52 thought mistakes you shouldn’t make for a more undamaged life

A nice summary of the recommendations in his book Die Kunst des klaren Denkens, published in 2011 by the author Rolf Dobelli.

Commitment to survival
Why should you visit the cemeteries?

It appears much more in everyday life than they are likely to succeed. While losing is much easier, winning rarely happens. For example, only one of the 100 writer candidates succeeds. All that remains is that the projects decay in the cemeteries of careers.

The illusion of a swimmer’s body
Is Harvard really a good university? We do not know…

Beauty, success, sexiness, charisma or happiness promised to you in personal development books or elsewhere are actually empty, deception. Someone with tight muscles and a beautiful body, like steel, becomes a swimmer not because he swims, but because his genetic code is like this. Perhaps ‘success’ may already come from outside, as students who go to Harvard are already smart.

Over-trust effect
Why would you enlarge your knowledge and skills in your eyes?

Always accept bad data real data. So you get used to the realistic approach more quickly.

Social proof
The fact that 50 million people insist that something done is not true does not do it right.

We follow the herd. The herd affects us. Because this is in our genetic code. Fifty thousand years ago, if the clan members who noticed a shadow that appeared behind the hill had greased the floors, you would also plumage. You don’t think I should stop and run away. This is useful. But wherever they decide to laugh in a comedy series today, the situation is troublesome. Don’t comply with the majority. Kierkegard said, “The crowd is a lie.”

Sunken cost mistake
Wherever you turn from harm, it is profitable…

A job, relationship, money, etc. If you have sunk, you don’t have to continue just for this, say fuck out for outgoing money or cost and look ahead.

Reciprocity
Why shouldn’t you let anyone buy you a drink?

The same rule for a million years. Everything is mutual. Do not accept treats offered to you in super markets. You feel compelled to buy that product.

Tendency to verify 1
Be careful when you hear the special situation word!

With our current knowledge, we eliminate new information that seems incompatible with our beliefs. We ignore them. It takes ass to criticize our ‘truths’. Most people also run away from it.

Tendency to verify 2
Mince your loved ones.

Do not absolute your beliefs, truths, good and evil. Maybe they are not.

Authority bias
Why should you be disrespectful to the authorities?

Next to the authorities, we take one step down to think on our own. Of course, there is no point in being ungrateful, but it is still true that authority can also be mistaken.

Contrast effect
Why shouldn’t you be seen with your girlfriend?

It is more ugly, cheaper, smaller, etc. at the same time. If there is an example, something looks more beautiful, more expensive, larger. So, for example, when you go to your boyfriend, do not take someone with larger breasts than you. If you’re a man, don’t get around with a more handsome guy. Your value will decrease.

Hibernate effect
Is a wrong city map better than nothing?

Your lover is very beautiful but in a remote city. It is not so beautiful near you, but there is someone.

So it’s actually the thought error of turning to the easy one. My grandfather is eighty years old and still smokes, huh, so smoking is not that harmful.

Based on the convenience of the examples that come to your mind. So by choosing the most effortless option available. We build a fiction for ourselves. We make a worldview. If you refer to something very often, you will increasingly believe it.

It gets worse and then it gets better.
Religions can be given as an example for this: the world is a terrible place, pains, diseases, slaughter. Be patient, you will go to heaven.

Story bias
Jobs with a story can earn more. The story simplifies the work. It distorts the truth. A singer with a story attracts more attention. When evaluating ‘product’, we look at the story, not with a rational attitude. We put almost everything into a ‘meaningful’ story for us and distort it.

Reversing bias
We have retrospective judgments and we look to the future with this. However, the future is unpredictable.

Driver information
Why you shouldn’t take journalists seriously.

We are in a kind of qualification circle in our own world.
Those who are really knowledgeable about a subject are aware of what they know or do not know, but when they get out of it, each subject enters an empty bubble. Chauffeurs and journalists speak in many different ways, but they are empty.

The illusion of control
You have little control of anything.

We have power over very few things. Our life is often like a toy in the hands of other processes.

Incentive sensitivity
People respond to incentive systems. You can vote with pasta and coal. The purpose is that nobody cares. The results will be different when the incentive is involved.

Decline to average
Success and failure undergo fluctuations. You are sick and you went to the doctor. You’re a little better. You went again a few weeks later and you are even better. What a successful doctor we call and this is an error. Your illness would either pass completely or increase. It is clear that long lasting colds and temperatures will eventually decrease to average. This is the same in everyday life.

Public property tragedy
If the interest belongs to individuals, but the cost belongs to the community, the public will suffer.

Conclusion bias
The truth is to evaluate the process, not the result. The bad result may come with a good decision, and vice versa.

Option dilemma
Many women are women. Too many options make us sick.

The error of being loved
Feeling loved makes us the prey. Especially to sellers. The compliment is pleasant in any case, but it is also the bait put into the trap.

Ownership effect
Even your nose is entrusted to you. It can be undone at any time.

Miracle
There are some strange coincidences in life, and we add meanings to it.

Group thinking
Groups give comfort, but it is necessary to consider being different. Sometimes we can be wrong in a group. And this is very common.

Probability of probability
There is always risk, especially in business life, and it is very difficult to predict them.

Zero risk illusion
Life is playing Russian roulette. Zero risk is in heaven.

The Delusion of Leadership
You chose one of the two girls and you got married. Your mind will remain in the other. When one of the options is taken away, the option that no longer exists looks more attractive.

