The world's most powerful skill:
Effective decision-making.
But colleges eat up 4 years of our lives and don't even bother teaching it.
Instead, here are 10 quick lessons from psychology that will upgrade your decision-making in the next 5 minutes:
Decision-making is a mentally demanding task.
And the quality of your decisions drops as you get more tired.
Don't make decisions when you're tired.
We're all wowed by the rockstar CEO that dropped out of college.
But we overlook the 99% of dropouts who go on to fail.
Our brains get distracted by shiny exceptions.
Don't fall for exceptions when making a decision.
We have a tendency to blindly copy our friends and colleagues.
But sometimes copying others has disastrous effects ― like smoking to fit in with your group.
Think twice before you start imitating those near you.
We demand extraordinarily high evidence for views that do not fit our existing beliefs.
And accept extraordinarily low evidence for views that do.
Evaluate both pros and cons before making a decision.
Our brains are quick to form strong first impressions.
This means that our brains often underestimate the importance of new information.
Stupidity often comes from overlooking crucial new information.
Pay attention to it.
Just because you've spent time or money doing something doesn't mean you should keep doing it.
Gamblers will spend good money after bad.
People will spend years in unhappy relationships.
Learn to separate the past from the present when deciding.
We've all made decisions in the moment that we regret later.
Why? Because we let our emotions get the best of us in the moment.
Be patient and wait to make decisions when you're in a calm emotional state.
We often do things because someone in charge tells us to do it ― teachers, parents, bosses.
But sometimes this can have disastrous effects ― like leaders pushing their countries into unjustified wars.
Learn to think for yourself.
When we don't have the required skill, our brains compensate with overconfidence.
Think of all the people who buy crypto without knowing anything about it.
Psychologists call this the Dunning–Kruger Effect.
Don't let your confidence trick you.
Often times we can fool ourselves into making a decision because we like the person in front of us.
That's why ads always feature attractive people - they know you like attractive people.
Don't do something just because you like the person asking you to do it.