Italian painter

6 cool ways to use a 2×2 matrix

Summary: Quadrant analysis can help organize thoughts, products, business units, and tasks. This article discusses 6 2 by 2 matrices that are helpful for business. You probably know and have used the Risk vs. Reward matrix, which creates four quadrants defined by low risk vs. high risk and low reward vs. high reward. It’s a…

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gambler playing craps

The representativeness heuristic

Summary: We can fail at estimating probabilities when we allow inconsequential similarities to cloud our judgment. If you flip heads five times, are you “due” for tails? Our brains have learned to take short cuts, but these shortcuts don’t always work. When they don’t work, we call them cognitive biases. The representative heuristic is a…

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Anchoring bias and how to avoid it

Summary: Anchoring bias is a cognitive bias that makes us latch on to the first bit of data we hear. This post discusses eight ways to combat this bias. Daniel Kahneman might be best known for his book “Thinking Fast and Slow,” which I haven’t read, but I’ve read and heard a lot about Kahneman’s…

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