Unknown Unknowns: The Problem of Hypocognition

In 1806, entrepreneur Frederic Tudor sailed to the island of Martinique with a precious cargo. He had harvested ice from frozen Massachusetts rivers and expected to make a tidy profit selling it to tropical customers. There was only one problem: the islanders had never seen ice…. Hypocognition, a term introduced to modern behavioral science by …

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Mice Don’t Know When to Let It Go, Either

Animals, like humans, are reluctant to give up on pursuits they’ve invested in, psychologists report. Suppose that, seeking a fun evening out, you pay $175 for a ticket to a new Broadway musical. Hooked? Read the rest on the original site…

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The world is not as gloomy, or wonderful, as you may think

Written for and first published in the Financial Times on 20 April 2018. Is the glass half full, half empty, or laced with cyanide? Last week I wrote about “statistics, fast and slow” — the gap between the world as we intuitively perceive it, and the world as described in spreadsheets. Hooked? Read the rest …

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My Best Meetings Accomplish Nothing

I have a hunch that, if you tried something new, the most important meeting of your day could very well be one that has no clear objectives. One where people share incomplete thoughts and unformed ideas, where no problems actually get solved. That meeting probably sounds like a nightmare to you. Hooked? Read the rest …

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The Benefits of Admitting When You Don’t Know

“I disagree with myself.” This is what a third-grade boy said in front of his math class during a discussion about even and odd numbers. He believed six was both even and odd. When one classmate presented counterevidence, he considered her point. “I didn’t think of it that way,” he said. Hooked? Read the rest …

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