Exceptions should not be used to dismiss sound arguments. Yes, the chain smokers lived till 98, Yes, the alcoholics
reached full life expectancy, Yes, the guy didn’t study and got straight A’s, Yes, toxic work culture gave huge profits for the company, Yes, eating high-fat foods didn’t give the heart attack, Yes, all these things did happen.
There’s no doubt about that but they do not in any way nullify the general rules and principles. Believing contrarily is the perfect example of anecdotal fallacy.
By the way, high-school drop-outs have become billionaires but it doesn’t mean you drop out of it now.
Learn and Leap
What I learned after many trials and errors and mishaps is that one should not chase success right away.
Michael Watkins puts it perfectly in his context- ” There’s a lot you don’t know and in fact, there may be lots you don’t even know that you don’t know. The time before you actually start is a really crucial time when you should focus on preparing yourself.” Bias for action is good because we usually use planning as a decoy to procrastinate but jumping into the ocean without any clue about the depth is suicidal. If you think over-preparation is bad then under-preparation too is equally bad. Before you start the game, understand the rules, exceptions, variables (Big and small), information, and data that might increase the odds of winning by a few percentage points. The roadmap from the start to the end will save you.
Change
Heraclitus, an ancient greek philosopher commented that life is always in flux. He was simply pointing out that nothing
is permanent in life. In other words, this too shall pass. Marcus Aurelius too in Meditations noted that everything is
destined to change, to be transformed so that new things are born. The wheel moves is what the wise have noted.
But, yes there is a but to almost everything. As people age, they seldom welcome change. The older we get, the more stubborn we become. Everything is about ego when the bald head and bottomed belly kick in. When someone targets our political party, we target them. If some random teenager mocks your favorite movie, then you are ready for a fight. In fact, a lot of us become conservative and believe superstitions, stupid medicines, and rumors that even tabloids are envious of. As we age, our ability to welcome change with open hands decreases. At least, we should be able to acknowledge this.
Framing effect
How you say matters more than what you say even when both have the same meaning. There’s a hell lot of difference in how people will react when you say there is a 90% chance you will survive this operation, don’t worry vs but there is a 10% chance you will die from this operation, so, are you up for this?
Advertisers often use this to their advantage. The commonly referred example is the frozen yogurt one. The 20% fat yogurt is shown as 80% fat-free. It is simply the old adage glass half-full, glass half-empty, branded intellectually.
Often it is used along with anchoring bias. 50$ on a t-shirt is struck off and sold for 35$, and we never question the fact of whether does it have the value of 50$ in the first place. And
If possible, always stick to the positive frame and avoid the negative one, as humans have loss aversion in them inherently.
By the way, 399$ price tag works over 400$ price tag.
Black and White thinking
We find it hard to accept that we don’t fall on extremes. If you are not a genius then it doesn’t mean you are stupid.
we probably fall somewhere in between them. Likewise, you are not a complete failure if you haven’t got
the so-called success. A person too is not completely bad or entirely good, most people fall into grey zones.
we commonly fall prey to this when we usually do some math. It’s not like you either know the solution or you do not.
The answer is in the middle. The first 50 meters of the road are visible, not the entire highway. But we need to enter
the dark territory of the unknown. However, eventually, something clicks, probably some theorem in geometry or rule in algebra and it’s solved.
In common relationships too, no one absolutely hates you (Unless you have seriously hurt them which is altogether a different ball game) or loves you to the core of your being/existence. we like each other in parts and pieces. It’s
not weird and we do it unconsciously all the time. We watch just the fight scenes of a movie and skip the rest. Listen only to starting 30 seconds of a song and remove it from the playlist.
The “All or Nothing” doesn’t work. By the way, technically it is called Polarized or Dichotomous thinking. Avoid this cognitive distortion.
Check Assumptions
Before deciding something, first, check whether your preconceived notions and assumptions are true or not.
For instance, when everybody assumed that people cannot listen to 3-4 hour-long podcasts, Joe Rogan stopped
and challenged this belief. He asked the question what if the opposite were true?
Henry Ford used to emphasize this thinking a lot. In fact, if a candidate when taken on lunch by him
automatically puts in salt and pepper without first tasting the soup then he used to reject them as the employee
assumed that chef hasn’t put in the right proportion based on some hunch or previous non-relatable experience from
a different restaurant.
Likewise, we assume that a person isn’t valuing our friendship or some sort of relationship when he might be
plainly busy or stuck on a deadline to finish a project. In businesses also, don’t assume that customers
don’t want your premium product or service when instead your marketing was poor and most of them do not know about it.
Giver and taker
Be both in relationships. Don’t always give or receive. When you always give you get a feeling of pride
or start to see the other person as unequal or stop learning from them. Likewise, when you always receive
you feel entitled or don’t make any effort to bring value into their lives which again hurts the relationship.
Switch freely across the spectrum without any inhibitions.
Thy Vox 