Action Figure Daniel

Category: Reading

  • “The Righteous Mind” by Jonathan Haidt

    • The six dimensions of morality
    • Kids tend to figure out morality on their own (rationally, neither nature nor nurture)
    • Human tends to create supernatural beings to help control the group
    • Moral conventions have a strong rooting in cultural conventions
    • We search for a rational reason to validate our moral feelings, after we have decided it is immoral
    • Our reasoning is driven by pattern matching: when something matches a pattern of disgust, we reject it
    • We use moral reason to come up with the best possible reason for someone else to join us
    • The Rider is useful for justifying what the elephant (intuition) just did and wants to do next
      • To change minds, you needs to trigger new intuition rather than challenge reasons
      • Intuitions comes first, reasoning come second
    • Affects (“afacts” not “affects”) are micro-emotional flashes that determine our intuitions
    • Disgusting smells or washing hands triggers our morals
    • Infants have an intuition about morals, for example, people being nice to other people
    • The elephant can listen to reason from other people, but struggle to listen to their own rider
    • Putting reputation on the line encourages ethical behavior
    • Accountability increases exploratory thought when they know in advance they will have to present to an audience, when that audience’s views are unknown, and they believe the audience is well informed on the subject matter
    • Self-esteem is really personal assessments of the perceptions of others
    • When not being monitored, most people will cheat a little
    • We ask “Can I believe it?” when we want to (low burden of proof) and “Must I believe it?” when we do not (high burden of proof)
      • (This is why Occam’s razor fails in reality; “simplicity” is the in words of the explainer)
    • We tend to be generous with people at first, but stop when it is not repaid
    • Competition increases tribal attitudes
    • Authority requires all to support all legitimate hierarchy
    • Feeling of disgust can be warnings that we are pushing too far
    • Disgust is a luxury
    • Everyone cares but conservatives also value loyalty and authority
    • Is the basis of society family or community?
    • The Alpha is more of a bully than a caretaker
      • (They take as much from society as they can before society deals with them)
    • Gossip is used to communicate displeasure through the community
    • We are 90% chimp and 10% bee; We do a lot of self-serving socializing but sometimes we click into hive mode
      • “Muscular bonding” is using physical effort to suspend the individual to contribute to the hive
      • We are conditional hive creatures… we mirror those who we confirm to our morals and ignore those who do not
    • Foster cooperation
      • Ramp up similarities, down play differences
      • Called “Smoothing,” it’s not the best way to overcome conflicts/differences
      • Synchronized motion
      • Competition among groups, not individuals
      • Understand Derkine
    • Religion is a team sport
      • God, trust, and trade
      • Religion is an accomplice to atrocities but rarely the progenitor
    • Genetics explains a quarter to a third of chance of political alignment
      • High dopamine tends to bring openness for new experiences and liberism
      • High serotonin tends to bring desire for stability and conservatism
    • The brain is a story processor not a logic processor
    • Increasingly levels of trust bring an increase in social openness

  • “The Tyranny of Merit” by Michael J Sandel

    • To reward on merit is to assume an equal distribution of skill
    • Failure in merit is to imply they did not try hard enough
    • Technocratic leadership removes moral; the technical aspects dictate choices and decisions
    • Merit is important to efficiency
    • Meritocracy allows us to believe we get what we deserve
    • The protestants celebrated that we were predestined and focused on manifesting their election through their intense work
      • Belief in Providence became spiritual sanctions for the status quo
      • Wealth is the confluence of personal effort and providential benefit
    • “Right side of history” is a moral call that assumes that history is an unbiased telling of events, not a narrative written by the victor, and is used to supplant the notion of Providence
    • “America is great because America is good”
    • If I am successful because of my work then others have failed because their lack of work
    • “Markets give people what they deserve”
    • Meritocracy leads to a sense of deserving things
    • “Credentialism: the last acceptable prejudice”
    • “Smart” is the merit based replacement for moral (much like “right side of history”)
    • Incentivizing side-steps governance and persuasion
    • Persuasion is critical to democratic processes
    • Education is not the problem (people who are more scientifically literate are more likely to have polarized views on climate change)
    • An aristocracy dismisses the illusion that the successful deserve their status; workers do not disparage themselves because they were not able to succeed
    • If I do not deserve benefit from my birth, then why would I deserve benefit from my talents
    • Wages are not rewards for character or merit but rather economic value
    • Equal opportunity does make things just because of the unequal distribution in abilities
    • Economic value is not the same as moral values
    • Education for the past two century have been focused on “sorting” the population based on intelligence
    • Colleges tend to consolidate privilege and not provide opportunity
    • We should focus on repairing the conditioning from which people want to flee rather than just enabling their movement

