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Narrative Fallacy

What Sharks Can Teach Us About Survivorship Bias

Survivorship bias refers to the idea that we get a false representation of reality when we base our understanding only on the experiences of those who live to tell their story. Taking a look at how we …

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Avoiding Falling Victim to The Narrative Fallacy

The narrative fallacy leads us to see events as stories, with logical chains of cause and effect. Stories help us make sense of the world. However, if we’re not aware of the narrative fallacy it can …

Continue readingAvoiding Falling Victim to The Narrative Fallacy

The Paradox of Skill

Michael Mauboussin talking about his new book The Success Equation: Untangling Skill and Luck in Business, Sports, and Investing with the WSJ: The key is this idea called the paradox of skill. As …

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When Storytelling Leads To Unhappy Endings

“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald *** John Kay, …

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Nassim Taleb: We Should Read Seneca, Not Jonah Lehrer

For those who didn’t follow him, Jonah Lehrer has a gift for turning science into a great story. His beautiful writing made it hard to resist the narrative fallacy. The recent news about him …

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Tyler Cowen on The Dangers of Storytelling

“We tell ourselves stories in order to live.” – Joan Didion Tyler Cowen with an excellent TED talk on the dangers of storytelling: So if I’m thinking about this talk, I’m …

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