When developing new habits, it is helpful to understand the four distinct phases of the learning process. Most of us, at any given time, can be said to be “unconsciously incompetent” about a number of skills. These are skills we are not even aware we are performing in a suboptimal way. Hence, this is a… Continue Reading Unconscious Competence
Perhaps you’ve heard of the confirmation bias. This is our tendency to look for only confirming evidence of what we already believe. The Lancet, a respected medical journal, reported in 1998 that a positive correlation had been found between autism and childhood vaccines. As a result, many parents stopped vaccinating their children, at great risk… Continue Reading Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me)
Imagine a SWAT team busting into a home to arrest two drug dealers. The home is filled with mothers and their infant children. While the arrests are being made, the babies are screaming, not sure what is going on all around them. In the kitchen, one of the SWAT officers is looking for baby formula… Continue Reading The Outward Mindset
In the mid-1950s, psychologist Abraham Maslow published his famous Hierarchy of Needs. This pyramid comprised five levels, with Physiological Needs at the base and Self-Actualization at the top of his model. According to Maslow, all five of these levels were capable of motivating people, in the order he laid them out in his hierarchy. Maslow… Continue Reading Motivational Theories Revisited
Back in 1975, an engineer at Kodak invented the world’s first digital camera. When this engineer, Steve Sasson, went to his management to present his new idea, the response he received was “that’s cute”. While that response ultimately led to the demise of Kodak, we shouldn’t be surprised with the reaction by the company’s management… Continue Reading That's Cute
Most of us avoid wasting money. Fewer of us avoid wasting time. The Roman philosopher Seneca wisely taught that “life is long enough, and it has been given in sufficiently generous measure to allow the accomplishment of the very greatest things if the whole of it is well invested”. The life each of us receives… Continue Reading Now or Later