Farnam Street
Mastering the best of what other people have already figured out
When we can’t trust each other, nothing works. As we participate in our communities less and less, we find it harder to feel other people are trustworthy. But if we can bring back a sense of trust in the people around us, the rewards are …
Memory is an intrinsic part of our life experience. It is critical for learning, and without memories we would have no sense of self. Understanding why some memories stick better than others, as well as accepting their fluidity, helps us …
When hiring a team, we tend to favor the geniuses who hatch innovative ideas, but overlook the butterflies, the crucial ones who share and implement them. Here’s why it’s important to be both smart AND social. *** In business, it’s never …
Better hiring leads to better work environments, less turnover, and more innovation and productivity. When you understand the limitations and pitfalls of the job interview, you improve your chances of hiring the best possible person for …
Do we dance simply for recreation? Or is there a primal urge that compels us to do it? Historian William McNeill claims it saved our species by creating community togetherness and transforming “me” into “we.” *** Why do we dance? To most, …
Being vulnerable is not a choice. It’s a reality of living. What we do with that vulnerability can either open doors to deeper connection, or throw up walls that stifle growth and fulfillment. *** Vulnerability: the quality or state …
Healthy friendships offer far more than a reliable person to share a beer with. Research shows they can make us healthier, wealthier, happier and overall more successful. Here’s how. *** Is friendship important for our survival? At first …
Edward Deci’s work on motivation is so often quoted (Dan Pink’s Drive comes to mind) that we decided to go back to the primary text by Deci himself, a book called Why We Do What We Do: Understanding Self-Motivation. The author is …
The Mayo Clinic is one of the top-rated hospitals in the US and enjoys remarkable success. In this post, we consider the reasons for the Mayo Clinic’s success and what we can learn from it to apply to our own organizations. *** …
“In the great chess-board of human society, every single piece has a principle of motion of its own.” — Adam Smith *** One of our favorite dictums, much referenced here, is an idea by Joseph Tussman, about getting the world to …
“The premise of this book is that it is easier to recognize other people’s mistakes than our own.” *** A simple article connecting two ideas from Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow on human gullibility and …
(Purchase a copy of the entire 3-part series in one sexy PDF for $3.99) *** In the first two parts of our series on memory, we covered four major “sins” committed by our memories: Absent-Mindedness, Transience, …
There are two types of motivation: intrinsic and extrinsic. Both are very different and lead to disparate outcomes. Here’s how to make the most of motivation, both for yourself and others. *** Motivation is a tricky multifaceted thing. How …
“The life of wisdom must be a life of contemplation combined with action.” *** Life is full of problems. We can moan about them, or we can solve them. Scott Peck argues in The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, …
(This post is the second in a two-part series on the work of Judith Rich Harris. See the first part here.) As we concluded Part 1 of our exploration of Judith Rich Harris’s work on human personality, we had begun sketching out her …
“My solution to the mystery is that three perpetrators are involved: three mental systems that go about their business in different ways. Together, these three can answer the hows, whys, whens, and wheres of personality …
“The rabbit runs faster than the fox, because the rabbit is running for his life while the fox is only running for his dinner.” — R. Dawkins *** Simply put, incentives matter a lot. Incentives are at the root of a lot of …
The heated debate about Sapiens’ “natural way of life” is missing the point. Ever since the Cognitive Revolution, there hasn’t been a natural way of life for Sapiens. — Yuval Noah Harari A Natural State of Curiosity …
Most of us periodically struggle to manage our relationships, whether we’re trying to manage a company, a team, a marriage, or a friendship. The problem is that we’re often fighting, rather than riding, the tremendous current …
Analogies are a means of drawing a parallel between two different things which we often use to convey complex ideas and to communicate effectively. We often use analogies to aid our reasoning. In this post, we explore how analogies work and …
The single most important principle in biology is sustainability. In fact, it’s so important, that it means everything. Nothing matters if you can’t pass the test of time. When human relationships are sustainable not only do …
My favorite chapter in the book Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life by Winifred Gallagher is called ‘Decisions: Focusing Illusions.’ It’s a really great summary of how focusing on the wrong things affects the weights we use to make …
In The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B and Back Again), Warhol advises us not to make a problem of our problems. Everybody has problems, but the thing is to not make a problem about your Problem. For example, if you have no money and …
Morality is hard to define, but all non-psychopaths experience strong gut reactions to certain moral violations. One way to understand it is from an evolutionary perspective. Our sense of morality is inherent and a fundamental part of being …