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
In data analysis, survival bias is taking the known into account while neglecting the unknown (which nevertheless exists).
survivorship bias
planning fallacy
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.
My favorite bias is the “I’m not biased”25 bias, in which people believe they’re more objective than others. It turns out that smart people are more likely to fall into this trap.26
Poker players call this tendency to confuse the quality of a decision with the quality of its outcome resulting, and it’s a dangerous tendency. A bad decision can lead to a good outcome, after all, and good decisions can lead to bad outcomes. No one who’s driven home drunk has woken up the next day and seen it as a good decision just because they
... See morecompanies have a strong incentive to exploit behavioral biases, including availability, unrealistic optimism, and anchoring.
anchoring
The rule of reframing can look different depending on what you're dealing with. But it always involves seeing a problem from a different angle, with the goal of breaking a cycle of harmful thoughts and behavior.
reframing