Habits, Behaviours & Thinking Styles - Secrets of self-awareness, and seeing the people around you

The world is a complex place. Its inherent complexity is compounded by our many biases and subjectivity and emotional states. Add the fact that we are emotional creatures constantly being 4F-ed by our Enteric and Reptile brains, and we have people who are seldom actually seeing the reality of our spaces.

Looking at this complexity with our senses, processing our spaces and the people in them via our senses, then creating a simple representation of the complexity in a way that we can remember and retrieve, is an extraordinarily difficult task. Evolution, perhaps necessity and dependence, made the task a little easier by taking snapshots of our mental representation of the world and storing these snapshots as memories.

         The way we store these mental representations is very much personalized according to who we are – our experiences, our fears, biases, beliefs, logic systems and everything else that shape our personalities and thinking.

         How do we ensure that our mental representations stay true to the real world so that what we know, is actually what it is?

         We address this idea of building an efficient and true representation of the world using our senses in an accurate and efficient manner, by training HaBiTS 4.0 – Habits, Behaviours and Thinking Styles. Having and using accurate HaBiTS ensures our understanding, stored representations, and retrieval systems are as close to perfect as possible – leading to Peak Performance as perceived by the world as we operate in it.

         A mistake we all are trapped into by education systems and work employment is that we become specialists who are trapped into very narrow expertise and fields of visions, severely buying into the tunneled vision of The Einstellung Effect. We must instead become Specialist Generalists. Instead of having our cameras recording 360 views of the objects of our fascination, we need our minds becoming Specialists Generalists in every field available so that our minds are able to take 360 views of the objects of our fascination.

Charlie Munger explained this idea of being a Specialist generalist beautifully circa 1997. “Well, the first rule is that you can’t really know anything if you just remember isolated facts and try and bang ’em back. If the facts don’t hang together on a latticework of theory, you don’t have them in a usable form. You’ve got to have models in your head. And you’ve got to array your experience both vicarious and direct on this latticework of models. You may have noticed students who just try to remember and pound back what is remembered. Well, they fail in school and in life. You’ve got to hang experience on a latticework of models in your head.”

What follows is a collection of mental models categorized into 3 sections.

A.  Theories of Behaviours

B.  Logical Fallacies

C.  Biases

These provide Recognitions, Realisations, and Understandings so we are able to make logical decisions based on real data, without falling prey to our emotional states. When practiced consistently so that we become experts in harvesting real data form our spaces and people, we make better decisions and cultivate the ability to understand reality accurately.

A.    Theories of Behaviours

1.  Autonomy, Purpose, and Mastery

When the powers that be are able to design and implement work, living and social spaces where the people in those spaces feel the impact enough to ask for Autonomy to work on ideas, this is the first step to the creation of Original People. These OP will begin their journey towards finding their Purpose and developing their expertise enough to gain Mastery over things they choose to do, and roles and responsibilities they choose to accept.

2.  Bell Curve

The normal distribution is a statistical process resulting in a bell curve, which tells us where the average, “normal” people are in a population sample. We must know though when the bell curve cannot apply. We apply it everywhere, making many wrong conclusions along the way.

3.  Availability Heuristic

Daniel Kahneman defines the Availability Heuristic: We tend to most easily recall what is salient, important, frequent, and recent. A comprehensive memory would be so all-encompassing that we would be frozen with minds full to the brim with all the past experiences that we could never forget.

4.  Butterfly Effect

We can predict large scale movements of large groups of people or events, but we cannot predict the consequence of a small event or the actions of a single person, on what we consider to be sure things. Black Swan events are always lurking.

5.  Cognitive dissonance

Theory of human motivation that asserts that it is psychologically uncomfortable to hold contradictory beliefs or outcomes, so we change or force an event to remove the dissonance

6.  Commitment & Consistency Bias

We are subject to a bias towards keeping prior commitments and staying consistent with current thinking. We even do not trust people who are willing to change their minds and go with logical solutions. This is also what keeps us foolish. We stick with foolish thoughts even when presented with new, hard evidence.

7.  Cooperation

The opposite of cooperation is competition. Cooperation is listed here as a necessary idea of cooperating and working together even when competing. It is an inherent aspect of life, with organisms cooperating and competing to form a sustainable living ecosystem.

8.  Flipping and extrapolating

Flipping our points of views enable us to stop being tunnel-visioned and to continuously view the world by projecting forward, backward, sideways and bottom-up. We can then see where things started, where they are now and where they might be in the future. Decision making is then more likely to encompass all of these views.

