Just as sure as the sun rises and sets every night, we are sure to hear two words from our two year old the second we shut the bedroom door. “Tooo daawwkk!” (That’s “too dark” for those who don’t speak Toddler.) With Halloween on our doorstep, I’ve begun thinking that maybe, just maybe this is more than a delay tactic. What if the Bogey Man weren’t just a figment of our imagination?
Psychologist Peter Gray of Boston College says that fear of the dark might be more than stalling. Dr. Gray argues that fear of the dark has strong evolutionary roots. Before the invention of Alarm Force and door lock,s our ancestors spent millions of years living in … [ Read More ]
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After posting my Biggest Loser article on Decision Lab blog on Psychology Today last week, a friend (Ian) asked me a great question about how to balance competing priorities.
“You say that [Patrick Ferrari's] good decision would be a bad decision for some other people, depending on their decision pulses. To what extent do people need to diversify their decision making, even if it means going against their decision pulse? I, for example, tend to fall most often in the Achievement or Stimulation category but I would think that without some humanistic decisions from time to time, I would create a very self-involved and unfulfilled life. I sound really cynical…lol…I actually really wanna know more about this.”
It’s a … [ Read More ]
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A few weeks ago, Netflix CEO, Reed Hastings made a very unpopular decision to split Netflix’s online streaming business with its DVD-by-mail business. Customers, analysts, shareholders were all outraged. On Monday, he recanted that decision.
Like many other pundits and opinion-dealers, I applaud Hastings for his decision on Monday. Unlike everyone else, however, I applaud him for making the original decision that so outraged everyone. Not because it was necessarily a great decision, but because it was a decision. In that is the secret to success we so conveniently overlook.
The Hindsight Pile On
The backlash against Hastings is another example of the Hindsight Pile-On. Us humans absolutely love to point out the poor judgment of others…in hindsight. We … [ Read More ]
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Your man cave is pretty harmless, isn’t it? I mean as long as we are fulfilling our duty as a caring partner, provider and at least part-time caretaker/babysitter, don’t we deserve a sanctuary for undisturbed scratching and swearing?
Some psychologists are arguing that we do “deserve” it but more in the you-made-your-own-bed-now-it’s-time-to-sleep-in-it kind of way. And I think they’re on to something.
Say it Ain’t So, Guse!
I know what you’re thinking: “what has this world come to if you can’t trust Tony Siragusa for sagely life advice?!?” But it’s not Guse’s fault either. Psychiatrist J.R. Bruns, M.D. gives two explanations for the rising tide of Man Caves. First, too many romantic comedies and fairly tales have … [ Read More ]
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In my BusinessWeek column last Friday, I wrote an article about how companies like Starbucks and Panera Bread chose to go against the grain when the you-know-what hit the fan in 2008. Instead of jumping on the “trying to reinvent ourselves” bandwagon that has become oh so chic in recent years, they decided instead to reassert themselves. That decision is tougher than it may appear for corporate leaders, as well as common folks like you and me.
When life starts moving faster than we’re comfortable with or sliding down a path we’re not especially fond of, like Madonna, the tendency is to try to be something “shiny … [ Read More ]
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