Farnam Street
Mastering the best of what other people have already figured out
At Farnam Street, we aim to master the best of what other people have figured out. Not surprisingly, it’s quite a lot. The past is full of useful lessons that have much to teach us. Sometimes, we just …
Too often we reward people who solve problems while ignoring those who prevent them in the first place. This incentivizes creating problems. According to poet David Whyte, the key to taking initiative …
Almost 4,000 years ago, King Hammurabi of Babylon, Mesopotamia, laid out one of the first sets of laws. Hammurabi’s Code is among the oldest translatable writings. It consists of 282 laws, most …
Incentives are what drive human behavior. Understanding incentives is the key to understanding people. Conversely, failing to recognize the importance of incentives often leads us to make major …
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 …
Imagine a sprinter running an Olympic race. He’s competing in the 1600 meter run. The first two laps he runs at a steady but hard pace, trying to keep himself consistently near the head, or at least …
“Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome.” — Samuel Johnson *** In the book Nudge by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein they coin the terms ‘Choice …
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. *** …
Incentives drive our behavior. Failing to consider incentives can lead to unintended consequences. In this post, we show you how incentives can go wrong and how we can use them to our advantage. *** …
“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. …
The issue of setting compensation seems to be struggled with in every organization. Most are pretty lazy about it — hiring someone else to take care of it and failing to think through the incentives …
We all like to think of ourselves as honest, but there are inevitably certain situations in which we’re more likely to cheat. There are many things that make us less honest, like feeling disconnected …
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 …
It’s one thing to set big stretch goals. It’s another thing entirely to acknowledge the tension and incentives they create within an organization. Charlie Munger, speaking at the 2000 …
“There is no question that the tendency of the average man (in all walks of life) is toward working at a slow, easy gait, and that it is only after a good deal of thought and observation on his …
Nassim Taleb, the author of The Black Swan and Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder with 34 insights from his facebook account: The artificial gives us hangovers, the natural inverse-hangovers. …