The three previous posts in this series can be viewed via the 'squibs' tag.
I will probably do around one post like this a week -- sometimes more, sometimes less. I look forward to your continued feedback.
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Strategies to immortalize oneself:
- through work
- through having something named after you like a building or a new species
- through doing something worthy of the history books
- through memories
- through documentation (photos, writing, etc.)
- through tombstone
Woody Allen: "I don't want to be immortal through my work; I want to be immortal through not dying."
Maybe the three most influential human biases: 1. believe everyone notices you, 2. you are better than average, 3. what you do makes sense.
Studies of people who predict the end of world at an exact time, then that time passes: They often prepare for the end through some elaborate ritual, but then once the time passes, instead of saying "I'm a moron" they say "I did just the right thing; my actions delayed the end." (This is an example of bias #3 above.)
One of the most robust findings in the field of psychology is that if you reward kids for doing some task like drawing, in the absence of the reward, they will like drawing less than they originally did and do it less often. Related: Get people to work for you for free because then they tell themselves they must really like you. (This is also an example of bias #3.)
~56% of people say they would like to start a business, but few ever do. Why?
The stages of competence.
"Businesses are islands of conscious power in an ocean of unconscious cooperation."
Empathy is a neutral capacity; torturers need it to know what will be painful. Empathy can become sympathy and turn into altruism, which is the action.
'Don't be a dick': Simple, not always easy, a good plan.
