mind traps

“In driver’s training we were taught to identify our visual blind spots and eliminate them with the help of mirrors and sensors. In life (...) we need to learn to recognize our cognitive blind spots and revise our thinking accordingly”

from Think Again by Adam Grant

baja

Part of the problem is cognitive laziness. Some psychologists point out that we’re mental misers:10 we often prefer the ease of hanging on to old views over the difficulty of grappling with new ones.

Adam Grant • Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

Occam’s broom is used to describe people’s tendency to sweep relevant facts “under the rug.” No doubt you’ve experienced Occam’s broom in an argument before — when the other person simply refuses to engage with a fact you’ve laid out in favor of your side.

Kevin Dickinson • 3 brilliant critical thinking tools used by Daniel Dennett

A Rube Goldberg machine , named after American cartoonist Rube Goldberg, is a chain reaction–type machine or contraption intentionally designed to perform a simple task in an indirect and (impractically) overly complicated way.

Rube Goldberg machine

For hundreds of years, “Occam’s razor” has been a go-to in any critical thinker’s mental toolbox. Also known as the “principle of parsimony,” this heuristic (read: a mental shortcut) is often summarized as: “When you have two competing explanations for the same phenomenon, the simpler one is the better.”

Kevin Dickinson • 3 brilliant critical thinking tools used by Daniel Dennett

An important question to ask yourself is, “What if I’m wrong?”

Kevin Dickinson • 3 brilliant critical thinking tools used by Daniel Dennett

I sense there is a shift happening where people are realizing that they are channeling an ambitious impulse - the desire to grow and evolve - into dumb goals. Rejecting legible ambitious might be the most ambitious thing you can do.

A shift from legible ambition (my parents can easily brag about me) to illegible ambition (no one, including me know

Paul Millerd • Losing Yourself, Ambition, Writing, 40k Books, Surrender | #247

100 Little Ideas

Morgan Housel collabfund.com

A rational decision-maker would simply ignore the bad options and keep waiting for the neutral-to-good ones. Alas, humans are prone to availability bias, so each additional bad option can go to your head. Instead of waiting, you’ll be tempted to lower your standards.

mind traps

Adam Grant • Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

Kevin Dickinson • 3 brilliant critical thinking tools used by Daniel Dennett

Rube Goldberg machine

Kevin Dickinson • 3 brilliant critical thinking tools used by Daniel Dennett

Kevin Dickinson • 3 brilliant critical thinking tools used by Daniel Dennett

Paul Millerd • Losing Yourself, Ambition, Writing, 40k Books, Surrender | #247

100 Little Ideas

Cassie Kozyrkov • How I navigated my biggest career transition

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