In Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner’s Think Like a Freak many key aspects of challenging unconventional thinking and “thinking like a freak”. One piece of advice the book offers is to incentivize people, but don’t manipulate them. This is valuable advice, which many people will find to be a beneficial resource to getting what they want. Incentives can be useful in achieving goals that would be otherwise unattainable without the help of others. Humans are inherently selfish beings, not necessarily the archetypal, evil and narcissistic kind of selfish, meaning people always have ulterior motives to their actions, whether intentional or not. As Levitt and Dubner explain in the text, people are always searching for financial, social, or moral
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This tactic is extremely useful when making difficult choices. Often when faced with a decision with two different but relatively equal outcomes, making a choice is almost impossible. Pondering the pros and cons, the incessant “what ifs” and the possibilities of any lethal repercussions that could result each choice is a taxing process that will ultimately leave you in the same deadlocked mindset you started with. To flip a coin and leave the choice up to chance to decide is least trying option and the best and fastest way to reach a selection. Overanalyzing the different outcomes can lead to reaching for unfavorable compromises or the self-deception that a decision even needs to be made. Additionally, when a coin is flipped to make a decision, often the person’s true interests are revealed. For instance, if someone is trying to decide between wearing a red shirt and a blue shirt, assuming they have weighed all of the pros and cons and possible detrimental aftermaths of each, the best and most practical option would be to flip a coin. The coin lands, choosing the red shirt. A small, sudden pang of sadness hits them. That tiny feeling of regret they have reaching for that red shirt has revealed that, deep down, they wanted the blue shirt. Had fate chose the blue shirt, the coin flipper would feel relieved and content with the decision, revealing how they subconsciously felt about each outcome. In many scenarios where a tough decision needs to be made, to simply flip a coin is the best
This tactic is extremely useful when making difficult choices. Often when faced with a decision with two different but relatively equal outcomes, making a choice is almost impossible. Pondering the pros and cons, the incessant “what ifs” and the possibilities of any lethal repercussions that could result each choice is a taxing process that will ultimately leave you in the same deadlocked mindset you started with. To flip a coin and leave the choice up to chance to decide is least trying option and the best and fastest way to reach a selection. Overanalyzing the different outcomes can lead to reaching for unfavorable compromises or the self-deception that a decision even needs to be made. Additionally, when a coin is flipped to make a decision, often the person’s true interests are revealed. For instance, if someone is trying to decide between wearing a red shirt and a blue shirt, assuming they have weighed all of the pros and cons and possible detrimental aftermaths of each, the best and most practical option would be to flip a coin. The coin lands, choosing the red shirt. A small, sudden pang of sadness hits them. That tiny feeling of regret they have reaching for that red shirt has revealed that, deep down, they wanted the blue shirt. Had fate chose the blue shirt, the coin flipper would feel relieved and content with the decision, revealing how they subconsciously felt about each outcome. In many scenarios where a tough decision needs to be made, to simply flip a coin is the best