We don’t see things as they are, we see things as we are. Anais Nin 1903 – 1977 Do you get too attached to your ideas? Are you too invested in the way you think things should work? Do you believe you can be objective about your own plans? Before we get too deep in a discussion of these questions, let me share a famous experiment that researchers conducted using a unique lottery. Half of the study’s participants were assigned ticket numbers, while the other half were allowed to select their own numbers. Just before the drawing, the researchers offered …
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Tag Archives: perception
If you only have a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail. Abraham Maslow 1908 – 1970 When we’re faced with a problem, the first thing we need to do is get totally clear about the issue we’re trying to solve. But at times, this task isn’t as straightforward as it sounds. Consider the interesting example of the mathematician Abraham Wald and the British Air Ministry. During World War II, the British Air Ministry engaged Mr. Wald to study the damage suffered by airplanes engaged in combat missions and use those results to recommend appropriate places for …
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For me, being memorable is more important than winning. Ricki Lake 1968 – Recently, writer Minerva Zimmerman shared a great story on Twitter about a chess game she’d agreed to play. Her opponent was a nationally ranked player; most would consider him an expert on the game. So she knew her odds of winning were slim to none. But she chose to take a different approach: rather than defining a win as beating her opponent, she decided that simply having fun with the game would be a win for her. To that end, Zimmerman adopted an unconventional strategy: to protect her pawns. …
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