Frequently asked questions about thinking, epistemology, and cognitive tools. 4568 answers
Online messages strip context that face-to-face communication provides automatically.
Online messages strip context that face-to-face communication provides automatically.
Online messages strip context that face-to-face communication provides automatically.
Online messages strip context that face-to-face communication provides automatically.
Pick your last five messages sent via text, Slack, or email. For each one, write down: (1) what you intended the tone to be, (2) what contextual cues you relied on the recipient having, and (3) what the message would mean to a stranger reading it cold. Count how many of the five could be misread..
Assuming your reader shares your context by default. You'll know you're in this failure mode when someone responds to your message with unexpected hostility or confusion and your first thought is 'but it was obvious what I meant.' It was obvious to you. You had the context. They didn't.
Online messages strip context that face-to-face communication provides automatically.
The structures and incentives of an organization determine individual action more than personality does.
The structures and incentives of an organization determine individual action more than personality does.
The structures and incentives of an organization determine individual action more than personality does.
The structures and incentives of an organization determine individual action more than personality does.
Pick one behavior in your organization that frustrates you — missed deadlines, siloed communication, risk aversion, whatever recurs despite everyone agreeing it's a problem. Now answer: What does the system reward? What does it punish? What does it measure? Map the actual incentive structure, not.
Agreeing that 'systems matter' while still blaming individuals when something goes wrong in your own organization. The test isn't whether you can cite Deming in a meeting. It's whether, when a colleague underperforms, your first question is 'What about this system made this outcome likely?' rather.
The structures and incentives of an organization determine individual action more than personality does.
Where you work physically changes how you think.
Where you work physically changes how you think.
Where you work physically changes how you think.
Where you work physically changes how you think.
Who you are with when you process information influences what you conclude.
Who you are with when you process information influences what you conclude.
Who you are with when you process information influences what you conclude.
Who you are with when you process information influences what you conclude.
Identify one belief you hold strongly that most of your close peers also hold. Write it down. Now write the strongest possible argument against it — not a straw man, the actual steel-man case. Notice how much harder this is than it should be. The difficulty isn't intellectual. It's social. Your.
Believing you're immune to social influence because you're 'independent-minded.' Asch's data is clear: 75% of people conform at least once, and the remaining 25% aren't immune — they just have higher thresholds. The most dangerous form of social conformity is the kind you can't see because.