  • “Think Again” by Adam Grant

    • People adapt, not companies
    • We have three thinking modes: preacher, prosecutor, politician
    • Mental power is not the same as mental dexterity
    • People with high IQs tend to be able to identify patterns very quickly and thus fall into stereotyping very quickly
    • Those who lack competence tend to have the most confidence, this is the Dunning-Kruger effect
    • Experience is different than expertise
    • Humility is to be grounded and understand that what you can achieve is different than understanding your skills
    • We should be confident in our skills but humble in understanding the problem we are trying to solve
    • Imposters tend to work harder and smarter because they have something to prove
    • We need to detach our past-self from our present-self
    • We need to also detach our identity from our opinions
    • The most accurate forecasters reassess their predictions 3-4 times
    • When you make a prediction, make a list of conditions that would make you change your mind
    • Relationship conflict is bad for productivity; Task conflict is great for decision making
    • Agreeable people are good for support
    • Disagreeable people are good for rethinking
    • Be careful of drowning out the quiet voices
    • Starting with, “Can we debate?” is helpful to keep emotions out
    • Focus on How not Why
    • Fewer facts make a stronger case… If some facts can be dismissed then it is easier to dismiss the whole case
    • Try examining a Strong Man, the benefits of their strongest argument
    • Conversations about the conversation help sidestep emotional entanglements and can diffuse stubbornness
    • Counter factual thinking can help build empathy for alternative viewpoints
    • Imagine if you had been born in a different month and had a different sign and were discriminated against because you were born in a different month; how would you feel?
    • “Ada-bra-ka-da-bra” is Hebrew for “I create as I speak”
    • Sympathy often works better than attempting to fix things
    • Boiling things down to two conflicting points encourages entrenchment
    • Complexity is a signal of reality of credibility
    • Ask your boss, “What are you working to improve right now?”
    • Safety and accountability are important
    • Focus on the outcome and process
    • Commitment Escalation is a leading cause of preventable failures
    dunning-kruger-effect_15d723a27fe7e950f1786e9505e968e0_2000.jpg (1920×1080) (umarbahadoor.com)

  • “Salt: A World History” by Mark Kurlansky

    • Chinese were the first to mine salt
    • Gunpowder is made from salt
    • Egyptian tombs have two parts, the below ground burial and an above ground offering
    • Proteins unravel in the presence of heat, salt
    • Salt mines shift under their weight and close their own cracks as brine fills and dries
    • The Celtic economy was based on salt
    • “Common salts” is a Roman idiom
    • Curing fish enabled mass distribution of fish and people who could eat fish rations
    • Milk curdles under contact with animal skin, especially the stomach
    • Fat resists salt which is why oily fish need to be salted more and pressed

  • “Never Split the Difference” by Chris Voss

    • Ask open-ended questions to retain control and divert attention
      • “How can I do that?”
    • Fast, emotional thinking informs and guides our slower, rational response
    • Assumptions blind, hypothesis guide
    • Make yourself unimportant to the negotiations
    • Cognitive bias is focused on making a coherent story, not gathering information
    • Focus on listening to their wants, needs, and aspirations
    • Slow the conversation down
    • Generally you want the playful voice but sometimes late-night-dj
    • Repeat the last three words they said
    • To calm aggression
      • Use the late night DJ voice
      • Start with “sorry”
      • Mirror
      • Silence, at least 4 seconds
    • Negotiating should be a discovery not a contest
    • Label feelings with, “It seems like…”
    • Clear the road before advertising the destination
    • Getting a “no” helps you clarify things
    • People have a need to say “No” to feel in control so get them to say it early
      • “Is now a bad time?” is good to ask
      • “Have you given up on this project?” is like walking away from the stubborn child who refuses to leave the park
    • The goal is to help them feel safe, secure, and in control
    • “Yes” is often an escape route
    • “That’s right” is gold, “You’re right” is death
    • Be careful of compromise, it often leaves both side unhappy and turns out a worse outcome
    • No deal is better than a bad deal
    • When assessing a threat, look for answers to who, what, when, where
    • “What does it take to be successful here?”
    • “How am I supposed to do that?” asks the other party to help and while helping them feel in control
    • The other side always has a team… Make sure you are engaging everyone on that team
    • “Yes” is nothing without “how”
      • “How will we accomplish our contract?”
      • “How do we know we are on-track?”
      • “How will we know when we are off-track?”
    • People who can break the deal are often more critical than the deal maker
    • There are assertive, accommodating, and analytical people
      • Analysts
        • Want time to think before responding; they value precision in their responses so try to can consider all the angles
        • Do not care for human interactions
        • Expect equity in anything given
      • Accommodators
        • Love social interaction and seek engagement
        • Do not necessarily need reciprocity
        • Takes silence to mean anger
      • Assertives
        • Need to feel heard before they can listen
        • Value victories
        • Takes silence as an invitation to keep talking
        • Give them an inch and they will go a mile
    • The golden rule is wrong here (and most places): Treat other how they want to be treated
    • Focus on the issues not the person
    • It is good to hit the pause button when things are not going well
    • Decreasing concessions ending are ideal:
      • Set an extreme anchor
      • Close the gap between the anchor are your real number by half
      • If needed, close by a quarter
      • End on an exact, non-round number to make it feel like you are at your end
    • Look for the “black swans” (the hidden motivations behind the negotiator’s behavior)
    • Leverage is having something the only side wants
    • Look for their “religion”: the beliefs that drive them to action
    • “They’re crazy” is our way for saying, “They do not make sense”
      • One side has information the other does not
      • They have a constraint they do not want to share