Managing the overconfidence bias

Unconscious bias refers to unconscious forms of discrimination and stereotyping. Unconscious bias often leads to discrimination, be it deliberate or unintentional.

Unconscious bias is different from cognitive biases. Cognitive biases relate to our brains' particular wiring, while unconscious bias refers to perceptions between different groups and are specific to different societies.

• Recognise that the unconscious bias is a systemic issue. Internal cultures need to be checked and addressed first.
• There is no shame or guilt in unconscious bias. Unconscious bias stems from our tendency to categorise people into social groups and often doesn't match our conscious values.
• It takes a series of conversations and interventions to prevent and protect against unconscious bias.

Scientists believe that it is impossible to recall the first few years of life. Many of the necessary brain structures for memory have not yet matured at the time. It means that it is physiologically impossible for your brain to remember personal events from infancy.

Any recollections are patched together from other knowledge we acquired later on.

Research has shown that we often underestimate the amount of time that has passed from long ago, and overestimate the amount of time that has passed since more recent events.

Love is the most powerful force in the universe and the more love you give away, the more love you get.

Love, kindness, empathy and trust are, believe it or not, the pillars of success. When your customers, employees, clients and stakeholders are blessed with your sincere love and care, everything else falls into place.

Because we mostly react instead of think, our actions are based on insufficient information. We grab for a solution without thinking deeply about the context of the problem: e.g: We try to cheer up a depressed person by making her realize that her life is not that bad and that the sun is shining, only to find out we have made her even more depressed. She now feels guilty about her feelings, worthless, and more alone in her unhappiness.

You find yourself embroiled in several struggles or battles. You seem to get nowhere but you feel like you have invested so much time and energy already that it would be a waste to give up. You have actually  lost sight of your goals. Instead it has become a question of asserting your ego.

You need some detachment and perspective. Remind yourself that winning an argument or proving your point really gets you nowhere in the long run.

Stories built around individuals provide relatability and a sense of being in the shoes of the people involved, living in the narrative.

Our tendency to give a ‘face’ and a story to a group or collection of people made us invent a dominant leader of the group, like the President, or the Team Captain, or the Monarch.

• The popularity or fame of an individual or a piece of art (like a painting, song or a movie) alters how we perceive it.
• The characteristics and behaviour of the people among whom fame spreads matters more than the actual merit or quality.
• A study showed that more people liked the songs that were topping the charts, copying the behaviour of other listeners, and if the same songs were arranged randomly, they were not chosen or liked that much.

Fat molecules are made of chains of fatty acids that are held together with single bonds (saturated) or double bonds (unsaturated.)

There are three types of fatty acids: Short, medium, and long chain.

• Short and medium chain fatty acids are absorbed directly into the bloodstream and used for energy.
• Long chain fatty acids are transported to the liver, which raises blood cholesterol levels.

Studies show that coconut oil increases harmful cholesterol (LDL -low-density lipoprotein) and beneficial cholesterol (HDL - high-density lipoprotein). They also contain a high amount of lauric acid, which raises HDL levels in the blood more than LDL levels.

But lauric acid is not that healthy. It is categorized as a C12 fatty acid and is at the limit of a medium-chain fatty acid. Roughly 70% of C12s act as long-chain fatty acids, which are stored in the liver as fat, and over time, can cause nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.

Since we spend the majority of the time experiencing things from our own perspective, we struggle to imagine the perspective of others.

The curse of knowledge is a cognitive bias that makes it difficult for people to account for the fact that other people’s thoughts, beliefs, and views are different from their own.

You need to be conscious of the fact that people have different levels of knowledge than you.

• Ask for feedback from the people you are communicating with, in order to confirm that they understand what you are saying.
• Make sure that you explain the technical terms and concepts that you use as you are using it.

• You lack motivation, and/or
• You underestimate the power of present emotions versus future emotions when you set your goals or make your task list.

If you’re tempted to procrastinate, find a way to visualize your future self. Focus on the pain that results from putting things off, contrasted with the relief of having completed your task.

• We get upset when someone doesn't fulfill a promise. However, if they do more than promised, we're not grateful enough for it.
• People learn more and faster from punishment and reward. If you have to pick one, negative feedback stimulates learning faster than positive feedback.

Do not do unto others what you do not want to be done unto you.

It is about focusing on eliminating the negative more than encouraging the positive. Because there’s abundant evidence from multiple sources that relationships are far more strongly affected by negative things than positive things.

When people disagree with us we assume they are ignorant … that they lack information. So we try to convince them with information. It seldom works.

• Persuasion appeals to the emotions and to fear and to the imagination. Convincing requires a spreadsheet or some other rational device.
• It’s much easier to persuade someone if they’re already convinced, but it’s impossible to change someone’s mind merely by convincing them of your point.