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.
Despite the best intentions, a group of people make unwise decisions because of a collective desire to avoid raising controversial issues or alternative solutions. In striving for conformity, there can be a loss of individual creativity, uniqueness and independent thinking. This phenomenon is called “groupthink”. Here is a personal example. When arranging to meet up … Read More
The conventional path of accumulating optionality gives you reassuring but fragile options. In contrast, the best options — which involve lots of experimenting and tinkering — may feel riskier in the short term but will help you thrive through uncertainty.
Welcome to this edition of our Tools for Thought series, where we interview founders on a mission to help us think better and work smarter. Nils Janse is the founder of Delibr, a Stockholm-based startup helping product managers harness the potential of AI. In this interview, we talked about the main traps product teams fall … Read More
For decades, the metaphor that the brain is a machine has caused some confusion. However, even if the metaphor is incorrect from a biological standpoint, viewing the mind as a machine can be useful as a heuristic for everyday decision-making. Created by a cognitive scientist at Harvard University, the concept of “mindware” builds upon the … Read More
Have you ever found yourself in a brainstorming session at work, where everyone ends up agreeing on a less-than-ideal course of action? The Abilene paradox describes this unfortunately common situation where a group of people agree to an idea, despite most of them not fully believing that it is the best decision. Although it may … Read More
Socrates, Galileo, Marie Curie, Einstein… What did these great thinkers have in common? They all practiced deliberate doubt and used it as a tool to improve their thinking and generate creative ideas. Deliberate doubt is the practice of actively questioning our beliefs and assumptions. It is about suspending our certainty and letting go of our … Read More
Finding answers is a highly-valued skill in today’s world, where more than ever knowledge is power. We pride ourselves in quickly resolving issues and creating consensus. In job descriptions, companies clearly state that they are looking for problem solvers. But what if this single-mindedness blinds us to more creative answers? What would happen if we … Read More
Our brain is wired to reduce uncertainty. The unknown is synonymous with threats that pose risks to our survival. The more we know, the more we can make accurate predictions and shape our future. The path forward feels more dangerous when we can sense essential gaps in our knowledge. In fact, fear of the unknown … Read More
The human mind is extremely averse to ambiguity and uncertainty. We are hardwired to seek answers — even if they’re incomplete or wrong — and most societies consider having answers as more valuable than having questions. Look around you: the overt objective of many jobs is to provide answers. After going through an interview process … Read More
Welcome to this edition of our interview series, where we talk to founders on a mission to help us think better without sacrificing our mental health. Brad Wolverton is the Director of Content at The Hustle, one of the fastest-growing newsletters in the world, read by millions of ambitious professionals and innovators. In this interview, … Read More