9.  Fundamental Attribution Error

We subscribe to the behaviours of others to their innate nature rather than to the situations they are in. This is completely wrong. We then actually are astonished when others do not behave according to the nature we have “endowed” them with

10.              Hanlon's Razor

Hanlon's Razor helps us to avoid paranoia and helps us think using simple mistakes and failures caused by sheer stupidity and human failings. There is no reason to attribute problems and failure to a concerted effort by others to ensure

11.              Hedgehog Dilemma

Describes the challenges of human intimacy where a group of hedgehogs hurts one another when they get too close. There is only a statement of understanding about behaviors to have when we come together

12.              Incentivised Bias

We are conditioned to look for details that confirms already held beliefs.  Thus, we are incentivized by work and objectives that already makes us feel good about ourselves. We are severely biased to go with the system we believe and live in.

13.               Influence of the reptile brain

Stress causes both mental and physiological responses and amplifies biases. This is Daniel Kahneman’s “System 2” type of reasoning; stress causes hasty decisions, immediacy, and a fallback to habit, thus giving rise to the elite soldiers’ motto: “In the thick of battle, you will not rise to the level of your expectations, but fall to the level of your training.”

14.              Mental maps are not real maps

Our mental representations are a glimpse of a VUCA world captured at a precise moment. We must expect that glimpse, filtered through our perceptions, to always change in the real world. Consider this when making choices and decisions.

15.              Minimum work (P1C1,

Energy and resources are limited in any system. Thus, we must see clearly that even human work and styles of living is subconsciously governed by this idea to minimize the use of energy. Awareness of this helps remove Inertia.

16.              Narrative Instinct

We are storytelling animals. Our instinct to construct and seek meaning in narrative. Our history starts with pictographs that describe stories rather than words that spell it out. Understand this, and use stories to convey ideas, rather than wordy paragraphs.

17.              Non-Zero-Sum Game

A decision by one party that gives it a win/loss does not have to result in another party’s win/loss. The sum of all parties win/loss does not have to equal to zero. Everyone can win if decisions are collaborative, inclusive and transparent

18.              Occam’s Razor

In any type of complex or simple situation where answers or solutions need to be found or explained, the simplest explanation is most likely to be the correct one. The harder we try to attribute levels of complexity to the solution, the more errors that will creep into the reasoning.

19.              Persuasion

We cannot persuade if we do not allow for Reciprocity, Scarcity, Authority, Consistency and Liking, and Consensus. Persuasion engages many types of defense mechanisms that are a part of human nature that causes a wall to come up to stop others from influencing us. Using tools of persuasion help bring this wall down, ar at least to chip at it.

20.              Peter Principle

The logic of this principle is an absolutely AOM and RIM one, and obvious enough that no one should be trapped by the logic, but everyone does. It simply states that in organizations, teams, and spaces where people can get promoted based on meritocracy, everyone will get promoted until we reach a point where we cannot perform – and fail. At positions where peak Internal Motivations and HaBiTS are needed, we continue to fail because the needed HaBiTS may not be trainable, and we continue to fail until we get fired or demoted.

21.              Pratfall Effect

The tendency for a competent person's likeability to increase after they make a mistake. Competent people who never trip up are perceived as less relatable, and thus less likable. If a miscreant trips up, then he becomes even less likable as he becomes even less relatable

22.              Prisoner’s Dilemma

The Prisoner’s Dilemma is a game theory in which two prisoners should cooperate. But if one cheats, the other is better off cheating. Thus, the dilemma. The prisoner’s dilemma leads to a poor result. But cooperation still must be explored.

23. Rashomon Effect

Witnesses of the same event have contradictory accounts of the same event. It forces us to ask if there is such a thing as one correct account of an event.

24.             Recognize Assumptions

We can only live and move forward by thinking using facts and filling the gaps with assumptions. Be aware of the assumptions and try to make decisions using only the facts. Use creative and logical assumptions when obstacles are encountered.

25.              Risk-Taking

We only need to switch on a smartphone approximately 2,000 times if we use the same phone for 5 years. But the engineers who build the power button rate if for 10,000 times, to minimize to zero the risk that the button might fail. Use this risk negation system of minimising risk in your life. Think, construct and work hard enough to bring the risk as close to zero as possible

26.              Scale

Everything around us has different orders of scale. When dealing with singular or small numbers, it is simple to analyze using logic and assumptions. As numbers increase, we must also scale up or down the assumptions we make in order to minimize the impact of our failure.

27.              Second-Order Thinking

We are quite used to immediate reactions when we say, do or cause something to happen. It applies to even when we think in a way that translates into changes in our demeanour and expressions. Go one level higher now, and consider the effects of our audience reactions, on the people around them. Knowing this effect helps us make better decisions for the short and long term.

