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 28, 20174 minThe Problem(s) With Myers-Briggs in BusinessImagine going to a corporate team-building event where everyone in your office was sorted and evaluated based on the results of taking on...
Robb G. BestSep 14, 20173 minFallen Empires and Phony Wine: The Seersucker EffectMaking iffy predictions about our future: it’s been a hallmark of human behavior for at least as long as we’ve been recording our present...
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. BestJul 8, 20173 minWhy Evidence Doesn't MatterGiven that a good reporter is supposed to be both truthful and balanced, how should journalists cover an issue when opposing camps refuse...
Robb G. BestApr 1, 20172 minThe Proportionality ProblemDecision making: it’s what humans do. Estimates are that the average adult makes 35,000 decisions a day. Of those daily decisions, 226 i...
Robb G. BestMar 12, 20173 minYou and I are not that SmartSoundbites, those tiny verbal morsels, are ubiquitous. From billboards to tweets to political slogans, we are awash in them. Soundbites ...
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. BestJan 30, 20152 minWhen Two Heads Aren't Better Than OneIn case you were wondering whether or not there is, in fact, a word for everything, allow me to tell you that polycephany, the condition ...
Robb G. BestSep 25, 20143 minA Berry Gone Sour: The Demise of RIM and BlackBerryStartFragmentHey, remember BlackBerry? In this day and age, it's basically the smartphone equivalent of asking about digital watches or p...
Robb G. BestJul 4, 20143 minStereotype Threat, or, Secret Messages and YouOne of the most disorienting ideas in Nobel Prize winning economist Daniel Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow is just how susceptible hum...
Robb G. BestJun 27, 20143 minGrab a Free Hour: a How-ToWouldn’t it be nice if we had an extra hour in each day? Imagine how much more you could get done with another 60 minutes of free time. U...
Robb G. BestMay 23, 20143 minThe Achilles' Heel in Your ThinkingHave you ever wondered why some people—and maybe we’re talking about you—are so adamant about some things? It might be a political positi...
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. BestJan 3, 20143 minThe Lowdown on Luck“Good luck!” It’s a common expression in our lexicon. Obviously, on a gut level we have some sense of the importance of luck—that is, unt...
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 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 ...