How Can We Explain Tiny Startups Crushing Huge Tech Companies?
Suppose that mega-corp, a large corporation, has hundreds of employees, hundreds of thousands of customers, tens of millions of dollars of cash, a recognized brand, and an experienced CEO....
View ArticleWhy We Overvalue What We No Longer Have: The Psychology of Loss
We over value the things we have, overreact when we can’t have something anymore, and resist change. In other words, we hate loss. But because loss is frequent and inevitable, our hatred of it...
View ArticleDo Your Methods Reliably Lead You to the Truth?
Would you be satisfied believing merely what it’s trendy to believe? If so, you can adopt the beliefs of the people of your country, city, and friend group. But if you want to reliably have truer...
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Which Risks of Dying Are Worth Taking?
First, click here to figure out your chance of dying tomorrow. Is it worth taking a 1 in 100,000 chance of dying , in order to experience the novel thrill of sky diving? Is a 1 in 500,000 chance of...
View ArticleContradictory Insight
I was recently having a conversation with Geoff A. and Jana G. about how to systematically generate surprising ideas. I then sat down and created this program with them based on our discussion. Take a...
View ArticleWhen should you seek criticism?
A while ago I wrote a post about the incredible value of seeking criticism. Today, someone asked me how we should decide when to seek criticism. Or, as he put it, when should we expect other people to...
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How much should you actually tip doormen in New York City for the holidays?
If you live in a building with doormen or doorwomen in New York City (Manhattan, Brooklyn, etc.), you are probably confused right now about how much you are expected to tip them for the holiday season....
View ArticleWhat is the REAL effect of circumcising men?
Those who grow up in the U.S. are often surprised to find out that in many European countries almost no men are circumcised. In the U.S., where the majority of men have had the procedure performed on...
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Convincing Your Future Self
You have control over yourself for the next eight seconds. Maybe even the next three minutes. Right now you can choose to go to the gym right now. Right now you can choose to start something difficult...
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Where My Perfect Reasoning Utterly Failed
Does warm water sometimes freeze faster than cold water when placed in the same conditions? “Absolutely no way,” I said, a mere minute after I heard the claim. “People sometimes claim that NASA faked...
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Better Formats For Group Interaction – Beyond Lectures, Group Discussions,...
Nearly all large events use a combination of only these four simple formats for human interaction: lectures, group discussions, panels, and mixers. Yet there are more than 40 structured ways that...
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The Maximally Cynical Glossary of Technology Terms
Feeling cheery about technology and optimistic about the future, but still confused by what exactly “Deep Learning” and “Quantum computing” mean? Here’s your antidote: the Maximally Cynical Glossary of...
View ArticleA Formula for Happiness
What does the formula for happiness look like? Here’s my attempt at it: happiness = social-acceptance + self-acceptance + meaning + hope + pleasure + efficacy + resilience + optimism –...
View ArticlePsychological Immune Systems – the List
A really important difference I’ve noticed between people is how their “psychological immune systems” work. In other words: people differ substantially in the collection of strategies that their brains...
View ArticleThe Theories of Change List: Causes of Behavior Quickly Shifting in a...
Mostly people stay the way they are, or change slowly. So what are the reasons that individual human behavior sometimes quickly shifts in a positive direction? Here’s my current “theory of change”...
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Design for Non-designers – 39 Principles for Designing Effective Interfaces
I’m not a designer or UI/UX person by trade, but I have to think a lot about interfaces and design in my work. Here are the 39 things I’ve learned over the years (including illustrative examples) about...
View Article13 Ways Some Companies Make Money While Causing Harm
I’ve often heard it said that if people buy the product a company or startup is selling, then the company must be creating value in the world. After all, why would someone buy a product if it were not...
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The Relationship Between Personality and Life Satisfaction
What’s the relationship between personality and life satisfaction? We took a stab at figuring it out! We conducted a study of 999 people in the United States; recruited through our study platform at...
View ArticleHow to Identify ‘Hot Topics’ in Various Fields of Study
Ever wonder what the biggest topics are in academic Artificial Intelligence research, or Gender Studies, or Decision Science, or Dental Hygiene research? Want to figure out whether an academic...
View ArticlePredictors of Extreme Success
What traits, behaviors, or characteristics of a person do you think are the best predictors of whether a person achieves EXTREMELY HIGH levels of success in their life? (I’m referring to all domains...
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