School V · Lesson 03 of 15
The Mind's Shortcuts
Core idea: the brain uses shortcuts that usually help and sometimes fool us. Knowing the common ones is a kind of armor.
The Lesson
Your brain makes thousands of decisions a day, so it relies on shortcuts: quick rules of thumb. Most of the time they work. But some fail in predictable ways. Psychologists call these predictable errors cognitive biases. Four of the most useful to know:
Confirmation bias. We notice and remember evidence that agrees with what we already believe, and skip what doesn't. In a famous 1960 experiment, psychologist Peter Wason showed that people test their guesses by looking for examples that fit, rarely for ones that would prove them wrong.
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Applied Wisdom
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