Want to hear just how irrational you are?

(How irrational we ALL are?)

It’s a cold, nasty world, and nature plays little tricks on us to keep us alive. We think we’re logical beings but we’re so steeped in cognitive biases, we don’t even realize it. 

Ever felt drawn to a heavy physical book instead of the digital version? 

That’s our brain subconsciously tricking us into thinking the information is more valuable and important just because it’s physically heavier.

Or what about a cold handshake? We’re more likely to think the person has a cold personality too. A warm one? We find them friendly and kind. 

Wrist-watch advertisers have even found that a watch’s hand being set to 10:10 where it forms a rudimentary smiley face makes the ads perform better. 

Even the trite, motivational posters on walls in office buildings that everybody likes to make fun of influence us. We see a runner winning a race overlaid with big bold text that says “Persevere, Overcome, Win” and roll our eyes, while our performance quietly improves.  

This isn’t just psychology trivia. This complex, tangled web of cognitive biases and irrational instincts from the external world exert a serious influence on our every move. 

The key to influence is stacking the cues. Using them. Turning as many of them on as possible in the same direction. What Charlie Munger describes as the Lollapalooza Tendency – where we can get extreme results from confluences of these psychological tendencies all acting in favor of a particular outcome. 

We can pretend we’re above these influences or we can deliberately design environments where our quirks work for us and not against us. 

With only three pounds of brain trying to process an infinitely complex world, we have no choice. 

As Oscar Wilde said, only shallow people think appearances are unimportant.