Tools for Success - Tripwires and Checkpoints
How to set tripwires and checkpoints to monitor progress and help you navigate problems successfully.
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Mind Performance Insights
Strategies for improving your cognitive performance and decision making
- 2 min
Facing an Unsolvable Problem
Framing a problem as unsolvable can cause you to abdicate responsibility. Mitigating is a better approach.
- 3 min
Truth In Self-Labeling - How accurately do your labels reflect you?
Self-labelling undermines your performance and can cause others to make negative assumptions.
- 3 min
How Assumptions Undermine Problem Solving
Assumptions carry false certainty and failure to recognize them thwarts effective problem solving.
- 2 min
A Trivial Pursuit - Why we spend too much meeting time on trivial issues
The bikeshedding phenomenon - when smaller, trivial topics get more attention than bigger, more impactful issues.
- 3 min
The Plan B Conundrum
Having a Plan B is a great idea, but think of it as a last resort, not an excuse to give up on Plan A.
- 3 min
Turning Knowledge Into Success
Don't get trapped in a cycle of continually learning without acting on that knowledge to reach your goals.
- 4 min
Challenge the Incumbency of Your Status Quo
We're all susceptible to status quo bias. Recognize it and reduce its impact on your performance.
- 3 min
How Well Do You Know Your Audience?
Knowing and understanding your audience is key to making your message resonate.
- 3 min
Increasing Your Attention Span: Strategies for Staying Focused in a Distracted World
How to succeed when attention spans are decreasing.
- 3 min
Stop solving the wrong problem
Accurate problem definition is the key to effective problem solving
- 4 min
Don't Get Fooled - Insights on Deception from The Sting
We’re all just a bunch of fools. It’s not an insult, it just means that our brains are configured in a way that makes us easy to deceive....
- 4 min
Class in session! Learn your lessons from 2022
2022 can still be a great year for you - if you use it as a teacher to propel you for more success in 2023.
- 2 min
Beware the Lure of the Idea Cult
How to tell when supporting an idea reaches cult status.
- 2 min
Happily Disillusioned
It's time to re-think how we feel about becoming disillusioned.
- 4 min
Purveyors of Insight
A list of amazing thought leaders currently sharing their insightful work with the world.
- 2 min
The value and the beauty of thought experiments
Learn how thought experiments can elevate your problem solving and decision making .
- 2 min
Decision Making by Matrix
Decision making should be a thoughtful, defined process. Using a decision matrix can help you produce better decisions.
- 3 min
Are Your Loyalties Well-placed?
Misplaced loyalties can be costly. Re-examine yours to determine which ones do and do not serve you.
- 4 min
The FAUX Illusions
Fear, assumptions, urgency and expectations can create false impulses that can hamper your performance.
- 3 min
The World Is Ambiguous. Embrace It.
The drive for certainty is as strong as our drives for food and sex.
- 3 min
The Surprising Power of the Unexpected
Results are evaluated on how they compare to expectations. See how defying expectations can be magical.
- 3 min
Connection - the Heart of Trust
Trust is vital to all of your relationships, and making a personal connection is a great way to reduce mistrust.
- 3 min
Reigning in the Mother of All Cognitive Biases
We hear a lot about confirmation bias but it keeps getting worse. Here's why and how to reduce yours.
- 3 min
Reaching for the stars - you are never too old
Inspiration for when you feel your best years are behind you and you missed your chance at greatness.
- 3 min
From A-ha to Ta-da! - Turning New Knowledge into Self-improvement
Turn new knowledge into self-improvement by scheduling an action plan.
- 3 min
The Secret Switch-up: How Attribute Substitution Leads to Bad Decisions
What do you think of Will Smith? Few people know much about him personally but after he slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars, many people...
- 3 min
How the Projection Bias Is Undermining Your Decision Making
Projecting your current self onto the future you is a recipe for poor decision making. Learn how to overcome it.
- 3 min
Making It Stick - assimilating knowledge through spaced learning
Why is one of the most effective learning techniques so underutilized? Use spaced learning to improve your performance.
- 3 min
Staying on Track by Tracking
Tracking your progress makes you twice as likely to achieve your goal. Don't ignore this crucial component.
- 4 min
You Are a Writer - So Be a Good One
How and what you write reflects on you. Implement a few simple tips and make a big improvement to your writing.
- 4 min
Is it Quitting Time?
Quitting (job, relationship, career, business) is tough and has a negative stigma. When is it the best option?
- 4 min
The Power of Non-negotiables
Nobody’s perfect. We all have habits we’d like to break and new ones we want to start - basically behaviors that if we change them we...
- 3 min
Breaking the Law of Small Numbers
Your decision making is undermined by misunderstanding small numbers . It's time to re-think and elevate your decision performance.
- 3 min
The Three Decembers Method for New Year's Resolution Success
Improve your odds of success with your New Years resolutions with the Three Decembers Method.
- 2 min
Rhyme as Reason
You snooze - you lose. An apple a day keeps the doctor away. Give a hoot - don’t pollute I before E except after C Humans have a thing...
- 4 min
Lessons from 5 Years of Thinking about Thinking
After 5 years of learning about thinking and decision making, here are the most impactful insights I've gained.
- 3 min
The Value-Action Gap - Avoiding Hypocrisy
A major cause of both regret and distrust and we our actions do not align with our values. How can we narrow the gap?
- 3 min
When to Shoot for the Moon
Moonshots are great and can take you far, as long as you are clear-eyed about the probabilities of success and failure.
- 3 min
Are your parameters real?
We all have limits and constraints, but only some are real. How do you know which are illusionary?
- 3 min
Guided by the galaxy?
What can we learn from astrology and its effect on human decision making?
- 3 min
What You Should Really Do When "It Ain't broke"
How the "leave it alone if it still works" mindset may be hampering your ability to innovate.
- 3 min
Ignoring the Base Rate - an Expensive and Dangerous Impulse
A common cause of bad decision making is favoring anecdotal evidence over base rates.
- 3 min
Motor Imagery - The Next Best Thing to Physical Practice
We are not always in a position to practice when we need to, but recreating your practice mentally can pay big dividends.
- 3 min
Is Speed the Key to Deception?
Magicians tell us the hand is quicker than the eye, but it is the ease with which our attention can be manipulated that is the real secret.
- 3 min
The "10% of Your Brain" Myth
You've heard that we only use a small potential of our brain's capacity, right? Wrong. It's time to let go of this widely believed myth.
- 3 min
The Three objects of your Illusions
What types of illusions are you most susceptible to? Which ones have the biggest affect on your success?
- 3 min
All Good Things
Is it useful to dwell on the idea that all good things must come to an end? Is it true? Does it foster happiness and a sense of fulfillment?
- 3 min
Intimidation by False Premise
The "for us or against" proposition is an example of a false dichotomy - a fallacy used to intimidate the listener into acquiescence.
- 3 min
Water on the Brain
Ample hydration provides many brain benefits including improved memory, focus, and processing speed.
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