Sublime

the ‘act first, think after’ principle. The problem with this kind of behaviour is that relationships will only work if the benefits are fairly equally balanced.

people we can trust because we think we know how they think.

What Jeff understood was the power of rhetoric. Time spent coming up with the right words to package a key concept in a memorable way was time well spent. People fret about what others say about them when they're not in the room, but Jeff was solving the issue of getting people to say what he'd say when he wasn't in the room.

In reality, his ‘one last snip’ trick does nothing to improve my hair – he admitted he doesn’t even cut any hair during this routine, but it does a lot to improve my perception that he’s done a thorough job. This is the power of a ‘psychological moonshot’, a term coined by Ogilvy’s Rory Sutherland.

Another idea if you want to push against the mental pressure that kills good ideas, from Paul Graham’s recent essay on how to do good work: “One way to do that is to ask what would be good ideas for someone else to explore. Then your subconscious won't shoot them down to protect you.” I don’t know of anyone using this technique, but it might work.

with the limitations of an idea: it makes you look smart.* Rufus Griscom first discovered this early in his career, which started in publishing. “There’s nothing more shameful than writing a review that’s too positive,”