Sublime

When a core belief is questioned, though, we tend to shut down rather than open up. It’s as if there’s a miniature dictator living inside our heads,8 controlling the flow of facts to our minds, much like Kim Jong-un controls the press in North Korea. The technical term for this in psychology is the totalitarian ego, and its job is to keep out

hide. Here’s a handy umbrella of categories, courtesy of evolutionary psychologist Geoffrey Miller: physical attributes, including health, fertility, and beauty; personality traits, such as conscientiousness, agreeableness, and openness to novelty; and cognitive ones, namely general intelligence.

the so-called Big Five traits: Introversion-Extroversion; Agreeableness; Openness to Experience; Conscientiousness; and Emotional Stability. (Many personality psychologists believe that human personality can be boiled down to these five characteristics.)

people who were far superior in predicting political and economic events, he found that they had a similar tendency to explore across data sources, looking for triangulation.

Personality — the authentic you that traditional business has taught you to suppress under the guise of “professionalism” — can be your biggest edge over the competition when you’re a company of one. What’s even better is that while skills and expertise can be replicated, it’s damn near impossible to replicate someone’s personality and style.

Personality Profiles Some of the most effective and lasting tools for building trust on a team are profiles of team members' behavioral preferences and personality styles. Since this book was written, my firm, The Table Group, developed an assessment called The Six Types of Working Genius designed specifically to help team members identify their