28.              Thin Slice

The instant perception that we experience of people the first time we see them. This happens within 10 secs, perhaps even 2 to 3 seconds.

29.              Thought Experiment

Thought experiments are a formal way to reflect on our expertise, and extrapolating new knowledge, answers and solutions for them. We are able to understand how and why our mistakes occurred, and ensures we use other tools of Orders of Thinking listed here.

30.              The tragedy of the Commons

This is an idea introduced by the ecologist and economist, Garrett Hardin. The Tragedy of the Commons states that in a system where a common resource is shared, with no individual responsible for the wellbeing of the resource, it will tend to be depleted over time. Without collaboration, people tend to be conditioned by Scarcity, thus grabbing everything before it runs out.

31.              Via Negativa

This is a simple idea of removing a negative element that causes problems or negativity to take place. The challenge is to identify and remove the negative element(s) and that transforms a mediocre system into a perfect one. Removing one bad apple preserves the rest and provides the opportunity to become perfect.

32.              We do not know what we do not know

How can we know what we do not know, except to be AOM and RIM aware that no matter the topic, there is always something we cannot know? When thinking through a problem or decision, be certain there is uncertainty in the process. The point of this is to recognize this uncertainty and to conduct enough real-time and on-time research to shrink this effect to the smallest amount possible

33.              Zeigarnik Effect 

This effect states that people remember uncompleted or interrupted tasks better than completed tasks, enabling this powerful understanding to be used in Practicing for Peak Performance behaviours. Making use of this effect leverages both Precrastination and Procrastination

B.   Logical Fallacies

Logical fallacies frame the lies and skewed styles our thinking is trapped into. They make up the mental filters we all use to process data that our senses bring into our mental fields as we engage with people and spaces.

1. All to one, one to all Generalization: applying a true generalization of a large sample to a single special case, and vice versa. E.g. This tray of eggs is great, so the one you have at home that comes from this tray must be good
2. All or Nothing Thinking: Forcing the facts and actions into either black or white, even in the context of situations where only gray areas exist
3. Argumentum Ad Hominem: Attacking the person, rather than the argument
4. Anonymous Authority: The authority quoted is not named. E.g. They say we must always be nice in business
5. Appeal to Force: Person with authority supports their claim by threatening the audience with undesirable consequences. E.g. If you do not agree with me, leave my company, says the boss
6. Argumentum ad Ignoratiam: assumed true because of no contrary evidence. E.g. Global warming must be man-made because no one writes otherwise
7. Appeal to Pity: an argument that wins by mere pity. E.g. Please reduce the fine because I have a sick mother
8. Appeal to the Masses: appeal using an audience's negative and positive emotions E.g. No one will be hungry if you elect me
9. Appeal to false authority: using celebrity to support a claim. E.g. The Prime Minister says Brexit is good, so it must be
10. Appeal to Authority of One: Citing one source of expertise to establish a belief
11. Appeal to Authority of Select Few: Citing select source of expertise for belief
12. Appeal to Tradition: justify an idea based on tradition
13. Appeal to Authority of Bandwagon: Claim believed valid because everyone believes so. E.g. Everyone believes that that religion is a violent one

14.              Begging the Question: Premise said to be valid without supporting evidence E.g. Technology is expensive, so let’s just use human workers

15.              Binocular effect: Making facts either huge or small by purposefully maximizing or minimizing the facts for personal or ignorant reasons

16. Circular Argument: Restating the premise in the conclusion. E.g. The PM is a great speaker because he delivered great speeches

17. Circumstantial ad Hominem: Accuse of having vested interests, for support. E.g. He does not want to increase taxes because he is rich

18.              Coincidental Correlation: Two events chronologically following each other, does not translate into a cause and effect - it is a coincidence. E.g. -We had an accident because I sneezed as we were leaving home

19. Common Sense Fallacy: an argument must be true because of common sense. E.g. It feeds on mud, so it must taste horrible

20. The fallacy of the False Question: Framing question so accusation sounds right. E.g. Whom did you bribe to make the project happen?

21. False Dilemma: Oversimplification reduces all alternatives to a single outcome. E.g. Just fire all the teachers. Their pedagogy is all useless.

