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1-Page Summary of The Art Of Thinking Clearly
Overview
Sales pitches often use scarcity to make the product seem more valuable. However, you should remember that everything is available online nowadays. This will help you focus on the actual benefits of a product rather than its scarcity. You are probably rational and good at assessing your own abilities; however, this is unlikely! We all tend to be irrational and subject to many biases in our decision-making process. Unfortunately, these tendencies helped people survive long enough in ancient times so they could reproduce and pass along those traits to future generations; however, now they lead us astray more often than not! These key points explain some common fallacies we all suffer from every day and offer tips for overcoming them so we can think clearly about important decisions like buying things online.
You will learn that you should never bring your best looking friend to a club if you want to get lucky. You will also discover that 84 percent of Frenchmen believe they are above average lovers, as well as how the weather can affect the stock market.
Finally, you’ll learn that you might not be able to spot a gorilla even if it’s standing right in front of you.
Big Idea #1: People tend to overestimate their abilities in many areas of life.
Most people have a pretty good idea of what they’re capable of. They know their strengths and weaknesses, while other people might overestimate their abilities. This is true for most people; however, it’s not just limited to oneself: everyone tends to think highly about themselves.
Research has shown that we’re overconfident in many areas of life. For example, studies have shown that 84% of Frenchmen consider themselves to be above-average lovers, and 93% of US students ranked themselves as “above-average” drivers. Similarly, research has shown that 68% of University of Nebraska faculty ranked their own teaching abilities in the top quartile.
The results of the study show that we overestimate our abilities and tend to blame our failures on external factors. We also believe that success is a reflection of our own abilities, rather than luck or other factors outside of ourselves.
Those who received bad scores, however, thought the test was useless and that it wasn’t their personalities but rather the test itself that was garbage.
Have you ever had a similar experience? For example, if you got an A on a high school exam, you probably thought that it was your own hard work and skill that helped you succeed. If not, then maybe the test was unfair or something else caused your failure. Knowing this tendency to overestimate our skills and attribute everything we do to ourselves, maybe we should ask for advice from someone who knows us well and can tell us what they really think about our strengths and weaknesses.
Big Idea #2: We can’t control as much in life as we think.
Have you ever wondered why people at casinos throw their dice harder if they want a high number, and gently if they need a low one to win big? This is because of the illusion of control. It’s when we believe that we can influence things that are out of our control. This gives us hope for better times in life. One study showed this by having subjects sit in booths to test their acoustic sensitivity to pain. Amazingly, these subjects could withstand significantly more noise if the booth was equipped with a red “panic” button.
Buttons don’t actually do anything. People think they control something, though, and as a result they can handle more pain.
So, it makes sense that people install buttons in areas where they feel like they have no control.
