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July 22 2010
Consider What Your "Top Idea" is Making You Do [Thinking]
Essayist and programmer Paul Graham realized that the idea one thinks about when allowed to think freely—in the shower, for example—is more than just a quiet obsessions. It's a "Top idea," and it influences every other thought, too.
Photo by stevendepolo.
Actually, what Graham argues in his excellent essay is that if you've got a top idea in your head, that idea is getting all kinds of free, enthusiastic thinking that other ideas aren't getting. That can be fine if it's a good idea that comes from a good place, but all too often, Graham writes, we find ourselves letting non-priorities become our top ideas.
I'd noticed startups got way less done when they started raising money, but it was not till we ourselves raised money that I understood why. The problem is not the actual time it takes to meet with investors. The problem is that once you start raising money, raising money becomes the top idea in your mind. That becomes what you think about when you take a shower in the morning. And that means other questions aren't.
Graham's full essay is definitely worth the read, especially if you're wondering where your own "shower" idea is coming from.
April 24 2010
Success or Failure, Examine What Went Wrong and Right [Mind Hacks]
Looking at past mistakes, it's tempting (and helpful) to figure out what went wrong. Psychologist Ian Newby-Clark of Psychology Today writes that instead of just reflecting on what went wrong, we shouldn't forget to focus on what went right.
Photo by place light - flying not physically.
Newby-Clark argues that even though it makes sense to figure out our mistakes, we can neglect to see how things went right. Focusing on those items gives people a sense of achievement and satisfaction, two things that should not be undervalued in their own right.
[S]ometimes, just sometimes, things go right. When things go right we are, of course, happy. Also, we feel the need to get on with the next thing. We want to focus on what's not working and fix that.
I suggest, though, that reflecting on what went right is just as important as determining what went wrong. Here's a great question, called a counterfactual by us social psychologists: How could things have turned out differently? How might you have failed? Kind of strange to think that way. But productive.
It's a good bit to keep in mind next time things go wrong, or well, right.
April 16 2010
The Best Way to Give Advice: Offer Information [Mind Hacks]
If you offer your advice freely but feel like no one's taking it to heart, you may just be doing it wrong. According to a study of the our decision process, the best way to give advice is simply to offer information.
Behavior blog Psychology Today highlights a paper that looks into the way people use advice, highlighting four different kinds of advice: Advice for, which is generally a recommendation for an option; Advice against, which recommends avoiding an option; Decision support, which suggests ways to go about making a decision; and Information, which offers information about a subject that may be new to the decision maker.
The studies found that the most useful type of advice was information advice. Why?
For one thing, when someone makes a recommendation for or against a particular option, a decision maker may feel like they have lost a bit of their independence in making a choice. Recommendations about how to go about making the choice may also make a decision maker feel a loss of independence. When the advice comes in the form of information, though, the decision maker still feels like they have some autonomy.
Information also helps decision makers inform future related decisions and makes them more confident about their choice. Hit up the full article for more details, but the takeaway: If you really want to help someone with your two cents, give them information. Photo by Digital Sextant.
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