22. False Analogy: an ambiguous comparison is not clearly explained. E.g. We must be a great school because we have been around for 100 years

23. False Equivalence: Fallacy of equivalence between two sides, but is none. E.g. My expertise is more, so I want equal ownership, though I have no money

24. Genetic Fallacy: the origins of a person used to determine nature or worth. E.g. He must be lazy, coming from that part of the world

25. Hasty Generalization: drawing conclusions from too little evidence. E.g. The project just started, but it will fail because it’s a useless team

26.              Ignoring the Burden of Proof: He who asserts must prove. E.g. Since you insist that we are created, prove this with factual evidence

27. Poisoning the Well: Using prior prejudice to attack the credibility. E.g. He does not like that race, that’s why he is proposing this new law

28. Tu Quoque: Referred to as “you did it too!” E.g. We all cheated on the exam so it is ok

29.              One to all generalization: Fallacy of what is true of a part, is true for all. E.g. Don’t allow that country’s citizens in. Our jails are full of them

30.              Non Sequitur: It does not follow. E.g. They have high grade, they must be great entrepreneur material

31. Novelty Fallacy: arguing that new must be better. E.g. - Let’s paint the building. That will create new and better work habits

32. Rhetorical Question: Question is not asked, but an answer is expected. E.g. Why must taxes be so high?

33. Red Herring: avoiding the main argument by diverting attention/topic. E.g. I know I’m late, but I saw an accident on the way

34.              Sincerity Fallacy: Passion and belief do not make a person correct. E.g. I will make money because I love the crypto industry

35.              Slippery Slope: assuming one step will set off an uncontrolled chain of negative events. E.g. If you drink one glass of beer, you will become an addict

36. Straw Man: Make someone’s position weak. Attack the misrepresented position, and then conclude that the original position is incorrect or ridiculous.

C.   Biases

Biases are the inherent subjectivity in our thinking that has been conditioned by people and our environments. These biases are usually an unconscious process that we do not consciously use but still takes a shadowy hand in the process of our choice and decision making. Biases are always conditioning us towards the negative, and no good can come out of biases. This is the main difference between biases and orders of thinking.

1. Apophenia: Connecting meaningfulness of unrelated phenomena
2. Backfire effect is, given evidence against their beliefs, people can reject evidence and continue to believe the false, even more strongly
3. Barnum effect: When a person finds personal meaning in statements that could apply to many people
4. Cheerleader Effect causes people to view specific individuals as more attractive when they are in a group of people less attractive or more attractive than that individual
5. Clustering illusion: Illusion that random events occurring in clusters are not really random events, but connected in some mysterious way to each other
6. Coincidences: The law of truly large numbers says that with a large enough sample many possible coincidences are likely to happen
7. Communal reinforcement: The process by which a claim becomes a strong belief through repeated assertion by members of a community
8. Confabulation: An unconscious process of creating a narrative that the narrator believes is true in order to serve his own purposes, but that is demonstrably false
9. Confirmation bias: A type of selective thinking whereby one tends to notice and to look for what confirms one's beliefs and to ignore the relevance of what contradicts one's beliefs
10. Curiosity Cures Bias effect shows that reaching across the aisle for inclusiveness and openness to new ideas doesn't require more knowledge; it just requires a more curious mind
11. Einstellung effect: Simply put, it is being tunnel-visioned, or narrow-minded. Einstellung refers to a person's biased predisposition to solve a given problem in a specific manner even though better or more appropriate methods of solving the problem may exist. The Einstellung effect is the negative effect of previous experience when solving new problems
12. Forer effect: The tendency of people to rate statements as highly accurate for them personally even though the statements apply to many
13. The framing effect is when people react to a particular choice depending on how it is presented; as a loss or as a gain. People tend to avoid risk when a positive frame is presented, but seek risks when presented a negative frame
14. Ideomotor effect: Refers to the influence of suggestion or expectation on involuntary and unconscious motor behavior
15. Just-world fallacy is the assumption that all noble actions being eventually rewarded and all evil actions eventually punished
16. Magical thinking: A belief that magical forces and powers can influence our lives, such as special luck and intervention to change and affect people
17. Operant conditioning:  A form of Practicing and expectation based on the experience of association between a stimulus and a response
18. Pareidolia: A type of illusion or misperception involving a vague or obscure stimulus being perceived as something clear and distinct
19. Placebo effect: The improvement in health or behavior is not attributable to the medication. It is strictly a psychosomatic effect.
20. Self-deception: The process or fact of misleading ourselves to accept claims about ourselves as true, even when false
21. Spotlight Effect explains why we think everyone notices a stain on our shirt. We are likely focusing on people noticing the things we are worried about. People aren't the harsh judges we think they are
22. Stroop Effect: Our brain is so comfortable with some tasks that they happen automatically. We can read and interpret words without paying attention to the physical characteristics of the letters themselves.
23. Wishful thinking: Interpreting facts and details according to what one would like them to be, rather than according to the actual evidence

Only consistency and continued discipline to become expert practitioners of the Theories of HaBiTS will enable the correct implementation of the theories listed here. Once “?xpertised”, we become able to map a highly accurate representation and understanding of our spaces and people around us, providing knowledge, memory, and data that enable great choices and decision making.