Psychology and the art of decision making

I’m an engineer by trade. So for the first part of my career, I only cared about building products, being logical, ones and zeros. I didn't understand the importance of people.

I'm now known for saying that a company is 99% people, 1% everything else -- but it took me a long time to learn that. And it all started when I decided I wanted to learn about marketing.

Because even though I had built marketing and sales software for a long time -- and appreciated marketing and marketers, I didn’t really understand the essence of marketing. I wanted to know: how do you get someone interested in what you’re talking about? How do you get someone’s attention? How do you hold someone’s attention? How do you lead them in a particular direction, and then continue that lifecycle and relationship? 

I could have focused on tips, tactics and techniques that everyone uses. But instead I zoomed out. I wanted to be able to answer the question, "how do you gain someone's influence?"

That’s how I discovered Robert Cialdini’s book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. And the most important thing I learned from that book is that we are all emotional creatures.

I’m sure that’s no surprise to most of you -- but it blew my mind. Because, as I said, I’m very logical and rational. My EQ is not naturally very high. So Cialdini helped me realize not just that most people aren’t like me -- but that no matter how rational I may think I am, I too am an emotional creature. I make mistakes and decisions based on emotional cues and emotional biases that I may have -- and that’s true for everyone else as well. 

And that means that when you’re thinking about appealing to people, you have to start with the emotional part. You have to understand the different types of emotions that may play into a decision, and how you can appeal or not appeal to them. 

If I could prescribe one thing to everyone, it would be to spend time on this. Spend time learning how people make decisions, how you make decisions -- and how to stop yourself from making the same wrong decision over and over again. 

So if you’re interested in this, I’d start with these four things: 

1. The latest episode of Seeking Wisdom where I talk more about this 
2. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini 
3. Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
4. Human Misjudgment (a talk by Charlie Munger) 

Let me know what you think in the comments below.

-DC