The Halo Effect: Why People Often Judge a Book by Its Cover

  The halo effect is a cognitive bias that causes people’s impression of one aspect of something to influence their impression of other aspects of it. For example, the halo effect can cause people to assume that someone will have an interesting personality, simply because they find that person to be physically attractive. Essentially, the halo …

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Memory Cues: How to Set Yourself Up to Remember

  Memory cues are objects or events that help trigger an action or a memory of that action. Memory cues can either be things that we set up intentionally in advance, as in the case of a reminder on our phone, or they can be unintentional, as in the case of seeing a product at the …

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The Strategic Advantage of Being a Small Fish

  Roland, Harry, and Billy are three outlaws who recently arrived at the town of Deadwood. After realizing there’s not enough room for the three of them in this town, they decide to meet at the town center at noon, and duel to the death. The rules of the duel are simple: each one, in …

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The Backfire Effect: Why Facts Don’t Always Change Minds

  In a perfectly rational world, people who encounter evidence that challenges their beliefs would first evaluate this evidence, and then adjust their beliefs accordingly. However, in reality this is seldom the case. Instead, when people encounter evidence that should cause them to doubt their beliefs, they often reject this evidence, and strengthen their support for …

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Writing Tips from David Ogilvy

  David Ogilvy (1911-1999), who is often hailed as the “Father of Advertising”, was a US marketing tycoon, and a co-founder of Ogilvy & Mather, one of the largest marketing companies in the world. Ogilvy was best known for advocating two important concepts in marketing. The first concept was that marketing decisions should be driven by …

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Handwriting vs. Typing: How to Choose the Best Method to Take Notes

  A common question people ask is whether you should write notes by hand or type them up on a computer. In short, studies generally show that writing notes by hand allows you to remember the material better than typing it. However, when it comes to actually choosing which method you should use, the answer …

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Mental Practice: What It Is and How to Use It

  Mental practice (or motor imagery) involves visualizing actions, to improve your ability to perform them. For example, to learn how to perform moves in your favorite sport, you can rehearse these moves by visualizing yourself performing them. Mental practice can be a beneficial technique to use in various domains, so it’s worthwhile to learn …

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“The Horse Raced Past the Barn Fell”: A Guide to Garden Path Sentences

  A garden path sentence is a sentence with an ambiguous part, that leads the reader to initially assume a certain interpretation for the sentence, until they reach a point where the ambiguity is resolved and this initial interpretation is shown to be wrong. Essentially, when you read a garden path sentence, you encounter an ambiguous …

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Lessons in Stoicism from Marcus Aurelius’s “Meditations”

  Marcus Aurelius was an eminent Roman emperor and one of the most influential writers on the topic of Stoicism, which is a philosophy that revolves around seeking virtue in life, without letting yourself be ruled by negative emotions. Aurelius’ writing on Stoicism is best represented in Meditations, a book which is frequently mentioned as one …

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How to Solve Technical Issues: A Simple Flowchart

Solving technical issues is generally simpler than most people think. In fact, by following the steps outlined in the upcoming flowchart, you will be able to solve nearly all of the issues that you encounter, whether they’re in your computer, in your phone, or in any of your other devices. If you have a friend …

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