Decision Performance Insights articles

Mind Performance Insights

Strategies for improving your cognitive performance and decision making

3 min read

The Joy of Disillusionment

Don't be fooled into seeing disillusionment as something to be avoided.

2 min read

Master of Your Mind

Elevating how well you recognize and mitigate your mind's illusions is essential to your overall performance.

3 min read

The Belief Tag - putting the right label on the information you consume

When you check your bags at the airport, the airline doesn’t just take your bag and put it on the plane. First they have to put a tag on...

3 min read

When What You See Is NOT All There Is

How the WYSIATI impulse keeps you in the dark.

2 min read

The Quiet Canine - a critical thinking tool to find the truth

The dog not barking is a form of deductive reasoning that can help you separate fact from fiction.

3 min read

Decision Judgement and Outcome Bias

Judging decision quality based solely on the outcome can lead to poor decision making in the future.

3 min read

Tools for Success - Tripwires and Checkpoints

How to set tripwires and checkpoints to monitor progress and help you navigate problems successfully.

2 min read

Facing an Unsolvable Problem

Framing a problem as unsolvable can cause you to abdicate responsibility. Mitigating is a better approach.

3 min read

Truth In Self-Labeling - How accurately do your labels reflect you?

Self-labelling undermines your performance and can cause others to make negative assumptions.

3 min read

How Assumptions Undermine Problem Solving

Assumptions carry false certainty and failure to recognize them thwarts effective problem solving.

2 min read

A Trivial Pursuit - Why we spend too much meeting time on trivial issues

The bikeshedding phenomenon - when smaller, trivial topics get more attention than bigger, more impactful issues.

3 min read

The Plan B Conundrum

Having a Plan B is a great idea, but think of it as a last resort, not an excuse to give up on Plan A.

3 min read

Turning Knowledge Into Success

Don't get trapped in a cycle of continually learning without acting on that knowledge to reach your goals.

4 min read

Challenge the Incumbency of Your Status Quo

We're all susceptible to status quo bias. Recognize it and reduce its impact on your performance.

3 min read

How Well Do You Know Your Audience?

Knowing and understanding your audience is key to making your message resonate.

3 min read

Increasing Your Attention Span: Strategies for Staying Focused in a Distracted World

How to succeed when attention spans are decreasing.

3 min read

Stop solving the wrong problem

Accurate problem definition is the key to effective problem solving

4 min read

Don't Get Fooled - Insights on Deception from The Sting

We’re all just a bunch of fools. It’s not an insult, it just means that our brains are configured in a way that makes us easy to deceive....

4 min read

Class in session! Learn your lessons from 2022

2022 can still be a great year for you - if you use it as a teacher to propel you for more success in 2023.

2 min read

Beware the Lure of the Idea Cult

How to tell when supporting an idea reaches cult status.

2 min read

Happily Disillusioned

It's time to re-think how we feel about becoming disillusioned.

4 min read

Purveyors of Insight

A list of amazing thought leaders currently sharing their insightful work with the world.

2 min read

The value and the beauty of thought experiments

Learn how thought experiments can elevate your problem solving and decision making .

2 min read

Decision Making by Matrix

Decision making should be a thoughtful, defined process. Using a decision matrix can help you produce better decisions.

3 min read

Are Your Loyalties Well-placed?

Misplaced loyalties can be costly. Re-examine yours to determine which ones do and do not serve you.

4 min read

The FAUX Illusions

Fear, assumptions, urgency and expectations can create false impulses that can hamper your performance.

3 min read

The World Is Ambiguous. Embrace It.

The drive for certainty is as strong as our drives for food and sex.

3 min read

The Surprising Power of the Unexpected

Results are evaluated on how they compare to expectations. See how defying expectations can be magical.

3 min read

Connection - the Heart of Trust

Trust is vital to all of your relationships, and making a personal connection is a great way to reduce mistrust.

3 min read

Reigning in the Mother of All Cognitive Biases

We hear a lot about confirmation bias but it keeps getting worse. Here's why and how to reduce yours.

3 min read

Reaching for the stars - you are never too old

Inspiration for when you feel your best years are behind you and you missed your chance at greatness.

3 min read

From A-ha to Ta-da! - Turning New Knowledge into Self-improvement

Turn new knowledge into self-improvement by scheduling an action plan.

3 min read

The Secret Switch-up: How Attribute Substitution Leads to Bad Decisions

What do you think of Will Smith? Few people know much about him personally but after he slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars, many people...

3 min read

How the Projection Bias Is Undermining Your Decision Making

Projecting your current self onto the future you is a recipe for poor decision making. Learn how to overcome it.

3 min read

Making It Stick - assimilating knowledge through spaced learning

Why is one of the most effective learning techniques so underutilized? Use spaced learning to improve your performance.

3 min read

Staying on Track by Tracking

Tracking your progress makes you twice as likely to achieve your goal. Don't ignore this crucial component.

4 min read

You Are a Writer - So Be a Good One

How and what you write reflects on you. Implement a few simple tips and make a big improvement to your writing.

4 min read

Is it Quitting Time?

Quitting (job, relationship, career, business) is tough and has a negative stigma. When is it the best option?

4 min read

The Power of Non-negotiables

Nobody’s perfect. We all have habits we’d like to break and new ones we want to start - basically behaviors that if we change them we...

3 min read

Breaking the Law of Small Numbers

Your decision making is undermined by misunderstanding small numbers . It's time to re-think and elevate your decision performance.

3 min read

The Three Decembers Method for New Year's Resolution Success

Improve your odds of success with your New Years resolutions with the Three Decembers Method.

2 min read

Rhyme as Reason

You snooze - you lose. An apple a day keeps the doctor away. Give a hoot - don’t pollute I before E except after C Humans have a thing...

4 min read

Lessons from 5 Years of Thinking about Thinking

After 5 years of learning about thinking and decision making, here are the most impactful insights I've gained.

3 min read

The Value-Action Gap - Avoiding Hypocrisy

A major cause of both regret and distrust and we our actions do not align with our values. How can we narrow the gap?

3 min read

When to Shoot for the Moon

Moonshots are great and can take you far, as long as you are clear-eyed about the probabilities of success and failure.

3 min read

Are your parameters real?

We all have limits and constraints, but only some are real. How do you know which are illusionary?

3 min read

Guided by the galaxy?

What can we learn from astrology and its effect on human decision making?

3 min read

What You Should Really Do When "It Ain't broke"

How the "leave it alone if it still works" mindset may be hampering your ability to innovate.

3 min read

Ignoring the Base Rate - an Expensive and Dangerous Impulse

A common cause of bad decision making is favoring anecdotal evidence over base rates.

3 min read

Motor Imagery - The Next Best Thing to Physical Practice

We are not always in a position to practice when we need to, but recreating your practice mentally can pay big dividends.

STEVE HAFFNER

Mind Performance Insights

Strategies for improving your cognitive performance and decision making

Copyright 2024 Steve Haffner (502) 419-4272