📖 The Art of Thinking Clearly: Week 1
Building a reading habit is difficult but we're here to make things easy.
Building habits requires discipline.
All of us have been in that place at least once in our lives, where we really wanted to get into the habit of reading, but something ‘urgent’ would spoil the party.
This needs to change. So, we decided to pick up a book and set achievable weekly targets. Moreover, at the end of each week, we will assemble and discuss our takeaways from the book, further cementing the learnings in our minds.
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The first book that we have picked for our book club "Readathon sessions" is 'Art of Thinking Clearly'. Week One’s target was 50 pages. Here’s a short summary for you.
Why read The Art of Thinking Clearly?
“If we could learn to recognise and evade the biggest errors in thinking- we might experience a leap in prosperity.”
Chapter 1: Why you should visit cemeteries: Survivorship Bias
Don’t just get tempted by the successful few who are prominently visible in the public eye. The graveyard of failures is far bigger. Surprisingly many of those failures will display the same traits as the successful ones. Success has no fixed formula.
Top Quotes:
“In daily life, because triumph is made more visible than failure, you systematically overestimate your chances of succeeding.”
“If you ever visit the graveyard of failed individuals and companies, you will realise that its tenants possessed many of the same traits that characterise your success.”
Chapter 2: Does Harvard make you smarter?: Swimmer’s Body Illusion
You want a body like a swimmer- so you start swimming. But the reality is that the person who became a swimmer, qualified to become one because of his physique- it wasn’t really because of the activity of swimming.
This bias also gets in the way when we select a college, buy beauty and fitness products promoted by models.
Top Quotes:
“In conclusion: be wary when you are encouraged to strive for certain things- be it abs of steel, immaculate looks, a higher income, a long life, a particular demeanour or happiness. You might fall prey to the swimmer’s body illusion.”
Chapter 3: Why you see shapes in the clouds: Clustering illusion
Top Quotes:
“The human brain seeks patterns and rules. In fact, it takes it one step further: if it finds no familiar patterns, it simply invents some.”
“If you think you have discovered a pattern, first consider it pure chance. If it seems too good to be true, find a mathematician and have the data tested statistically.”
Chapter 4: If 50 million people say something foolish, it is still foolish: Social proof
Following the herd was a good survival strategy in the past. Whoever did not follow the herd, would get eaten by the lion. But it’s not true anymore.
An idea becomes more palatable if accepted by others, but it should not be so. Do your own research.
Chapter 5: Why you should forget the past: Sunk cost fallacy
Top Quotes:
“The sunk cost fallacy is most dangerous when we have invested a lot of time, money, energy or love in something. This investment becomes a reason to carry on, even if we are dealing with a lost cause. The more we invest, the greater the sunk costs are, and the greater the urge to continue becomes.”
“Rational decision-making requires you to forget about the costs incurred to date. No matter how much you have already invested, only your assessment of the future costs and benefits counts.”
Chapter 6: Don’t accept free drinks: Reciprocity
Reciprocity is a survival technique developed by our hunter-gatherer ancestors. When a person used to hunt a deer, they couldn’t eat it alone or preserve it for the next meal. And so it was logical for them to share the meal with other people. Similarly the ones who took your favours would feel obligated to reciprocate when they would land a feast-worthy hunt.
This sounds like a decent thing to do. But the ingrained habit of reciprocation could often make you obligated to do things that are against your will and make you a part of a never ending cycle of obligations. Eg: Hosting a wedding only because you have attended other peoples’ weddings.
Chapter 7: Beware the special case: Confirmation Bias (1/2)
We keep looking for evidence that supports our belief system while filtering out non-confirming theories. Warren Buffett says: “What the human being is best at doing, is interpreting all new information so that their prior conclusion remains intact”
Chapter 8: Murder your darlings: Confirmation Bias (2/2)
Top Quotes:
“To fight against the confirmation bias, try writing down your beliefs and set out to find disconfirming evidence.”
“Axeing beliefs that feel like old friends is hard work, but imperative.”
Chapter 9: Don’t bow to authority: Authority Bias
Many times, without even realising we start obeying to an authority figure even when we might feel that they are wrong.
Top Quotes:
“Whenever you are about to make a decision,think about which authority figures might be exerting an influence on your reasoning.”
Chapter 10: Leave your supermodel friends at home: Contrast Effect
Analyse everything independently. Is the stock priced correctly NOW (not in context with the price you bought it at), do you like that shirt (not because it is far better than the other options), do you want to date that person (not just because they give you more attention than the rest).
Also if you want to be evaluated independently by others, try removing all such variables that can be contrasted with you.
Top Quote:
“We judge something to be beautiful, expensive or large if we have something ugly, cheap or small in front of us. We have difficulty with absolute judgements.”
“When we encounter contrasts, we react like birds to a gunshot: we jump up and get moving. Our weakspot: we don’t notice small, gradual changes.”
Chapter 11: Why we prefer a wrong map to no map at all: Availability bias
We overestimate some risks and underestimate others based on the examples that are more visible to us. We also tend to solve problems using the most common methods, because that is most easily available to the brain.
We tend to base our decisions on easily available facts rather than those that are hard to obtain.
Top Quotes:
“Frank Sinatra song: When I am not near the girl I love the girl I am near. (Example of Availability Bias)”
“We create a picture of the world using the examples that most easily come to our minds.”
“We prefer wrong information to no information.”
Chapter 12: Why no pain, no gain should set alarm bells ringing: It will get worse before it gets better fallacy
Some people will tell you that your situation will get worse before it gets better. If the situation does go worse - we tend to feel that those people are experts who predicted this and if it gets better you will believe they are an expert for swimming against the tide no matter what.
This so-called ‘honesty’ might be a smokescreen in a lot of cases. So if the situation gets worse and doesn’t seem to improve a lot- act fast, seek help.
Chapter 13: Even true stories are fairytales: Story Bias
Humans love to draw connections and fit events in the form of a story. But in an attempt to fit everything like a story, we might skip some events that might be more crucial and relevant. Always raise questions when someone narrates you a story. Try understanding their inherent biases.
Top Quote:
“Stories are dubious entities. They simplify and distort reality, and filter things that don’t fit.”
Chapter 14: Why you should keep a diary? Hindsight Bias
Hindsight is 20/20. It’s easier to connect dots looking backwards than when you are actually living the moment. But it also gives the false confidence of prediction, making it dangerous.
Top Quote:
“It makes us believe we are better predictors than we actually are, causing us to be arrogant of our knowledge and consequently to take too much risk.”
Chapter 15: Why you systematically overestimate your knowledge and availabilities: Overconfidence effect
Hindsight bias gives us a false sense of confidence for the future.
Top Quote:
“Be aware that you tend to overestimate knowledge. Be aware of predictions, especially if they come from so-called experts.”
That’s all for this week. If you want to be a part of the book club and get more summaries like this, get the ReadOn pro membership over here:
See you next Saturday🤩