Month: February 2017

Point of no return bias 

There are about a dozen psychological, subconscious biases that lead to what I like to call the point of no return bias. We have dissonance when we become attached to an idea, especially after we invest in that idea. It’s very hard to change our mind  because of the dissonance. Even if we haven’t invested beyond liking the idea, we’re…

Buying more than the initial high 

Thinking back about some of the first computers that I had as a kid, I remember the excitement that I had that led up to getting the computers. Especially the ones that I paid for myself. The anticipation of saving up and then finally affording my own desktop computer and eventually my own laptop.  The laptop was really exciting. It…

Habits have to serve a purpose 

If you want to eat healthy but you don’t, it’s because you aren’t really that concerned about your health, body, etc. And, that’s ok! If you want to meditate but you don’t, it’s because you don’t really believe that it’s necessary. If you want to get up early but instead you snooze the alarm, it’s not because you like sleep…

Error on the side of overconfident. 

Confidence, roughly speaking is a reflection of what you think of your own ability. Often times it is out of touch with reality. Hence over-confident and under-confident.  Many people recommend humility which would suggest leaning toward under confident. Which means erroring on the side of believing you’re not as good as you actually are.  But that’s no way to grow.…

Positive emotions can be just as pernicious as negative 

You might think that negative emotions, like anger, are the ones that when left unchecked get you into trouble. Like slugging someone when you’re angry. Positive can be just as bad, if not worse because they’re unsuspecting. Excessive positive feelings lead you to promise to do things you can’t or won’t do.  They lead you to jump on spur of…

Habits are feelings

The hardest part of building a new habit is forcing yourself to do it (whatever habit you’re forming – say going to the gym) long enough that you feel bad when you don’t do it.  Everything else is down hill once you feel compelled to do it. 

Writing is doing not planning 

Too many people spend too much time getting organized and thus never get to writing. Plan just enough to get you headed in the right direction and then let whatever happens happen. Big up front design usually means you never get to whatever it is you want to do because the plans never feel quite right.  They never will, so…