“Opportunity cost is a huge filter in life. If you’ve got two suitors who are really eager to have you and one is way the hell better than the other, you do not have to spend much time with the other. And that’s the way we filter out buying opportunities.”

<ul><li>Life is all about values and priorities. You face trade-offs. Life requires that you make choices among mutually exclusive alternatives. Every time you select something, you forfeit other alternatives and the concomitant benefits. The cost of something is what you will give up to get it. This is opportunity cost.</li><li>In economics, opportunity cost is the cost of not choosing the next best alternative for your money, time, or some other resource.</li><li>Resources are scarce. When resources (time, money, mindshare, autonomy, and all that) are scarce, selecting one opportunity necessitates forgoing other op<warningtag>portunities.</warningtag></li></ul>

Doing One Thing Makes You Sacrifice the Opportunity to Do Something Else of Value

When mulling over multiple choices, the quality of any option cannot be assessed in isolation from its alternatives. The price you pay (or the sacrifice you make, or the benefits you give up) for doing what you’ve chosen to do instead of doing something else is the opportunity cost.
In sum, an opportunity cost is the cost of passing up the opportunities that a different option would have afforded.
Many costs are calculated in terms of money. However, just because you don’t have to spend money to do something does not imply that the options you face are without their costs.
There’s an opportunity cost to even reading this, at this moment. You could have been watching TV, taking a nap, calling up a friend, or moving on to another article in the time you’re devoting to reading this article.
In a nutshell, even decisions that appear to be no-brainers carry the hidden costs of the options you will decline.

Opportunity Cost: You Can Do Anything but Not Everything

“The right way to make decisions in practical life is based on your opportunity cost. When you get married, you have to choose the best spouse you can find that will have you. The rest of life is the same damn way.”

<ul>
<li>You live in a world where you must therefore make choices. You cannot avoid regret since there are opportunity costs for every choice you will make.</li>
<li>Everything in life is about opportunity costs. Every time you say “yes” to a choice, you are also saying “no” to everything else you may have accomplished with your time, money, and resources.</li>
<li>Opportunity cost is a commanding tool that you should be wise to apply to all decision-making. If you integrate this concept into your thought process, you will not only make judicious choices, but also better understand the world in which you live.</li>
</ul>

Learn to Evaluate Life Choices Via the Lens of Opportunity Costs

The cost of something is what you will give up to get it. This is opportunity cost.

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Money & Investments

problemsolving

Problem Solving

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Business

Everything in Life Has an Opportunity Cost - Right Attitudes

Everything in Life Has an Opportunity Cost


In the past, researchers have used accounts of near-death experiences to answer what awaits us when we die. The subjective experiences had common themes. A bright light, out-of-body experiences, and encounters with deceased loved ones. However, researchers recently stumbled upon the account of an 87-year-old patient that suffered a fatal heart attack while undergoing brain scans. This recording can shed light on what's happening in our brain just before death.

Near-death accounts

Researchers measured 900 seconds of brain activity around the time of death of the 87-year-old patient. The man's brain waves in the 30 seconds before and after his heart stopped beating were similar to when we recall memories, dreams or meditate. Before the patient's heart stopped, there were immense changes in gamma oscillations, responsible for high-cognitive functions such as focusing and dreaming. Theta oscillations were also observed, which is the state between wakefulness and sleep. These brain oscillations continued for 30 seconds after the patient's heart stopped.

The brain activity of an 87-year-old patient

A man’s sudden death during a routine brain scan has given researchers a glimpse of the dying human brain.

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Science & Nature

What’s Happening in Your Brain Moments Before Death?

The hybrid work environment creates new challenges for leaders, including:<ul><li>How to keep everyone focused amid so much change</li><li>When and how to communicate when some workers are on-site while others work remotely</li><li>How to make fair decisions</li><li>How to manage conflict when employees are out of sight and out of mind.</li></ul>Innovative leaders can use this time of instability and uncertainty to define leadership of the future.