Basic rate violation
The detailed explanation causes our objective view to diverge from statistical facts. For example, viral infection may be the cause of migraine or brain tumor.

Viral cause is seen much more frequently than other (high basic rate). As a result, the doctor thinks that the problem is caused by the virus, not the tumor. So before you consider exotic diseases, look at the main possibilities. However, there is a trend towards a basic rate violation in medicine.

The Gambler’s Misconception
You played the black ball 20 times, or came twenty times in the round. The next red or text is still fifty percent probability. Everything in life follows a connected direction.

Anchor
Let’s say you’re a teacher. There is a child who gets good grades. When you evaluate this child, you use the old notes as an anchor. In everyday life, we try to find some things through guesses and throw anchors. However, this does not always make sense. The seller always throws the anchors from above for the customer trying to negotiate, right?

Induction
We tend to believe from the observation that everything is the general principle. However, a single opposite observation sends the illusion that will last for years to trash in that second. We think that we will continue our lives tomorrow. Well, if this doesn’t happen,
Induction works, but believing it is dangerous.

Avoiding loss
A loss is twice as much emotional as a gain of the same magnitude. In other words, even if you are happy for the thousand liras you will earn, the thousand liras you will lose will bring much more unhappiness. Therefore, while convincing someone, it is possible to walk on the principle of protection from loss, not gain. Bad is stronger than good. We notice a bad face on the street before lovable.

Social idleness
When you push a car stuck on the road, somehow you say that it pushes others, you won’t get bored that much. There are two horses pulling the carriage, but two horses do not perform the pull. So it’s a social and small fraud situation. People are laundered behind the group. Thus the responsibility is distributed in the group. Who is responsible when you lynch someone? Group disadvantages can be overcome by highlighting individual attitudes.

Exponential growth
You can easily tear off a single sheet of paper, but when you fold it twenty times things will change. The older people knew the more mammoths they would fill. Simple linear increase is predictable. But for percentages and exponential increases, the problem is not so easy.

Curse of the winner
The winner of the auction is actually the loser of the sale. It is a Pirus Victory. Because the ‘real’ value of the good or service is not so clear.

Basic association error
This is often done especially in adverse events. We blame wars on one person/event. We often deal with the finger, not where the finger points. We are obsessed with other people, and it has an evolutionary history: belonging to the group was necessary for survival. Exclusion meant death. so we were badly connected to the others. So it was inevitable to consider other people so much. So now we spend ninety percent of our time thinking of others. Conclusion: look at the game, not the players.

Wrong causality
According to a study, students who have many books of their parents become more successful. Hearing that, other parents start filling their homes with books. Here is a wrong causality. The only reason that makes children successful is associated with the number of books at home. However, that parent obviously provided greater support for education.

Ayla effect
We let an element paint our eyes. Then, based on this, we draw conclusions about the whole event. We think that beautiful and attractive people are better and more successful. It should not be forgotten that the devil will never come with us with his horns and long fork.

Alternative ways
The risks are not directly noticeable. It is always necessary to think of alternative ways. However, risky alternative roads can always be more dangerous than natural ways. Easily gained with sweat should be taken more seriously. What Montaigne said: ‘My life has passed with terrible misfortunes. Most of them never happened. ‘

Foresight illusion
How the crystal ball distorts our gaze. So: be critical to the predictions.

Merger story
Why can reasonable stories deceive?

They speak of two types of thinking: the first is intuitive, automatic and direct thinking; other conscious, rational, slow, troublesome, logical thinking. Unfortunately, we often prefer the first one. What is interesting is that intuitive thinking loves logical stories, but this can be dangerous.

Framing
What should we pay attention to when buying a car?

The same thing is perceived differently in different packaging. When you put the same woman in hijab, it looks like a different woman. Focusing on a particular element of the whole means falling into the trap of framing. If you focus more on how many km while buying a car, you may not see other defects. You can take a news that you consider bullshit more seriously while listening to someone you respect.

Excessive movement
In some cases, we think doing something is better than sitting and waiting. Because it was vital to act quickly in genetic memory. It was necessary to get rid of a wild animal attack. We hear the urge to do something in uncertain situations, whether it works or not. But listen to Blaise Pascal: ‘The biggest misfortune of man is that he does not stay calmly in his room.’

The error of negligence
If there is a more or less solution, you should try this. Don’t violate. Otherwise, maybe it is your existence that is part of the problem.

Self-serve bias
Success is embraced; excuses for failure.

Hedonic harmony
So briefly, you can rise at work, in the profession, but at the end of the day, they do not cut. Invest in what makes you happy.

The error of self-selection
Do not be surprised that you exist.

The Error of Association
Experiences sometimes make you stupid. So you had an experience, okay, you made some conclusions from this, but keep it limited, don’t generalize too much. When a cat sits on a burning stove, it will not do this again, but it will not sit on a stove that does not burn.

Beginner chance
Be careful if everything goes well in the beginning. Successive successes can sometimes create a kind of sense of size.

Cognitive conflict
The incident that the cat called murder when the cat could not reach. when we fail, we blame either the terms or the time. We cover our own shortcomings.

Hyperbolic reduction
Carpe diem, okay but up to where. There is an effort and tendency to save the moment from our primitive past. The piece of meat I will eat now is more valuable than the mammoth I will hunt ten days later. It is important and beautiful at the moment but it is absurd to live our whole day like the last day of our life.

We will still do these things
Can we be protected from thought mistakes? We can lead a harder but more undamaged life with reason and logic.

Source: eksisozluk.com