psychology

As we’ve just seen, people tend to look to others for guidance as to how to behave. And this tendency is strongest when the person observed is similar to ourselves, an effect that can be seen in how susceptible teenagers are to the opinions and fashion choices of their peers.

Our tendency to emulate others also produces a rather grim statistic: when

So, after nearly a decade of doing this wrong, please learn from my mistakes. These skills should be used for good (improving the company’s chance of success) but are also applicable in a more Machievellian sense, if that’s your sort of thing. To make this feel more real, I’m going to walk you through a work of analysis I did here at Every. Using

What’s more, engagement and flow tend to prompt a virtuous cycle of sorts: we become more motivated and aroused overall, and, consequently, more likely to be productive and create something of value.

We’ve gone from being goal directed (in the case of thinking, of consciously going through Holmes’s steps, making sure to execute each one properly) to being automated (we no longer have to think about the steps; our minds go through them as a matter of course). From something that is based largely on effortful memory to something that triggers

without the same level of teeth-gritting willpower depletion.

As expected, broad framing blunted the emotional reaction to losses and increased the willingness to take risks.

The pleasant relief will not last very long, of course, and you will soon be shivering behind the rock again, driven by your renewed suffering to seek better shelter.

RULE 13 Show a genuine interest in other people. All the effort in the world won’t matter if you’re not inspired. —Chuck Palahniuk Fear not those who argue but those who dodge.

The improbable is not yet impossible. As we deduce, we are too prone to that satisficing tendency, stopping when something is good enough.