Imagine you’re in a bustling city, observing the world around you. As you walk down a street lined with shops, restaurants, and people going about their day, you might notice that some places seem timeless. The bookstore on the corner has been there for decades, while the trendy café down the block is new and […]

Imagine you’re 80 years old, looking back on your life. What decisions would you regret not making? What opportunities would you wish you had seized? This simple yet powerful mental exercise is at the heart of the Regret Minimization Framework, a decision-making tool famously used by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. In his book The Everything […]

Have you ever made a decision that seemed perfect at first, only to find it backfiring spectacularly later? We’ve all been there. This is where second-order thinking comes in. It’s a powerful mental model that encourages us to look beyond the immediate consequences of our actions and decisions. Instead of just asking, “What will happen […]

In his book Clear Thinking, Shane Parrish emphasizes the importance of managing our instinctual reactions to maintain clear thinking and focus on our goals. He identifies four key biological defaults—emotion, ego, social, and inertia—that can lead to unforced errors if not consciously controlled. These instincts, beneficial for our ancestors’ survival, can now trigger counterproductive responses […]

In their book Decisive, Chip and Dan Heath offer a framework for making better decisions called The WRAP Process. “To make better choices,” write the brothers, “we must avoid the most common decision-making biases.” While awareness of biases and irrationalities isn’t sufficient to avoid them, we can use The WRAP process to help us make […]