Challenges of hybrid work for leaders

Clarity can be as simple as guiding an employee to the next right step, sharing a big vision for the future, or accurately describing a particular situation and desired outcome.Here’s a checklist of areas that contribute to a lack of clarity:<ul><li>Policies that are outdated or unenforced</li><li>Constantly changing priorities</li><li>Ineffective digital communications</li><li>Misunderstanding about how decisions are made</li><li>Unclear job descriptions.</li></ul>

Clarity

Today’s hybrid leader must acquire good writing and speaking skills as well as competency on various platforms.Quick tips to become a better communicator in a hybrid work environment:<ul><li>Text is okay for short updates or requests</li><li>Keep emails simple and short with the action item as the end</li><li>Space and format emails for easy reading</li><li>Difficult conversations require video or in-person meetings</li><li>Phone trumps email for complex issues.</li></ul>If there’s too much confusion, excessive unresolved conflict, and lack of follow-through, it could be due to ineffective communication.

Communication

The hybrid workplace requires leaders to have the capacity and competency to manage conflict among remote workers, virtual teammates, vendors, partners, and contractors.How to calm down and get clear before handling difficult situations.<ul><li>Feel the emotion, but don’t act until you have calmed down.</li><li>Instead of sending the email, send a calendar invite for a one-on-one meeting.</li><li>Plan your conversation, and clarify your intended result.</li><li>Clarify the situation by stating what’s happening that should not be happening.</li><li>Initiate a one-on-one private conversation in person or by videoconferencing.</li></ul>

Conflict capacity

The author of ‘No-Drama Leadership’ says we can use this time of instability and uncertainty to define leadership of the future.


communication

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Leadership & Management

3 ways you can create stability in uncertain situations

The digital marketing landscape has changed a lot. Those who are nimble and act fast tend to do well. But it takes more than an ability to be an executioner; you have to be a strategist. Luckily, there's no shortage of imaginative folks who can bring something new to the table. 
There are so many chess moves being made that it is extremely easy to take on too many things if you can't learn the art of focus or saying no.

Seeing Tasks Through

Your value proposition could as well be that you are different. Don't be afraid to lay out what sets you apart and even more importantly, let your customers know how your unique traits benefit them. In a world where companies follow up with, "We do that, too," don't be afraid to be the one saying, "That's just not us, but we do XYZ." Most likely, customers will appreciate your authenticity and genuineness.

Choose Your Lane

Stick to what you know works and have the patience to see what's a fad and what's going to stick. Working with a ton of bright-minded individuals means there's no shortage of ideas. While they all may have the legs for growth potential, find the one idea that makes the most sense for your business and see it through at least one to two quarters.

Give Each Project Enough Time

While perfection may be a good feeling when grading ourselves, zeroing in on a project too closely can actually be detrimental to success. Don't get caught up in every minor detail, as this is how time passes us by (along with our competitors). Build your timelines with a launch date and stick to it. Along the way, there may be things that will knock you off your guard rails; but with a proficient plan, your team can stick to what must be done for a successful launch. Keep the goal in sight.

Execute Until it's Nearly Perfect

Have you ever met that person who says, "I'd have a lot more success if I just had time to reflect?" Perhaps we are all guilty of falling into that bucket every now and then.  Go to the drawing board and assess what you did well with each project and what you can improve on.  The overall message is to build a strategy and stay keenly focused on closing down on it. Commit to something that you're at least 80 percent sure will bring in the new revenue, and don't let shiny object syndrome distract you from obtaining it.

Rinse, Repeat and Double Down On What Works

Stick to what you know works and have the patience to see what's a fad and what's going to stick.

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Productivity

Discover the world of business and economics.

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Economics

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Startups

Have Trouble Seeing Tasks Through? Try This 4-Step Process

Even the most conscientious among us occasionally fails to apologize. When this happens, it’s usually for one of two reasons: <ul><li>We don’t care enough about the other person or the relationship to take on the emotional discomfort of owning our mistake and apologizing for it</li><li>We believe our apology won’t matter.</li></ul>

Why we fail to apologize

For the people who can never admit they’ve misstepped, no matter the circumstance, admitting wrongdoing and offering an apology is too psychologically threatening. Offering an apology implies that they’ve harmed another person in some way, which can elicit feelings of shame.

