The Keynesian Beauty Contest: How predicting what others will do rather than making personal judgments leads to seemingly irrational market…

Our memories can be easily altered by simple changes in wording or external suggestions. When watching the same traffic accident, people…

User habits develop when products consistently guide users through triggers, actions, variable rewards, and investments. This four-step hook…

If you don't have the desire to buy something, it's as good as already owning it. Thought Just a shower thought. If you don't want something…

"I'm a visual learner" is a myth. There is no scientific evidence that tailoring instruction to learning styles can improve learning. Paper…

How you see a situation depends on what you are capable of doing in a situation. Book: How to Know a Person This explains why different…

Bloom's Taxonomy: Our learning objectives can be classified as a hierarchy of remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, and create…

When celebrating success, one should feel joy rather than relief. Shared joy is preferable to individual joy. It is acceptable to lose as…

Curiosity drives us to seek information, not because we expect pleasure from finding the answer, but to relieve the discomfort from the gap…

Why are we curious? Curiosity evolved as a survival mechanism, driving early humans to explore new territories to secure long-term resources…

Producer Switch: How creative professionals can use the placebo effect to resolve subjective feedback and create a win-win situation with…

Memory retrieval is easier when the context of recall matches the context when the memory was formed. If you learn the content underwater…

The Cathedral Effect: Higher ceilings can make us more creative by triggering feelings of freedom and encouraging people to see broader…

People who grow up in resource-poor environments discount future rewards more than average because they perceive a shorter, more uncertain…

In the workplace, avoid the agreeable takers and embrace the disagreeable givers. Someone hard to work with is better than someone selfish…

Changing study environments can significantly improve how well you remember information because environmental context is critical for memory…

Approach technical problems with psychological solutions: Elevator mirrors reduce perceived waiting time by distracting passengers. Article…

Four reasons people post things: sound smart, be funny, look hot, look rich. Tweet: Nikita Bier on X To make people share your product…

We have two selves: the experiencing self and the remembering self. The self that remembers decides what makes us happy, not the self that…

Dual-coding theory: Verbal and nonverbal information are stored separately in our memory, and simultaneously processing both verbal and…

“If the shoe doesn’t fit, must we change the foot?” ADHD may stem more from an environmental mismatch than a brain problem. Book: The Ape…

Magician's Choice: How magicians manipulate you to choose the card they want you to choose through equivocation. Article: Magician's Choice…

Premium purchases offer enhanced functional benefits at a higher price, while luxury purchases symbolize the buyer's ability to afford items…

Fogg Behavior Model: Behavior = Motivation x Ability x Prompt. Three elements must converge at the same moment for a behavior to occur…

Locus of control shapes our emotional well-being. Strong internal locus of control, the belief that we have control over the outcomes, can…

Need for Cognitive Closure: How much do you prefer getting a clear and definitive answer to questions versus remaining uncertain or…

Parkinson's Law: Work expands to fill the time available for its completion. The more time we allot for a work, the more time it will take…

We can never know the actual reasons why we do anything. The observations of split-brain patients reveal that our true motivations are…

Random Intermittent Reward is the most powerful mechanism to keep people repeating the same behavior. Social media triggers dopamine hits…

Procedural knowledge tends to be retained longer than declarative knowledge in our memory. All skills start as declarative knowledge and…

Region-beta Paradox: People can be better off when things are much worse. While moderate situations prompt endurance, crisis triggers action…

Dark Room Metaphor: Learning is a process of reconstruction (Constructionism), not transmission(Instructionism). Creating our mental 3D…

Forward testing effect: Taking an exam before learning the subject can enhance future learning of that subject. Book: Ultralearning The…

Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory: Job satisfaction and dissatisfaction are independent. Improving factors that cause dissatisfaction…

Desirable Difficulty in learning: Harder retrieval leads to better learning, given retrieval is successful. Test yourself before we think we…

Volatility is the emotional price you need to pay to get high average annual returns. View volatility as a fee, not a fine. Book: The…

Fading affect bias can improve the overall positivity of life but also reinforce maladaptive behavior. It makes heavy drinkers harder and…

Why do we forget bad feelings about memories faster? Fading affect bias (FAB). Article: Fading affect bias - Sketchplanations On my…

“I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to…

People follow incentives, not advice. Newsletter: 3-2-1: How to change someone’s mind, the balance between justice and compassion, and…

Another way to think about money's effect on happiness is money gives an atmosphere of growth. Being able to spend more money is proof of…

When one learns to laugh at their neurosis, they are on the way to conquer it since a sense of humor can put them at a distance from their…

Prisoners who suffered from "provisional existence of unknown limit" experienced a strange time experience: A day lasted longer than a week…

The connection between the state of mind and the state of immunity explains why the death rate during Christmas and New Year peaked in camp…

"The secret to doing good research is always to be a little underemployed. You waste years by not being able to waste hours." - Amos Tversky…

Make more deliberate habits rather than habits that result from accidents of history. Book: The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to…

Goal Gradient Effect: The tendency to approach a goal increases with proximity to the goal. Article: Goal Gradient Effect: How rewards can…

To have more immersive memory and relive the experience, have some camera-free time and document the experience with your brain only. Video…

We have to learn to separate the fact from the story. Podcast: Neil Pasricha: Happy Habits [The Knowledge Project Ep. #72] "I failed the…

A simple way to teach and practice the awareness of gratitude: Rose, Rose, Thorn, Bud. Podcast: Neil Pasricha: Happy Habits [The Knowledge…

Zeigarnik Effect: People remember uncompleted tasks better than completed tasks Article: The Zeigarnik Effect Explained In 192…

Rule of 3 in conversation. To get to the real reason, ask a person to go deeper than what they just said. Then again, and once more. The…

All human behavior is only driven by the desire to escape discomfort. Book: Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your…

Be careful with the F word in negotiation: Fair. Online Course: MasterClass | Chris Voss Teaches the Art of Negotiation Fairness comes up in…

Why did they do that? Three Attribution Traps: Fundamental Attribution Error, Actor-Observer Bias, and Self-Serving Bias Online Course…

When looking for honest feedback, ask for a 0-10 score and then ask how to get closer to a 10. Tweet This tweet is from Adam Grant, an…

Cheerleaders Effect: People look better when they are in groups Article: Cheerleader Effect: Why People Are More Beautiful in Groups The…

The value of being answered with "No". Online Course: MasterClass | Chris Voss Teaches the Art of Negotiation Most people think the most…

Three Levels of mint-giving: How to increase tips by 23 percent? Article: How Restaurant Servers Increased Tips by 23 Percent (Without…

When we want to be helpful in response to other's feeling bad, first figure out what they want is empathy or solution. Podcast: Lisa Feldman…

The reason we say "don't be upset" is often because we don't want to have our emotions synchronized and be upset. Podcast: Lisa Feldman…

The ability to differentiate between similar emotions helps us do better and be more resilient. Podcast: Lisa Feldman Barrett: Balancing the…

Ask what/how questions instead of why. Online Course: MasterClass | Chris Voss Teaches the Art of Negotiation Why-questions tend to trigger…