Imagine a friend inviting you to dinner. He texts you: “I’m organizing a dinner with 8 people and the average net worth of attendees is $22 billion.” What would you think? Besides wondering when your friend met that many rich people, you’d expect to be the least wealthy among invitees. But you arrive at dinner and…
Articles
RICE Scores: A Simple Method For Project Prioritization
“This is done, what’s next?” That’s what you ask yourself after finishing a project. It seems trivial, but it’s the most important question that defines your results over the long term. Why? Well, most people believe productivity is doing a lot. But that’s an illusion. Real productivity comes from doing the work that brings you the best results. So it’s…
Ikigai For Business: The Hedgehog Concept
What Is Ikigai and How Is It Related to Business? You’ve probably heard of Ikigai. It became popular thanks to the book with the same name. Ikigai means “a reason for being” in Japanese. And as a concept, it’s finding your sense of purpose in the intersection of: In Good to Great, Jim Collins has…
Force Field Analysis: Make Big Changes Easier (With Examples)
What is Force Field Analysis Force Field Analysis is a strategic analysis and decision-making method developed by Kurt Lewin. In this article, you’ll find two personal examples to see how you can use Force Field Analysis in your life. Every decision requires a change. Think about it. If you decide to gain muscle; you have…
Loss Aversion Bias: Why Most People Fail Before They Even Try
Loss aversion bias is a mental bias that causes people to make wrong decisions to avoid losses. Because the pain from losses is more powerful than the joy from gains. Let’s say you want to flip a coin with your friend. You offer him $300 if he wins the toss and ask for $200 if…
Steel-manning: How Better Arguments Can Make You Succeed
Steel-manning is a mental model where you strengthen opposing arguments to understand them better, so you can make the right decisions. Mike presented his project to Jane, the head of marketing. He had prepared for weeks for this presentation. User feedback, technical details, strategy… He had a solid plan for a new product. And he already had…
Association Bias & A Phony Paradise Of An Assassin Master
Association bias is when your mind takes the emotion you feel as a cue to build an opinion about a person, brand, or event. In this article, you’ll see how it becomes a fallacy with a story and how to avoid it. Imagine falling asleep and waking up in a garden. A garden full of beautiful women, musicians playing…
Nassim Taleb’s Optionality: Unlimited Gains With Limited Costs
Optionality is a mental model to make decisions that create possible unlimited gains with limited costs. Nassim Taleb explains the importance of optionality in his book Antifragile. In this article, you’ll find a short story to see how optionality works and then three ways to increase optionality in your life. Is it possible to turn…
Think Laterally: Apple’s Ad Masterpiece and How to Think “Different”
Lateral thinking is a mental model to find creative solutions to complex problems. In 1997, Steve Jobs returned to Apple to revive the company from the ashes. And they wanted a new campaign to announce Apple was back. Apple’s competitor IBM’s slogan was “Think.” So as a response, the ad agency came up with the famous…
Talent Stacking: The Easy Path to Extraordinary Success
Talent stacking is increasing your chances of success by becoming good at many skills, rather than trying to become the best at one. Scott Adams made the idea popular in his book How to Fail at Almost Anything and Still Win Big. There are two paths to extraordinary success: Be great —at one thing It…