When apologies seem psychologically threatening

Unfortunately, many of us mistakenly interpret the fragility-driven defensiveness of the people that cannot issue apologies as a sign of psychological strength. That’s because outwardly they appear to be tough individuals who refuse to back down. But they don’t do this because they’re strong — it’s because they’re weak.

Misinterpreting the lack of an apology

Psychologically speaking, admitting that we’re wrong is emotionally uncomfortable and painful to our sense of self. In order to take responsibility and apologize, our self-esteem needs to be strong enough for us to absorb that discomfort. If our self-esteem is higher and stable, we can tolerate the temporary ding that such an admission involves — without the walls around our ego crumbling.But if our self-esteem is seemingly high but actually fragile, that ding can pierce through our defensive walls and score a direct hit to our ego. The more rigid one’s defense mechanisms are, the more fragile the ego they’re protecting.

The psychology of admitting our mistakes

"If the non-apologizer is a close connection, tap into your empathy and compassion. Remind yourself that beneath their stubborn exterior, they are incredibly vulnerable."

Non-apologizers are maddening to be around, especially when they're clearly in the wrong. Here's what drives their unrepentant ways and what you can do, from psychologist Guy Winch.

Understand yourself and those around you.

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Psychology

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Personal Development

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Love & Relationships

We all know people who just can’t apologize — well, here’s why

There's always something more to read that can potentially give you more insight. There is seldom a point that will tell you you're done.
Because research is open-ended, it can be hard to keep up It is helpful to decide upfront how much time you want to commit to research. Also, ensure making the end goal something about the information, such as writing an essay or report.

Research is open-ended

Once you know the topic, find the expert vocabulary for your topic. Experts use precise words. They have chosen words carefully to point out minor distinctions in ideas.
Wikipedia is a good starting point to find the ordinary language that points to expert concepts. Type your idea in Wikipedia as you see it, then note the words used by experts. Then use these keywords to identify key works.

Beginning research: Keywords and key works

Once you've found the keywords and some main papers or authors everybody cites on the topic, try to find reviews.
<ul>
<li>Literature reviews qualitatively review all the papers on a topic.</li>
<li>Meta-analyses try to collect effects from multiple papers to give a quantitative answer.</li>
<li>Textbooks are used to present the field the way experts want a beginner to learn about it.</li>
</ul>
It can be helpful to type a keyword with the words "review" or "meta-analysis" in Google Scholar. For textbooks, type a keyword in Amazon and limit the search for textbooks.

Literature review, meta-analysis and textbooks

Once you gained some understanding in a field, follow citation trails. There will often be dozens of other papers cited and can result in an extensive reading list. Thus it is helpful to limit yourself to the few most promising ones.
Citations need two factors: frequency and relevance. Works cited more often are more central to a topic. To ensure that you don't spend too much time going down rabbit holes, aim for breadth-first.

Follow the citation trails

A classic problem in research is to forget what you've read or where you've read it. Some people use Zettlekasten, a sophisticated note-taking system.
Another system is Caplan's approach, where you highlight the sections you may need to revisit later. Then make a new document that will contain your notes and quotes as well as your summary of the work. The goal is to have a map of the area, so you know where to find it again.

How to read research

<ul>
<li>Sci-Hub is helpful to get access to papers. Alternatively, emailing authors can give you access to papers, but it tends to slow reading down.</li>
<li>Google Books can help you find specifics in a particular book.</li>
<li>Map out the main arguments and players.</li>
<li>Don't be hesitant to take courses first. It will provide a background on the topic.</li>
<li>Experts are very willing to talk to you.</li>
</ul>

Helpful tools for research

Have an important question to answer? Here's how I do research, avoiding getting lost and confused along the way.

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Reading & Writing

How I Do Research | Scott H Young

Learning how to learn is a meta-skill. It is a critical skill for everyone who needs to pick up and master new concepts frequently.Understanding what is learning and how our memory works will help you understand why certain techniques work and how to use and adapt the techniques to your advantage.

