Perfectionism is painful. I can spend weeks perfecting this article. And still, fail to achieve it. In the meantime, I’d procrastinate. Because I’d feel that this is not the best form yet. It can be better. That feeling would keep me away from finishing the work and shipping it. You’ve probably had similar experiences. The…
Articles
Concorde Fallacy: How to Avoid Making Decisions Like A Losing Gambler
The Concorde fallacy is a mental bias where people continue spending resources (money, time, or effort) on failing projects because of a prior commitment. Let’s see the story of Concorde and how a fallacy was named after it. Concorde was an impressive aircraft. It had an elegant design, with a maximum speed over twice the…
What Is Argumentum Ad Populum (And How To Question It)
Argumentum ad populum (Latin for “appeal to the people”) is a fallacy when people accept what is popular as true without logical reasoning. We live in a world of arguments. Some arguments shape how we make decisions and how we live without us realizing it. Especially when the majority accepts one as the norm. A…
A-B-Z Framework: The Right Way to Start
A-B-Z Framework is a mental model to save you from analysis paralysis while starting new projects or achieving your life goals. What is your career target? Building a successful company? Becoming a CEO? Having a long-term goal for yourself is good. But it might be overwhelming when you start thinking about how to get there.…
Napoleon’s Secret for Success: Compartmentalization
Napoleon was a unique person. He spent most of his life on the battlefields. His military genius is well known; he has fought against coalitions of European countries and won most of the battles. His soldiers loved him as he always spent time with them and knew the names of even the low-rank soldiers. He was a…
Via Negativa: Steve Jobs’ Favorite Mental Model For Problem-Solving
Via negativa is a mental model that looks for solutions not through addition, but through subtraction. Steve Jobs loved cutting things out. When he returned to Apple as CEO, before creating any new product, he killed dozens of existing products. And focused the company on what it does best. Later on, he made one of the…
The Lindy Effect: How Things Age In Reverse (With Examples)
What is the Lindy Effect? According to the Lindy Effect, the older an idea, a technology or a company gets, the longer it will live in the future. It’s aging in reverse. And it’s a useful mental model to understand the world better. Imagine you are in a library. You see hundreds of books one next to…
Jeff Bezos’ Framework For Big Decisions: Regret Minimization Framework
How can you make a big decision when you have a lot to lose? Jeff Bezos found an answer to this question when he was considering leaving his Wall Street career (and a big paycheck) behind to start selling books on this new thing – the internet. While describing his simple mental model to make the decision…
What is Antifragility (With A Career Example)
What’s the definition of Antifragility? We know fragile things. They break easily with a little stress and disorder. Antifragile things don’t just resist a shock, damage, or crisis but also thrive under these conditions. It’s a concept developed by Nassim Taleb in his book Antifragile. Let’s look at two examples to see how you can use it in your life: Fragile: Little…
Steven Pressfield’s Resistance: A Villain You Have to Fight
Every great story has a villain. The Lord of the Rings has Sauron. Star Wars has Darth Vader. In his book The War of Art, Steven Pressfield created an unusual one. He called it Resistance. We fight with Resistance every day without knowing. It’s intelligent and silent. Usually, it shows its face in the form of procrastination.…