A metaphor for the human brain is a man riding an elephant. Our brain consists of two parts, the neocortex and the limbic system. The neocortex is used for planning, reasoning, and deliberate decision making / responses. The limbic system is responsible for the automatic / unconscious / habitual responses. The neocortex is represented in the image by the rider and the limbic system by the…
Veritas: Truth Across Cultures is a book I compiled. It identifies common sayings/proverbs that have been independently discovered across cultures that I call Truths. It is my proposition that, due to our human nature and environment that common patterns recur, and cultures document these through their sayings. For instance, this Truth below: This is a pattern that independent cultures have…
Would you leave your infant in the care of a robot, assuming that the robot could perform every practical caregiving task that you could? I would venture that most of my readers would say no, although for varying reasons. In this post, I will outline why AI will not completely replace humans in education. 1. Biological responses During human-to-human interaction, we are not merely conveying words.…
Let’s do a Gedanken experiment, i.e. a thought experiment. Let’s assume that AI has advanced sufficiently to satisfy our physiological and safety needs. What would we then need to worry about? Again, we are going to use invariants to determine what may happen in the future. I previously discussed invariants as a means of predicting the future here . Now, what is the invariant in this scenario? The…
It is my belief that, as a society, we are climbing Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: 1. Physiological Needs - Food, clothing, shelter, and the other basic requirements for survival. 2. Safety Needs - Personal safety, a stable environment, and protection from danger. 3. Love and Belonging - Friendship, family, romantic relationships, community, and the feeling of being…
I have always been interested in ideas that have stood the test of time, particularly proverbs. If you have read enough proverbs, you may have noticed that independent cultures often discover the same underlying “truths.” This book is my attempt to catalogue those truths. In total, I have compiled 94 truths across five categories: Human Nature; Power and Leadership; Effort, Time, and Discipline;…
What follows is 7 samples of recurring saying across different cultures on the topic of leadership. I have identified 94 such patterns in my book: Veritas. Read all 94 truths in Veritas: Truths Across Cultures.
I have always been interested in ideas that have stood the test of time, particularly proverbs. If you have read enough proverbs, you may have noticed that independent cultures often discover the same underlying “truths.” This book is my attempt to catalogue those truths. In total, I have compiled 94 truths across five categories: Human Nature; Power and Leadership; Effort, Time, and Discipline;…
1. This is a book about the nature of reality. It elaborates on the best hypothesis we have today, based on leading-edge science and analytic reasoning, about what reality is. 2. The scientific method can only definitively answer questions of behavior: what nature does, as opposed to what it is. 3. After all, science is based on controlled empirical experimentation: it poses a question to nature…
1. DOSE is an acronym for the four key chemicals that live within your brain and body. These are Dopamine, Oxytocin, Serotonin, and Endorphins. 2. Dopamine is responsible for creating the drive within us to complete the hard tasks that would keep us alive. 3. The key to understanding dopamine is that, to get it, you must focus on completing tasks that at first require effort, then gradually create…
1. The single most important thing that makes an improv actor successful on stage is his or her ability to listen. To the other actors. To the audience. The concentration point is always on the other person, hearing what they are saying and reacting to that. 2. When you are listening to someone speak, play the game of repeating in your head what the other person is saying as they are saying it,…
1. While the rest of us are chasing victory, the best in the world know they must avoid losing before they can win. It turns out this is a surprisingly effective strategy. 2. If there is a tagline to my life, it is “Mastering the best of what other people have already figured out,” and this book is a tribute to that belief. 3. Time is the friend of someone who is properly positioned and the enemy…
1. The Tipping Point is the biography of an idea, and the idea is very simple. Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread just like viruses do. 2. Three characteristics— one, contagiousness; two, the fact that little causes can have big effects; and three, that change happens not gradually but at one dramatic moment 3. The name given to that one dramatic moment in an epidemic when…
1. “If you’re not succeeding fast enough, you’re probably not failing fast enough, and you can’t have one without the other. So, if you’re going to avoid one, you’re going to avoid both.” 2. ‘The salesperson never decides when the sale is over; the customer does.’ Then he looked me in the eye and said, ‘Eric, your fear of hearing the word ‘no’ is the only thing standing between you and greatness.’…
1.If an unlucky man sold umbrellas, it would stop raining; if he sold candles, the sun would never set; and if he made coffins, people would stop dying. - Yiddish saying 2. Throw a lucky man in the sea and he will come up with a fish in his mouth. - Arab proverb 3.People are not born lucky. Instead, lucky people are, without realising it, using four basic principles to create good fortune in their…
