Author, Investor, Speaker, Mentor
The great Eric Barker recently reviewed the research on fear, and found that there are three secrets to fearlessness, as practiced by courageous types like firefighters and special forces operatives: http://bit.ly/1awzzJt 1. Training and Preparation “The Navy SEAL team that killed Bin Laden trained for weeks inside a full scale replica of the compound they … Continue reading Why Worry?
Here’s another great insight I took away from James Altucher’s book, “Choose Yourself”http://amzn.to/1b59su7 James points out that humans evolved the fight-or-flight reflex for a reason. Stress helped our ancestors survive. When stress hit, cortisol surges through our systems, increasing heart rate and blood pressure, making us ready to either strike out or run away. When … Continue reading 3 steps to make your fight-or-flight reflex work for you, not against you
I was fascinated by a recent PBS video that covered research being done at UC Berkeley on wealth, privilege, and human behavior. The upshot is that in controlled experiments, wealthy people tend to behave more selfishly and dishonestly than the poor:http://bit.ly/1azIjMa Of course, people might think, that’s how they got to be wealthy! But if … Continue reading Wealth and dishonesty are correlated, but the arrow of causality isn’t what you think
Anyone who has been following applied psychology in the past decade has heard of loss aversion–specifically, people react more strongly to the loss of $100 than the gain of $100. This asymmetry is best expressed in the old startup adage (which predates loss aversion research), “Sell painkillers, not vitamins.” In my own professional career, I … Continue reading Fear of Failure > Promise of Success
If you’re a psychology junkie like me, you’ve probably heard about the Stanford marshmallow experiment: http://bit.ly/Wga2Ne In this experiment, 5 year olds were offered a choice: Eat a marshmallow now, or be left alone in a room with a marshmallow. If they went 15 minutes without eating the marshmallow, the researcher would give the child … Continue reading Self-control is irrelevant to success in the game if you believe the game is rigged
Nir Eyal is one of the top minds in applying psychology to the startup world. His posts are a must-read, and he’s also a nice guy. My only complaint is that I foolishly went barefoot running with him and developed a foot problem that kept me on a cane for months (I had a problem … Continue reading The Right and Wrong Ways To Use Scarcity in Marketing
Imposter Syndrome is rampant in the startup world, even when people don’t seek out the hype. We love to elevate people to rockstar status, even if they don’t want it. In my own, modestly-successful life, my attempts to explain how little influence I have are generally taken as humblebrag attempts, rather than as an honest … Continue reading To Eliminate Insecurity, Don’t Pretend To Be Something You’re Not
A lot of people write about why entrepreneurs are lonely (including me). Among the things we usually cite: Uncertainty, not being able to confide in others, having to be relentlessly upbeat even as disaster strikes. I think we’re actually missing a key insight. I recently read Jonathan Haidt’s book, “The Righteous Mind.” It’s a great … Continue reading Why Entrepreneurs Are Lonely (And What You Can Do About It)
Dan Ariely has a new book out where he discusses the psychology behind why we overinvest in email, to the detriment of more important priorities: http://bit.ly/12XYjqu “First, people have a really bad habit of coming in and checking e-mail first thing in the morning. And for many people, the morning is the most productive time. … Continue reading Overcoming Email’s False Sense of Progress
I am a huge believer in storytelling. Whenever something traumatic happens in my life (and despite my incredibly lucky existence, bad things have happened), one of the most important steps I take to get past the initial emotional shock is to boil it down to a simple story, and lay out what I’m going to … Continue reading Writing Takes Away The Power Of Bad Things