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

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.

Cassie Kozyrkov • How I navigated my biggest career transition

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 implication of these studies is that this so-called “selective exposure bias” may be pushing us into more polarised positions.

This cognitive bias can push people into more extreme ideological positions | BPS

Utility maximization was first developed by utilitarian philosophers Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. In microeconomics, the utility maximization problem is the problem consumers face: "How should I spend my money in order to maximize my utility?" It is a type of optimal decision problem. It consists of choosing how much of each available good... See more

Jonothan Levin • Utility maximization problem

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

Both the physical and the electronic isolation from people we disagree with allow the forces of confirmation bias, groupthink, and tribalism to push us still further apart

Jonathan Haidt • The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure

When a core belief is questioned, though, we tend to shut down rather than open up. It’s as if there’s a miniature dictator living inside our heads,8 controlling the flow of facts to our minds, much like Kim Jong-un controls the press in North Korea. The technical term for this in psychology is the totalitarian ego, and its job is to keep out

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

totalitarian ego

While the Zeigarnik effect highlighted the tension and memorability of unfinished tasks, Ovsiankina's research delved deeper into the subsequent behaviors this tension fostered. Specifically, her studies demonstrated that when individuals were interrupted during a task and later given free time, they displayed a strong inclination to return to and... See more

Maria Ovsiankina • Ovsiankina effect

Zeigarnik effect vs Ovsiankina effect

But just as there are reasons why these design patterns won out, we shouldn't let survivor bias blind us to their inherent tradeoffs. The next wave of social startups should learn from the weaknesses of some of these choices of our current social incumbents

Eugene Wei • And You Will Know Us by the Company We Keep

survivorship bias