Learning how to learn

Learning how to learn is critical for everyone. Most of us have to deal with a changing world and to learn how to manage tons of new information.However, most of our learning methods are outdated and far from optimal. It may even be giving us an illusion of learning, like re-reading and highlighting that don't provide proper feedback to show what you haven't learned.

Learning skills

Focused and diffuse modes provide two models for how we develop, elaborate, deepen and broaden connections. Both methods are important.<ul><li>The focused mode of learning is about bringing related concepts together into a unit, called a chunk. </li><li>The diffuse mode operates through a wider net of connecting general ideas across different fields. We use this diffuse mode while we sleep, exercise or daydream.</li></ul>

Focused and Diffuse Mode

Spaced repetition describes the idea of reviewing new concepts at intervals that get spaced further and further apart.For example, learning a concept in the morning, reviewing it 8 hours later, then recheck the next day. Reviews then get spaced out 3-4 days, then a week, a month, then again a few months later.

Spaced repetition

"Order and simplification are the first steps toward mastery of a subject."

Learning is hard and takes effort on a personal level. It requires attention and physical energy.<ul><li>When you start learning, you need to pay careful attention to bring that information into your short-term memory. Lack of sleep can make it difficult to pay attention to. Even memory champions can only hold 5-7 pieces of information at a time.</li><li>When you sleep, short-term memories are moved to a different region in the brain for long-term storage. Your brain then consolidates the information and select what information to forget.</li></ul>

In order to learn, we need to sleep

Top-down learning is understanding the big picture. It allows you to put the main ideas into a big-picture map to understand how the information fits together.Bottom-up learning, called "chunking" describes pieces of information that are linked together through meaning or use. Much of learning is developing a sufficient repository of these chunks.

Top-down and bottom-up learning

Leveraging diffused and focused learning is key to truly understanding something. You learn chunks through the focused model, and you develop the broader conceptual map using the diffuse way of thinking.First, learn the basic outline or core structure, then fill in the details. For instance, when reading a book, look at the table of contents (core structure) and scan through the material. Next, use focused reading to fill in the details.

Combine diffused and focused learning

Regressing or getting blocked when learning is not that uncommon, as your brain remaps a concept.Skipping ahead may help. Take a break, sleep, and exercise, to give your brain time to put the pieces in order again.

Regression is not uncommon

We need to study things that interest us; otherwise, it will be hard to make much progress.Learning is a highly personal process. You need to know yourself and how you learn best. Use the resources and techniques that you like and enjoy, even if they are not scientifically-speaking the most effective.

The optimal process for learning

One of the most useful and interesting things I learned in the last year was not so much a specific subject or skill but a meta-skill. I learned how to learn. Learning is a critical skill for everyone.

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Learning & Education

Learning to Learn

The way you frame your decision at the outset can make all the difference. State your decision problems carefully, acknowledge their complexity and avoid unwarranted assumptions and option-limiting prejudices.

Work on the right decision

A decision is a means to an end. Ask yourself what you most want to accomplish and which of your interests, values, concerns, fears, and aspirations are most relevant to achieving your goal.Decisions with multiple objectives cannot be resolved by focusing on any one objective.

Specify your objectives

Your decision can be no better than your best alternative.

Create imaginative alternatives

Assessing frankly the consequences of each alternative will help you to identify those that best meet your objectives—all your objectives.

Understand the consequences

Because objectives frequently conflict with one another, you’ll need to strike a balance. Some of this must sometimes be sacrifices in favor of some of that.

Grapple with your tradeoffs

What could happen in the future and how likely is it that it will?

Clarify your uncertainties

When decisions involve uncertainties, the desired consequence may not be the one that actually results. A much-deliberated bone marrow transplant may or may not halt cancer.

Your risk tolerance

What you decide today could influence your choices tomorrow, and your goals for tomorrow should influence your choices today. Thus many important decisions are linked over time.

