The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. This well-known quote, often attributed to Albert Einstein, cautions us from repeating ineffective actions or continue down paths likely to lead to disappointing outcomes. Only, Albert Einstein never said it. The Ultimate Quotable Einstein, the self-described ‘most…
Have you ever noticed there’s conflicting sayings for every situation and every point of view? When someone you care about goes on a long trip, a friend might comfort you by saying “Absence makes the heart grow fonder”. On the other hand, when you end a relationship with a toxic partner, the same friend might…
The Stonecutter’s Credo is both an allegory for persistence and a caution about false attribution: “When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split…
Whenever an expert makes a claim they cannot support with data, I’m reminded of the firewood fallacy. Firewood fallacy is a term I coined earlier in my career after being frustrated by how many organizations suffer from group think. Decisions are often made based on institutional knowledge or hearsay, rather than independent research or data….
Even though I’m in the sports & entertainment industry, I worry that using sports jargon in business can get in the way of clear communication. As I’ve written about before, not everyone has a sports background and some of the phrases can be confusing. One of the most overused corporate clichés comes from hockey: “Skate to…
A common misconception about school is that it teaches us how to learn. However, in my opinion, school doesn’t teach us how to learn, it teaches us how to pass tests. We pull all-nighters, cramming information into our brains, to ensure we have facts memorized. Often, we forget what we “learned” as soon as the…
In 1965 two researchers conducted a now-famous experiment in a public elementary school, dubbed Pygmalion in the classroom. The researchers told teachers that about one-fifth of their students were unusually intelligent (so-called “growth spurters”), based on results of a fictitious IQ test. Even though the gifted students were seemingly chosen at random, these students performed…
If you use your smart phone frequently, you’re less likely to trust strangers. Kostadin Kushlev of the University of Virginia and Jason Proulx of the University of British Columbia came to this conclusion by analyzing data from the most recent World Values Survey. The World Values Survey is a U.S. nationally-representative poll in which participants…
Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened. This optimistic quote is frequently attributed to Theodor Geisel (aka the popular children’s author, Dr. Seuss). In fact, the saying likely pre-dates him by 100 years and should be attributed to the poet Ludwig Jacobowski. Regardless of the true origin, it’s a useful quote to pull…
Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity. This colorful phrase, called Hanlon’s Razor, explains that people aren’t always out to get us; sometimes they just make mistakes. It’s a practical application of Occam’s Razor which states that, everything else being equal, the simplest solution is usually the best one. Hanlon’s…