The World's Best Book Summaries
What can the science of happiness tell us about how to be happier? What can it tell us about our happiness compared to the happiness of our ancestors? Are we getting happier over time? Or unhappier? We’ll cover recent research on the science of happiness and look at how researchers determine how our happiness compares to that of our ancestors.
What is the relationship between mindfulness and happiness? Can being more mindful make us happier? Can it reduce suffering? Mindfulness and happiness are a well-researched pair, and many people believe that being more mindful can contribute to your happiness. According to this theory, mindfulness can help you keep from grasping at pleasure and avoiding pain, which are the roots of suffering. We’ll cover how mindfulness and happiness are related and explore some other theories of happiness.
What is the anchoring effect? How do we use it in everyday decision making? The anchoring effect is a cognitive bias where you depend too heavily on an initial piece of information when making decisions. This can lead to bad judgments and allows you to be biased by information that’s often irrelevant to the decision at hand. Learn how the anchoring effect in psychology works, why it can lead to bias, and how to overcome the anchoring effect.
What is confirmation bias? What can cause confirmation bias? Confirmation bias is the tendency to find and interpret information in a way that confirms your prior beliefs. We selectively pay attention to data that fit our prior beliefs and discard data that don’t. Better understand the above confirmation bias definition and how confirmation bias occurs in decision making.
Isn’t it profound how we can make decisions without realizing it? You like or dislike people before you know much about them; you feel a company will succeed or fail without really analyzing it. But how susceptible are these quick judgments to cognitive bias? What is cognitive bias? Cognitive bias is an error in thinking that affects our judgments. These biases are the result of quick, intuitive thinking below the conscious level. Learn what cognitive biases are, better understand the cognitive bias definition above, and see examples of the most common cognitive biases.
What is the “What You See is All There Is (WYSIATI)” phenomenon? How does it work? Why does WYSIATI lead to bad decisions? What You See is All There Is (WYSIATI) is a cognitive bias described by Daniel Kahneman in Thinking, Fast and Slow. WYSIATI says that when presented with evidence, especially those that confirm your mental model, you do not question what evidence might be missing. Learn how the “What You See is All There Is” phenomenon affects your decision making, and learn how to overcome it.
What is a heuristic question? How is it involved in decision-making? What is the link between heuristics and biases? A heuristic question is a question that’s relatively easy to answer that you substitute for a more complex question. Heuristics are practical, but not always ideal. They help you make quick decisions. We’ll cover how heuristics work, examples of heuristics, and the benefits and dangers of heuristic thinking.
What is global thinking? How does it differ from narrow framing, and why does it help in decision-making? Global thinking is the ability to see the big picture and consider every combination of options to find the optimum one. Global thinking is mentally taxing and therefore hard to do, and we usually fall back on “narrow thinking” instead. We’ll cover how global thinking differs from narrow framing and how global thinking can help you make better decisions.
What is the sunk cost fallacy? What are some examples of the sunk cost fallacy? The sunk cost fallacy is the tendency to keep investing time or money in something because you’ve already invested a lot of time, money, or resources into it. In doing so, we separate life into separate accounts, instead of considering the global account. Learn what the sunk cost fallacy is and why it’s so easy to fall for it.