of yourself to respond more effectively.
Checklists: The Key to Smarter and Safer Work
From product launches to project management, I’m obsessed with checklists. And I’m not the only one. Systemic complexity means that we cannot rely on our memory alone to know what to do and when to know it. Checklists are a powerful tool allowing us to unload some of the cognitive stress of living our lives … Read More
The Curse of Knowledge
Have you ever had a teacher who was very smart but terrible at teaching? An expert who used so much jargon you could not follow their explanation? This is called the “curse of knowledge”, a term coined in 1989 by economists Colin Camerer, George Loewenstein, and Martin Weber. It’s a cognitive bias that occurs when … Read More
Levels of Thinking: How to Make Better Decisions with Second-Level Thinking
Skipping meals to save time, but finding yourself exhausted and unproductive by the afternoon. Choosing a cheaper apartment to save money, but the long commute ends up costing you time and energy. You tried to make the most sensible choice, and yet… What went wrong? It’s easy to get carried away when making a decision. … Read More
The Affliction of Abundance
You’re about to launch a new product, but you can’t decide on the tech stack. You’ve been researching for weeks, worried that you might miss out on the perfect solution. Sounds familiar? This is FOBO – the Fear of a Better Option. It’s the lesser-known cousin of FOMO, and it might be secretly sabotaging your … Read More
Temporal Curiosity: Exploring the Past, Present, and Future
The idea of time travel has captivated human imagination for centuries. In H.G. Wells’ classic 1895 novel The Time Machine, the protagonist invents a device that allows him to travel through time, exploring the distant future. While we may still be far from physically traversing time, there is a way to embark on a temporal … Read More