Think Like a Freak Notes PDF

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Think Like a Freak Notes...

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After reading chapters 1 and 2 of Think Like a Freak, describe five elements and the benefit of each that go into thinking like a freak. Your response can be numbered. Please use complete and grammatical sentences. 1. An important element to thinking like a freak would be to not be ashamed by how much you do not know yet. For many, the cost of making a false prediction, being wrong, or pretending to know, is much lower than the cost of saying “I don’t know.” The benefit to this would be to push yourself to truly find the answer! 2. Ditching one’s moral compass is one of many elements to thinking like a freak. By carrying our moral compass around with us, it is too easy to forget about the real issue and rather get wrapped up in the right/wrong view of the problem. By ditching one’s moral compass, one can truly be opened up to learning more about the topic. 3. Another element of thinking like a freak would be to utilize feedback. Feedback allows us to learn from our attempts and mistakes. It allows us to unbiasedly learn and grow. This feedback can be the answers our questions if we allow it to be. 4. Kicking straight down the middle is an important element of thinking like a freak. Although it may come with a bigger price tag, it is the road less traveled for a reason. Many do not take advantage of it, but it can easily lead to success. 5. Finally, not letting your biases control your view on issues is extremely important when thinking like a freak. Whether these biases are political, social, or in any other form, they can limit your thinking. By dropping these biases, you are able to seek out new information. Additionally, dropping biases allows us to get away from being sucked into the herd we call friends and family.

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Chapters 3-4 In order to get the right answer, you must first ask the right question ○ Rather than define the problem, try to redefine the problem By redefining the problem, one can gain a new set of solutions Ignore the artificial barriers (mental barriers) put into place by those before you Rather than addressing the symptoms of the problem, attack it at the roots Chapters 5-6 Think like a child and leave the preconceptions behind! They lead us to rule out a huge set of possible solutions because they may seem unlikely or impossible Have a cooling-off period...Nearly all ideas seem good right away, but not always after twenty-four hours Think small--all the big problems cannot be fixed in full ○ Small questions are less often asked/investigated ○ Tackle a small piece of the big problem ○ Chances of creating change with a small problem is much greater than with a big problem

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○ No stakes with thinking small Don’t be afraid of the obvious Don’t be afraid to like what you like People respond to incentives; understanding the incentives of all the players in a given scenario is a fundamental step in solving any problem The key is to climb inside other’s minds to figure out what matters to them Think less about ideal behavior, and more about actual behavior! Sometimes, the framework of the problem must be fixed! Why do incentives backfire? ○ No individual/government will be smarter than everyone else trying to beat the incentive ○ People don’t often think as we hope/expect ○ When rules change, so does behavior Rules for an incentive scheme ○ Figure out what people really care about (not what they say they care about) ○ Incentivise based on value to them, cheap to me ○ Pay attention to responses ○ Change the framework from adversarial to cooperative ○ People don’t always do the “right” thing to do ○ People will do whatever they can to game the system Chapters 7-9 Teach Your Garden to Weed Itself: guilty and innocent people respond to incentives in different ways! Understand how hard persuasion will be and why ○ Smart people have more experience feeling that they are right and have greater confidence in their knowledge ○ Your opponents view is likely based on herd thinking and ideology rather than fact and logic It’s not me; its you ○ We are only the producer of the argument ○ The consumer has the only vote that counts; the argument must resonate with them Don’t pretend your argument is perfect ○ Admit the downsides--nothing is perfect ○ Admit the potential for unintended consequences ○ Acknowledge the strengths of your opponent’s argument Keep the insults to yourself Tell stories ○ Fill out the picture using data There is a huge upside to quitting when it is done right ○ 3 biases against quitters: the notion that quitting is a sign of failure, the loss of

sunk costs, the little attention to opportunity costs ● Failure shouldn’t be demonized it should be celebrated ● a ● ● ●...