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

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.

The planning fallacy describes our natural bias when forecasting our own productivity: we focus on the best-case scenario, or something dangerously close to it. Rarely does that scenario play out.

David Epstein • Why You Should Plan To Get Less Done

planning fallacy

The converse of the halo effect is the horns effect: All perceived negative qualities correlate. If Stalin is evil, then everything he says should be false. You wouldn’t want to agree with Stalin, would you?

Eliezer Yudkowsky • Rationality

halo effect vs horns effect

“If you can’t decide, pretend you’re deciding for a friend.” Solomon’s paradox is a robust finding that we're better at solving other people's problems than our own, because detachment yields objectivity. But research has found that viewing oneself in the 3rd person yields the same detachment and objectivity. So if... See more

the paradox of choice

Woke opinions are popular for several reasons. For a start, they lift a great burden from the brain; there’s no need to understand a complex world if you can just blame everything on bigotry.

The Opinion Pageant

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

the fallacy of “we tried that, didn’t work” via dhh:

no logical fallacy provides as much of an obstacle as “we tried that, didn’t work”. The fallacy that past failed attempts dictates the scope of what's possible.

That just because someone, somewhere, one time attempted something similar and failed, nobody else should try. That lowering our

Another aspect of the unconscious is that it will always seek out the path of least resistance.

Dr. Matthew B. James • Integrate the Shadow, Master Your Path

The faster you’re moving the more you’re in fear. The more you’re in fear, the more you’re thinking about yourself. The more you’re thinking about yourself, the less compassion and kindness you have for others.

from this Reel.

and that is why urgency/speed and fear are so great mind control tools, they reduce our cognition to “survival mode” program and nothing more