The Mind of a Con Man
Overnight, Diederik Stapel went from respected professor to the biggest con man in academic science. For more than a decade his biggest experiment was deceiving others. In the end, Stapel had …
Over-influence by Authority
The Four Villains of Decision Making
You’re probably not as effective at making decisions as you could be. This article explores Chip and Dan Heaths’ new book, Decisive. It’s going to help us make better decisions both …
Richard Zeckhauser on Making Better Decisions
Richard Zeckhauser, aka Mr. Probability, is a champion Bridge player and the Frank Ramsey professor of political economy at Harvard University. Speaking about Zeckhauser, Charlie Munger, the brilliant …
Robert Greene explains the Process to Attain Mastery
The relationship between people and their craft is such that you can tell by the path they have followed whether they are a master or an amateur. Robert Greene, most famous for his exposure of power, …
Secrets from the Science of Persuasion
A great animation describing the fundamental principles of persuasion based on the research of Dr. Robert Cialdini, Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Marketing at Arizona State University. Dr. …
How Infomercials Persuade
In response to But Wait … There’s More, a kind reader passed along a link to a wonderful interview between Andrew Warner and Tim Hawthorne (a producer of infomercials). On how to …
An Incredible Offer — But Wait…There’s More
You’ll never look at infomercials the same after reading this post. Robert Cialdini calls But Wait…There’s More “A wholly fascinating account of a wholly fascinating …
Rating Teachers is Educational Seduction
One of the most interesting studies I’ve come across is the case of Dr. Myron L. Fox. Dr. Fox, an authority on the application of mathematics to human behavior, presented a lecture on …
Seth Klarman: The Forgotten Lessons of 2008
In this excerpt from his annual letter, investing great Seth Klarman describes 20 lessons from the financial crisis which, he says, “were either never learned or else were immediately forgotten by …