Robb G. BestJan 11, 20183 minThe Ostrich EffectFirst things first: despite any cartoons you might’ve seen, ostriches don’t try to hide from danger by burying their heads in the sand. F...
Robb G. BestOct 17, 20173 minHow the Decoy Effect Makes Dupes of Us AllImagine that, on the second morning of a business trip, you go to unzip your suitcase, only to realize you forgot to pack any pants. With...
Robb G. BestOct 12, 20173 minThe Frequency Illusion: How Not to Fall for Argle-BargleLet’s say you’re reading up on landmark Supreme Court decisions of the past decade. (Hey, everybody needs hobbies.) You’re skimming an ar...
Robb G. BestSep 7, 20174 minConfirmation Bias and the Parasites Nesting in Your Brain"What is the most resilient parasite?” asks Leonardo DiCaprio in the 2011 movie Inception. “Bacteria? A virus? An intestinal worm?” Befor...
Robb G. BestNov 4, 20153 minThe Lure of the Irrational: Why Basketball Players and Birds Fall Prey to SuperstitionIrrational behavior is commonplace in sports. Michael Jordan wore his "lucky" University of North Carolina practice shorts under his Chic...
Robb G. BestFeb 28, 20142 minThe Twain Brain, or, Why Smart People do Stupid ThingsStartFragment “A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way.” So said Mark Twain, printer, steamboat...
Robb G. BestFeb 14, 20143 minSaving Grandma, or: 5 Steps to Dealing With Complex SystemsLast week’s blog dealt with the inherent threat in complex systems, specifically your Grandmother, (or really, anybody’s Grandma) and cor...
Robb G. BestFeb 7, 20143 minWhat Your Grandma and Corporations Have in CommonImagine your grandma just celebrated her 85th birthday. She's beginning to forget things, but her doctor has reassured you that since, if...
Robb G. BestJan 24, 20143 minThe Experiencing Self, or, Why Present-You Hates Past-YouUnlike Calvin here, most of us will probably never get the opportunity to have a face-to-face conversation between our current selves and...
Robb G. BestJan 17, 20143 minSix Strategies for Avoiding the TruthAre you lying to yourself every day? Depends: are you a "Bayesian Updater?" Hopefully you are. The term is named after Reverend Thomas Ba...
Robb G. BestNov 29, 20133 minThe Brain's Allergy to the Big PictureDo you suffer from Systems Blindness? You almost certainly do. The problem is that your brain’s hardwiring is designed primarily to keep ...
Robb G. BestSep 27, 20133 minThe Robert Frost Quandary, or How Irrational Thinking Might Save Your LifeYou stumble out of the wilderness, having had no contact with humans for at least ten days. You’re weak from hunger and fatigue and you f...
Robb G. BestSep 6, 20133 minThe Dunning-Kruger Effect: Are You Under its Spell?When it comes to brain biases, one that gets an awful lot of play is the Dunning-Kruger Effect. It's a phenomenon demonstrated by many st...
Robb G. BestAug 30, 20133 minCause and Correlation, or the Pirate ProblemAs you can see from the above graph, global warming is pirate-based. It's something I think we all suspected, but were hesitant to advan...
Robb G. BestAug 16, 20134 minThe Unbalanced Brain: a Cautionary TaleLast week, I talked about whole brain strategy. This week, a look at what happens inside a workplace when a company or organization tries...
Robb G. BestAug 9, 20133 minHow to Run Your Company Like Da VinciIt's hard to overestimate the power of whole-brain thinking. Sometimes defined as "systems thinking", it occurs when your creative right ...
Robb G. BestJul 12, 20133 minThe D'Oh Effect, the Heath Brothers, and the Secrets to Good Decision-MakingBuyer's remorse is a terrible thing. It occurs when you have the realization that you've bought the wrong thing and now you can't return ...
Robb G. BestMay 3, 20132 minMeasuring the Unmeasureable"Metric" is a kind of sexed up word for measurement, popular among the corporate crowd. The interesting thing about "metric" is that it ...
Robb G. BestApr 5, 20133 minYour Brain on BiasLast year, roughly 40,000 people died in automobile crashes on America's highways. This is a tragic number, but it has been much worse in...