1. The pair is the primary creative unit. In his study of creative circles ranging from the French impressionists to the founders of psychoanalysis, the sociologist Michael Farrell discovered that groups created a sense of community, purpose, and audience but that the truly important work ended up happening in pairs, as with Claude Monet and Pierre Auguste Renoir, and Sigmund Freud and Wilhelm…
1. Money by itself is likely to produce self-serving behavior and skin-deep organizational commitment rather than the type of institution-building 2. But pride is more than simply an emotional reward for high achievement; it also motivates us toward such achievement. Because justifiable feelings of pride are so extremely rewarding, the anticipation of those feelings is also very motivating. 3.…
1. Thinking in bets starts with recognizing that there are exactly two things that determine how our lives turn out: the quality of our decisions and luck. Learning to recognize the difference between the two is what thinking in bets is all about. 2. Pete Carroll was a victim of our tendency to equate the quality of a decision with the quality of its outcome. Poker players have a word for this:…
1. When success is the only acceptable outcome, Little Bets advocates a bold and radical approach in which failure is good, 2. I had worked before then as a venture capital investor, and in that work, I had learned that most successful entrepreneurs don’t begin with brilliant ideas—they discover them. 3. These creators use experimental, iterative, trial-and-error approaches to gradually build up…
1. To describe the Mastermind concept, let me give you a quick analogy. Let’s say that you have an apple and I have an apple. If we trade apples, you still only have one apple and I still only have one apple. But, let’s say that you and I both have an idea. If we exchange ideas, then you have two ideas and I have two ideas. That is, you have your original idea plus my idea, and I will have your…
1. Keep a record of the parties and get-togethers you've given, along with guest lists and menus and what aspects of the event were-or weren't-a success. It will make useful reading next time you plan to entertain. 2. If you plan a menu of limited courses, everything can be set out buffet style. That way you'll be able to enjoy the meal along with your guests, instead of running back and forth to…
1. Results, not effort, is the name of the game. You are rewarded in life by the results you produce, not the effort and time you put in. 2. It can be easy to focus on How, especially for high achievers who want to control what they can control, which is themselves. It takes vulnerability and trust to expand your efforts and build a winning team. It takes wisdom to recognize that 1) other people…
1. The 10-Minute Toughness program is simply about identifying and utilizing a handful of mental tools that are proven to help people perform more consistently. 2. Athletes using 10-MT spend approximately four to five minutes after each practice and competition to focus on strengths and goal-related thinking. They also spend five minutes a day completing a five-step mental workout prior to the…
1. The main obstacle to achieving “the impossible” may be a self-limiting mind-set. 2. You can’t stay at the top if you aren’t comfortable in high-stress situations. Indeed, the ability to remain cool under fire is the one trait of elite performers that is most often thought of as inborn. But in fact you can learn to love the pressure—for driving you to perform better than you ever thought you…
1. So I sought out pain, fell in love with suffering, and eventually transformed myself from the weakest piece of shit on the planet into the hardest man God ever created, or so I tell myself. 2. That night, after taking a shower, I wiped the steam away from our corroded bathroom mirror and took a good look. I didn’t like who I saw staring back. I was a low-budget thug with no purpose and no…
1.When psychologists isolate the personal qualities that predict “positive outcomes” in life, they consistently find two traits: intelligence and self-control. So far researchers still haven’t learned how to permanently increase intelligence. But they have discovered, or at least rediscovered, how to improve self-control. 2. As Charles Darwin wrote in The Descent of Man, “The highest possible…
1. This growth mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts, your strategies, and help from others. Although people may differ in every which way—in their initial talents and aptitudes, interests, or temperaments—everyone can change and grow through application and experience. 2. The passion for stretching yourself and sticking to it,…
1. If something requires a large investment of time—or looks like it will—it’s less likely to be used. 2. If something is usable—whether it’s a Web site, a remote control, or a revolving door—it means that A person of average (or even below average) ability and experience can figure out how to use the thing to accomplish something without it being more trouble than it’s worth. 3. As far as is…
1. We aim to shift the conversation with a radical reinterpretation of what the actual benefits of meditation are—and are not—and what the true aim of practice has always been 2. We had a big idea: beyond the pleasant states meditation can produce, the real payoffs are the lasting traits that can result. An altered trait—a new characteristic that arises from a meditation practice —endures apart…
1. I teach and preach the system based on “no,” which in a negotiation simply means maintaining the status quo. 2. My “No” system is a set of clear principles and practices that you follow step by step by step. My system is for Mom, Dad, the kids, the entrepreneur, the professional corporate negotiator, the CEO, the teacher, the realtor, the banker, the politician, the carpenter, and the diplomat.…