‘Never Settle’ Is A Brag
From a famous Steve Jobs Stanford graduation address: Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I...
View ArticleCauses Of Corruption
At one level, corruption can be seen as a problem of multiple equilibria. When bribes are rare, someone who sees a bribe or bribe offer might reasonably expect to be supported for exposing it, and fear...
View ArticleBeware Inspiration
From a review of William Gavin’s book Speechwright: Gavin became [Nixon's] speechwriter … [and] came to share [his] suspicion of stirring, soaring speechifying and his preference, instead, for what...
View ArticleFar Idealism Hypocrisy
Not everything fits this story, but an awful lot does: we are more idealistic in far mode, which helps us hypocritically hold others to higher standards than we hold ourselves: In 6 studies, we found...
View ArticleSelling Praise
More from How To Win Friends And Influence People: Jesse James probably regarded himself as an idealist at heart. … The fact is that all people you meet have a high regard for themselves and like to be...
View ArticleWhy underestimate acceptable partners?
The romantic view of romance in Western culture says a very small fraction of people would make a great partner for you, customarily one. Some clues suggest that in fact quite a large fraction of...
View ArticleWhistleblowers Think Far
Rita Handrich: The “highly conscientious” … are more likely to work hard to achieve their goals [both personally and on behalf of their organization] and often have organizational abilities that help...
View ArticleWhy Is Law Fertile For Econ?
I’m about to teach graduate law & econ for the first time, after teaching the undergrad version five times. Going over my new text (Shavell) I’m struck by a difference between law & econ and...
View ArticleTesting An Idealistic-Tech Hypothesis
Katja: Relatively minor technological change can move the balance of power between values that already fight within each human. [For example,] Beeminder empowers a person’s explicit, considered values...
View ArticleAbstractly Ideal, Concretely Selfish
A new JPSP paper confirms that we are idealistic in far mode, and selfish in near mode. If you ask people for short abstract descriptions of their goals, they’ll say they have ideal goals. But if you...
View ArticleDon’t Be “Rationalist”
The first principle is that you must not fool yourself — and you are the easiest person to fool. Richard Feynman. This blog is called “Overcoming Bias,” and many of you readers consider yourselves...
View ArticlePart Of Something Big
A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself. Joseph Campbell Most Twitter talk reminds me of the movie Ridicule, wherein courtiers compete to show cruel wit and...
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