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

the negativity bias can keep us so blind to the positive that we may start to take it for granted or not catch it when it enters our lives.

James Doty • Mind Magic

We are currently trapped in the illusion of growth. The belief that all businesses should grow indefinitely. To expand their business, profits, and workforce… Everything in nature is circular, so there’s nothing natural about this growth craze.

Angelos Arnis • Designing for the last earth

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.”

Big Think • 3 Brilliant Critical Thinking Tools Used by Daniel Dennett

In psychology there are at least two biases that drive this pattern. One is confirmation bias:23 seeing what we expect to see. The other is desirability bias:24 seeing what we want to see. These biases don’t just prevent us from applying our intelligence. They can actually contort our intelligence into a weapon against the truth.

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

They can actually contort our intelligence into a weapon against the truth.

Goodhart's law is an adage often stated as, "When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure".[1] It is named after British economist Charles Goodhart, who is credited with expressing the core idea of the adage in a 1975 article on monetary policy in the United Kingdom:[2]

Any observed statistical regularity will tend to collapse

Charles Goodhart • Goodhart's law

The spotlight effect is what happens when we imagine that our lives are performative, or “on display” for others to consume.

Brianna Wiest • The Mountain Is You: Transforming Self-Sabotage Into Self-Mastery

spotlight effect

Research shows that when people are resistant to change, it helps to reinforce what will stay the same. Visions for change are more compelling when they include visions of continuity. Although our strategy might evolve, our identity will endure.

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

resistance to change vs reinforcing what will stay the same

Our bias is to always add more. More rules, more procedures, more code, more features, more stuff. Interdependencies proliferate, and gradually strangle us. Systems want to grow and grow, but without pruning, they collapse. Slowly, then spectacularly.

When a piece of trash drifts across the beach, it is our duty to pick it up so the next person can... See more

stephango.com • What Can We Remove?

Our bias is to always add more