Steal the insight, even if you loathe the source

Decision-Making

One of the biggest mistakes that I see people make is they don’t want to learn from someone who has a character blemish or a worldview that doesn’t align with theirs. Seneca captured the right approach when he said in On the Tranquility of the Mind, “I shall never be ashamed of citing a bad author if the line is good.” Or, as Cato the Elder put it, “Be careful not to rashly refuse to learn from others.” Don’t throw away the apple because of a bruise on the skin.

Behavioural principles

Behavioural ideas at play in this post

Short, plain-English explanations of the principles behind this post, with links to related books and examples in the archive.

Overconfidence effect

We are often more certain than the evidence really allows.

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Base-rate neglect

We focus on vivid specifics and ignore the wider statistical odds.

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Steal the insight, even if you loathe the source

Behavioural ideas at play in this post

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