psychology

Our values influence our motivation. If we don’t have strongly held values, we’ll have little motivation. If our values are strong, our motivation will be equally strong.

Hill discovered the same, but for our bodies. He called them “moral factors.”

A well-known principle of human behavior says that when we ask someone to do us a favor, we will be more successful if we provide a reason.

Similarly, food servers have learned that simply giving customers a candy or mint along with their bill significantly increases tips; and in a restaurant frequented by international tourists, this was the case no matter the nationality of the guests.

At each level, resource acquisition is key. As discussed, only two strategies are available. Either you fight over dwindling resources, or you get creative and make more resources. Thus, when we talk about drive from an evolutionary perspective, what we’re really talking about are the psychological fuels that energize behaviors that best solve

Stories and limits—that’s what grit and quit come down to. Focus on those two and you can be as unstoppable as a Toronto raccoon—but so successful that you’ll never have to eat out of a trash can.

‘I don’t blame you one iota for feeling as you do. If I were you I would undoubtedly feel just as you do.’

Adults are more likely to judge one-sided arguments as superior to those that present both sides of a case, and more likely to think that such arguments represent good thinking.

Key insight: Teaching what you know—even as you learn it—is the fastest path to being perceived as an authority.