You Can Err in Youth

Error is acceptable as long as we are young; but one must not drag it along into old age.

- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832), German poet, dramatist

Importance of Studying Obvious Realities of Human Affairs

…we don't have any experience being ants or atoms, so if I tell you something about them that you didn't know, it sounds exotic and non-obvious. It sounds like science. But everyone has experience being human, and so the vast majority of findings in social science coincide with something that we have either experienced or can imagine experiencing. The result is that social science all too often seems like common sense.

As social scientists have long pointed out, however, common sense can easily support opposite conclusions — which is why politicians on both ends of the political spectrum invoke it in support of their arguments, even as they disagree bitterly.

All of this puts social science in an awkward position with respect to public perception: Answering even the simplest social science questions is painstaking work; yet the answers tend to seem obvious. Worse, when results from social science do not conform to our intuitions, our reaction is not to be surprised and impressed, but rather to dismiss them.

How can we better appreciate the limits of our intuition, and hence the need to support the scientific investigation of human affairs? One interesting possibility is raised by the arrival of "big data," increasingly derived from digital communications, social media, mobile apps, and e-commerce sites. The potential for all these data to yield insight into human behavior is tantalizing; yet, the insights are often at odds with our intuition. Clearly a more rigorous, scientific approach is needed.

- From a HBR blog by Duncan Watts, Network Sociologist

Blaming People, Not Circumstances

You always thought he was a good guy. You've chatted with Jack, your senior manager, at company parties, attended numerous meetings with him, and talked privately in his office in recent weeks to discuss a new initiative you've been spear-heading. Today he made the announcement: the company is pulling the plug on your project. Naturally, you're disappointed. But how do you feel about Jack?

If you're like many people, you're thinking, "Now I see his true colors. All of his encouragement must have been insincere. When push comes to shove, Jack is just like the rest of the higher-ups: phony, risk-averse, and visionless."

Or is he? This scenario illustrates one of our deep-seated, and largely invisible, biases. We tend to attribute others' behavior to fixed personality traits (i.e. "phony", "risk-averse"), rather than considering behavior within the constraints of a situation. For example, basketball players who are made to shoot in a poorly lit gymnasium may be judged as less talented than those who are observed playing under excellent lighting. We quickly blame the player, rather than taking stock of temporary limitations. Even when we're aware of the outside pressures people face, we often continue to see behavior as a reflection of enduring qualities. We just can't help ourselves.

This phenomenon, called the "fundamental attribution error" or "correspondence bias", was observed 45 years ago in a psychological experiment by Ned Jones and Victor Harris, and has intrigued social psychologists ever since. In the words of Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert, "...in everyday life people seem all too willing to take each other at face value and all too reluctant to search for alternative explanations for each other's behavior."

- From a HBR blog

Will You Die Wondering?

Over the years, I’ve done plenty of things for the wrong reasons...

For the money, for the resume, for the attention, for the approval, for the applause, for the footage, for the material, for the achievements and of course, for the need to prove myself.

But looking back, the experiences I’m most proud of, the projects I least regret and the investments that yielded the greatest dividends, were the things I did because I didn’t want to regret not doing them.

“I don’t want to die wondering,” as my friend Paul likes to say.

What a beautiful mantra.

- From a blog

Life can be a mystery, love can be a mistake, laughter can turn into tears, but these are chances we'll have to take.

- Alysha Millet

It's a Technical Thing

Professional interest is served by making what is easy to do seem hard.

- John Taylor Gatto ('Weapons of Mass Instruction: A Schoolteacher's Journey Through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling')

Arithmetic and Exponential Thinking

“We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten.” (Bill Gates)

I hadn’t heard this line before, but based on anecdotal evidence, I think Gates is right to zeroth order, and it is a very smart comment. The question is why this happens.

I think the answer is that we are naturally wired for arithmetic, but exponential thinking is unnatural. We probably use some sort of linear prediction that first over-estimates and then under-estimates the underlying exponential process.

 - From a blog

I think "Nothing succeeds like success" is also an example of exponential process.

Generalities and Detail

We think in generalities, but we live in detail.

- Alfred North Whitehead

Mistaken Identity: Are You Your Job

Having all your self-concept tied up in the job can be particularly dangerous in the layoff era. Who are you without a job? It's a good idea to find out, because it's your real identity that gets you through hard times. You've got a foundation of worth to fall back on -- skills, social ties, and interests and enthusiasms that buffer the stress.

When your identity is dependent solely on the job, you're conditioned to feel as good or as bad as your latest performance, your worth hanging in the balance with every task or jitter-inducing free moment. Having to remanufacture your worth every day is exhausting, and it crowds out the parts of life needed to bolster your real identity.

… It turns out that we exit the persona and find our true ID in the world of play. Studies have shown that we are more authentic when we're at leisure than when we're on the job. We're doing what we want, when we want, and we're motivated, not by the usual external payoffs that make us batty, but by internal goals -- fun, learning, challenge, joy, the experience itself, things that satisfy the cravings of the core self, such as autonomy and competence.

- From The Huffington Post

Originality

Nothing of me is original. I am the combined effort of everybody I've ever known.

- Chuck Palahniuk, American novelist (from his novel Invisible Monsters)

Follow Your Heart

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want. Everything else is secondary.

- Steve Jobs (Stanford, June 2005)

Metaphors to Escape Cliched Reality

Reality is a cliché from which we escape by metaphor. - Wallace Stevens
[Attention-grabbing and amusing role of metaphors]