Sometimes I think that when I tap out a quick post, the topic will just go *poof* from my mind. As in, there! are you happy now? I’ve BLOGGED about you! This doesn’t often work. It really hasn’t worked this week, as I race through Mindset, gobbling up what is admittedly a middling read—a real … Continue reading On geographical ignorance
Category: Psyched Out
On diverging mindsets
I just picked up Carol Dweck’s Mindset and I’m already—just 70 pages in!—grappling with its implications on my life. While I was already familiar with the basic distinction between “fixed mindset” and “growth mindset,” it became apparent that I’d never actually thought about them. I knew the concepts but I didn’t understand them. I see … Continue reading On diverging mindsets
On not noticing obvious user interface features
Two scenes, a week apart: Scene 1 Our kitchen, my wife washing dishes. I sit at the kitchen table. She—magically?—pauses the water. Me: Wait. What? Her: What? Me: How did you get it to pause like that? She looks at the faucet nozzle in hand, then back to me. Her: You mean, the button? Me: … Continue reading On not noticing obvious user interface features
On the delight of IKEA
I’ve written before about the IKEA effect, but—as Daniel Kahneman warns his readers in Thinking, Fast and Slow—we are all helpless to biases, even when we know about them. I went to IKEA this weekend to pick up two tables to serve as desks in our remodeled home office—and raced home to feel that sweet, … Continue reading On the delight of IKEA
On failing to not check my email
I figured on a change. I had done the research, and then started to act on it. I was working full, productive mornings without even opening Outlook to check my email. And then I went on paternity leave. I knew that 10 weeks away would leave my work mind rusty—but I didn’t figure on falling … Continue reading On failing to not check my email
On the stories we tell ourselves (that are wrong)
It’s a human thing: we tell stories. We create narrative frameworks for ourselves as we look out at the world from within our own heads. Why this, and why that, and how could that possible make sense. Sometimes, the stories we tell ourselves are true. (Or mostly true.) When this happens, it’s just the best. … Continue reading On the stories we tell ourselves (that are wrong)
On why I’m still doing this (Another Note to Self)
A few months ago, I wrote a post—"On blogging (almost) every day so far this year." In it, I said: What's the point of this? Is it: to write every day? to learn how to think? to figure out what topics interest me enough to put pen to paper? to give myself yet another challenging … Continue reading On why I’m still doing this (Another Note to Self)
On a devious door-to-door sales technique
I could tell right away that the guy was no pro. He was following a set of memorized prompts that he fumbled through and even repeated. Having caught me in a more patient mood, I listened to his messy pitch and left it at: I'll think about it. I looked up the company afterwards on … Continue reading On a devious door-to-door sales technique
On the primacy effect
Sometimes, cognitive biases are so obvious, it seems that they require no explanation. Primacy effect is the tendency for people to prioritize the first items in a list. This tendency is not so bad when we're talking about a list that's numerically ordered—your favorite 50 songs, for instance—but it poses an issue when the list … Continue reading On the primacy effect
On being an easy reader
A book with a strong argument is a dangerous thing in my hands: As a reader, I can be somewhat of a pushover. Perhaps it's because I grew up loving fiction—and if you can't suspend your disbelief and buy into a fictional world, you may as well put the book down. You can't really do … Continue reading On being an easy reader
Taylor Coe 