Consider linked decisions

Making decisions is a fundamental life skill. Expecting to make perfect decisions all of the time is unreasonable. When even an ounce of luck is involved, good decisions can have bad outcomes. So our goal should be to raise the odds of making a good decision.

Making Smart Choices: 8 Keys to Making Effective Decisions

Legal standards would often ask what the 'reasonable person' would do. But we should consider who this person is.
The reasonable person is not the average person as average people can do unreasonable things; neither is it the ideal person. Instead, the reasonable person represents someone common as well as good.

The reasonable person

Reasonableness is not an empirical or statistical measure of how average members of the public think, feel, or behave … Rather, reasonableness is a normative measure of ways in which it is right for persons to think, feel, or behave …

The reasonable person is often associated with the law of accidents.
When determining if someone is legally responsible for causing an injury, courts want to know if the person causing the injury acted with the care of a reasonable person. But theorists often remark that the reasonable person is not the average person. In turn, this sparks 'ideal' theories of a reasonable person.

The law of accidents

How ordinary people judge reasonableness is mostly neglected. The standard of &#39;reasonable care&#39; might be viewed as the standard level of care or a good level of care or both.
An experiment suggested that our conception of reasonableness is informed by thinking about what people actually do and what people should do.

How ordinary people judge reasonableness

When the law elaborates on reasonableness, it often suggests statistical considerations. 
Historically, courts referred to the &#39;reasonable person and the &#39;ordinary&#39; person, or otherwise, the &#39;ideal average prudent person&#39;.

How the law judge reasonableness

Acknowledging the relevance of statistical considerations offers progressive implications: when we want to include personal characteristics in reasonable-person analyses, should it include age, gender, race, etc.? For example, apparently sexist remarks. Women may understand certain remarks in the workplace differently from men.

The 'individualisation problem'

Legal penalties often require the judge or jury to consider whether a person acted reasonably. While the law often invokes the 'reasonable person', does this person actually exist? Or are they an 'ideal'? A professor of law considers the answer in this article.

artsandculture

Society, Arts & Culture

Who is the 'reasonable person' invoked by the law?

Short-term benefits of firefighting (solving problems as they come) will be visible, but when a manager plays the long game, they think of the entire life cycle of the project, and the organization as a whole.
Preventing problems before they arise may not be as visible as solving problems, but is the right, proactive approach.

Go For The Long Voyage

Leaders become a scapegoat when things go southwards, as there is a general assumption that everything is their responsibility, so every problem is their own fault. This leads to ‘learned helplessness’, where we ignore our own responsibility and blame others.
Taking the analogy of a ship, if something goes wrong, everyone including the captain is at risk, and is also equally responsible for the problem and for finding a potential solution. One cannot sit back and let others scramble, or blame the captain.

Skin In The Game: Everyone Is Responsible

The work of Problem Preventers is invisible, as they seem relaxed, go home on time, and need lots of time to think. They don’t experience much conflict as they already prevent the same. The invisibility of the work they do leads to a wrong perception of them.
Problem Solvers are not united towards any clear goal, but make use of the fundamental flaw in most organisations: Rewarding the solving of problems. They let things go wrong and then step in to fix them, creating visibility. This becomes a zero-sum game after wasting resources and energy.

Problem Solvers Vs Problem Preventers

Taking complete ownership and leading by example makes for a more independent team, as it instils a certain autonomy in the team members. 
They are now not just performing certain tasks or following instructions but can respond to any unexpected development as they all have a sense of responsibility. Any potential problem benefits from ‘second-order thinking’ and is noticeable before it turns serious.

Developing An Inner Sense Of Captaincy

Failure is part of the learning process and a good leader understands that it cannot be a sunny day every day. 
The team members are not insulated from failure but are given the space and support to create their own path towards success.

Everything in Life Has an Opportunity Cost - Right Attitudes

What’s Happening in Your Brain Moments Before Death?

3 ways you can create stability in uncertain situations

Have Trouble Seeing Tasks Through? Try This 4-Step Process

We all know people who just can’t apologize — well, here’s why

Waylon X.