Are you skilled enough to listen to this recording and hear a hidden message? Once you’ve learned the hidden message, can you listen without hearing it? Our brains are prediction machines, constantly using experience to make sense of the present & anticipate the future. Sometimes we look at our environment & just see noise &
Are you a Microsoft or Apple fan? For over 30 years 2 tech giants have used very different marketing strategies, with avid fans on both sides of the argument. With strong biases, many are either avid Apple or Microsoft fans with no in-between. But if you were looking to these as models to decide your
Your decision-making is more vulnerable to irrational thought than you’re probably willing to admit, according to scientists. Dr. Ariely describes experiments showing “anchoring,” in which an unrelated piece of information, just by being received first in a decision-making sequence, influences our decisions. For example, he had students write down the last 2 digits of their
1. The calm, collected reaction of the aircrew comes from a disciplined, checklist culture that doesn’t just happen on its own or overnight. The checklists covered the basics of engine failure, rapid depressurization, and structural damage. The confidence and efficiency provided by the checklists freed the minds of the pilot team to creatively deal with
Overconfidence sets us up for a long fall if we’re not realistic about our limitations. We all have cognitive biases that contribute to being overconfident, but these can be overcome with 6 practical methods to make more successful decisions.
“Is that your final answer?” That famous phrase heard worldwide in different languages on the wildly popular game show “Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?” meant that the time had come to make a final decision. Viewers sweated and felt the knotted stomach of emotional tension in the contestant. In my previous articles on decision-making,
On 18 April 2018, Southwest Airlines Flight 1380 was passing 32,500 feet altitude, bound for Dallas from New York. Passengers heard and felt a large explosion, a sudden depressurization, and rapid turn and descent. A passenger was sucked half-way out of a blown-out window, severely injured from explosion shrapnel. In the chaos, the aircrew managed
Our own brains can battle against effective decision-making because of cognitive biases. Limited models in our minds and unconscious efforts to take the easy and obvious road skew our view of the world of possibilities we should consider in a decision. But these 5 methods help us open up our options for better solutions.
We like to think we make reasonable, rational decisions…but there are many more pitfalls than we realize leading to irrationality. The first step in avoiding those traps is being aware of them. Come take a look at our complex mind, and how we often deceive ourselves.
