#heuristics — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #heuristics, aggregated by home.social.
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Make a point
I write because it requires me to think. There’s no particular reason why I need to publish what I write. Having targets for what to write, and on what schedule to publish it, simply keeps me accountable. I am certainly better off for having done the writing and the thinking.
Make your point, make it clear, and get out of the reader’s way.
~ Morgan Housel, from Useful Laws of the Landslip:4ucobo14.
By reading what others have written, I’ve found myself standing on the shoulders of giants.
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#7ForSunday #Heuristics #MorganHousel #OnWriting -
A Few Rules
The person who tells the most compelling story wins.
Something can be factually true but contextually nonsense.
Tell people what they want to hear and you can be wrong indefinitely without penalty.
Woodrow Wilson said government "is accountable to Darwin, not to Newton."
Behavior is hard to fix.
"Logic is an invention of man and may be ignored by the universe," historian Will Durant.
Being good at something doesn’t promise rewards.
The world is governed by probability, but people think in black and white ... because it’s easier.
Henry Luce: "Show me a man who thinks he’s objective and I’ll show you a man who’s deceiving himself."
People learn when they’re surprised.
Most fields have only a few laws.
The only thing worse than thinking everyone who disagrees with you is wrong is the opposite: being persuaded by the advice of those who need or want something you don’t.
Simple explanations are appealing even when they’re wrong.
Self-interest is the most powerful force in the world. (For good and bad.)
History is deep.
Don’t expect balance from very talented people.
Progress happens too slowly to notice, setbacks happen too fast to ignore.
It is way easier to spot other people’s mistakes than your own.
Reputations have momentum in both directions.
History is driven by surprising events, forecasting is driven by predictable ones.
-- Morgan Housel
(Abridged, see source for full version.)