I didn't expect you to say that...

I am a tremendously arrogant man. All day, nearly every day, I converse with people about subjects I know deeply and love deeply. I stand in front of a class full of twenty two people and state, "if you know what you want to say, I can help you say it. If you know who you want to say it to, I can help you sell it."

And I am at a loss.

I feel like a man who was hiding a monster under his bed and forgot about it. Then one night, he fell asleep while eating friend chicken, and a drumstick rolled within reach of a scaly claw.

Grateful

The world is full of terrible things we can do nothing about.

When we have the ability to help, we should be grateful for the chance.

We should not expect others to be grateful for our help.

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Too bad that isn't how it works.

Thinking Fast and Slow- quotes Nobel Prize Winner

Best quotes: An example of a thinking problem. "Consider the letter K. Is K more likely to appear as the first letter in a word OR as the third letter?" We therefore expected respondents to exaggerate the frequency of letters appearing in the first position--even those letters (such as K,L,N,R,,V) which in fact occur more frequently in the third position. -9 

 In rough order of complexity, here are some examples of the automatic activities that are attributed to System 1: Detect that one object is more distant than another. Orient to the source of a sudden sound. Complete the phrase "bread and . . ." Make a "disgust face" when shown a horrible picture. Detect hostility in a voice. Answer to 2 + 2 = ? Read words on large billboards. Drive a car on an empty road Find a strong move in chess (if you are a chess master). Understand simple sentences. Recognize that a "meek and tidy soul with a passion for detail" resembles an occupational stereotype. -21 

 Money-primed people become more independent than they would be without the associative trigger. They persevered almost twice as long in trying to solve a very difficult problem before they asked the experimenter for help a crisp demonstration of increased self-reliance. Money-primed people are also more selfish: they were much less willing to spend time helping another student who pretended to be confused about an experimental task. When an experimenter clumsily dropped a bunch of pencils on the floor, the participants with money (unconsciously) on their mind picked up fewer pencils. -55

The idea you should focus on, however, is that disbelief is not an option. The results are not made up, nor are they statistical flukes. You have no choice but to accept that the major conclusions of these studies are true. More important, you must accept that they are true about you. If you had been exposed to a screen saver of floating dollar bills, you two would likely have picked up fewer pencils to help a clumsy stranger. You do not believe that these results apply to you because they correspond to nothing in your subjective experience. But your subjective experience consists largely of the story that your system 2 tells itself about what is going on. Priming phenomena arise in System 1, and you have no conscious access to them. -57 

Conversely, you experience cognitive strain when you read instructions in a poor font, or in faint colors, or worded in complicated language, or when you are in a bad mood, or even when you frown. -59

 Causes and consequences of cognitive ease Repeated experience Feels familiar Clear display EASE Feels true primed idea Feels good good mood Feels effortless -60

More advice: if your message is to be printed use high quality paper to maximize the contrast between characters and their background. If you use color, you are more likely to be believed if your text is printed in bright blue or red than in middling shades of green, yellow, or pale blue. -63

 Finally, if you choose a source, choose one with a name that's easy to pronounce. -64 They found that putting the participants in a good mood before the test by having them think happy thoughts more than doubled accuracy. An even more striking result is that unhappy subjects completely incapable of performing the intuitive task accurately; their guesses were no better than random. Mood evidently affects the operation of System 1: when we are uncomfortable and unhappy, we lose touch with our intuition. -69

 "How many animals of each kind did Moses take into the ark?" The number of people who detect what is wrong with this question is so small that it has been dubbed the "Moses illusion." -73 When something cement does not fit into the current context of activated ideas, the system detects an abnormality, as you just experienced. You had no particular idea of what was coming after something, but you knew when the word cement came that it was abnormal in that sentence. -74

Alan: intelligent--industrious--impulsive--critical--stubborn--envious Ben: envious--stubborn--critical--impulsive--industrious--intelligent. If you are like most of us, you viewed Alan much more favorably than Ben. -82

A simple rule can help: before an issue is discussed, all members of the committee should be asked to write a very brief summary of their position. This procedure makes good use of the value of the knowledge and diversity of opinion in the group. The standard practice of open discussion gives too much weight to the opinions of those who speak early and assertively, causing others to line up behind them. -85

 Nevertheless, the presentation of one sided evidence had a very pronounced effect on judgements. Furthermore, participants who saw one-sided evidence were more confident of their judgements than those who saw both sides. This is just what you would expect if the confidence that people experience is determined by the coherence of the story they manage to construct from the available information. It is the consistency of the information that matters for a good story, not it's completeness. Indeed, you will often find that knowing little makes it easier to fit everything you know into a coherent pattern. -87 System 2 receives questions or generates them: in either case it directs attention and searches memory to find the answers. System 1 operates differently. It continuously monitors what is going on outside and inside the mind, and continuously generates assessments of various aspects of the situation without specific intention and with little or no effort. -89 

 The normal state of your mind is that you have intuitive feelings and opinions about almost everything that comes you way. You like or dislike people long before you know much about them; you trust or distrust strangers without knowing why; you feel that an enterprise is bound to succeed without analyzing it. -97 

 The dominance of conclusions over arguments is most pronounced where emotions are involved. The psychologist Paul Slovic has proposed an affect heuristic in which people let their likes and dislikes determine their beliefs about the world. Your political preference determines the arguments that you find compelling. -103 

 The following are some conditions in which people "go with the flow" and are affected more strongly by ease of retrieval than by the content they retrieved: -when they are engaged in another effortful task at the same time -when they are in a good mood because they just thought of a happy episode in their life -if they score low on the depression scale -if they are knowledgeable novices on the topic of the task, in contrast to true experts -when they score high on a scale of faith in intuition -if they are (or are made to feel) powerful -p.135 

 This is a trap for forecasters and their clients: adding detail to scenarios makes them more persuasive, but less likely to come true. -161 

 Subjects' unwillingness to deduce the particular from the general was matched only by their willingness to infer the general from the particular. -174 

 The explanatory stories that people find compelling are simple; are concrete rather than abstract; assign a larger role to talent, stupidity, and intentions than to luck; and focus on a few striking events that happened rather than on the countless events that failed to happen. -199 

 Do leaders and management practices influence the outcomes of firms in the market? Of course they do, and the effects have been confirmed by systematic research that objectively assessed the characteristics of CEOs and their decisions, and related them to subsequent outcomes of the firm. In one study, the CEOs were characterized by the strategy of the companies they had led before their current appointment, as well as by management rules and procedures adopted after their appointment. CEOs do influence performance, but the effects are much smaller than a reading of the business press suggests. -205 

 The illusion of skill is not only an individual aberration; it is deeply ingrained in the culture of the industry. Facts that challenge such basic assumptions--and thereby threaten people's livelihood and self-esteem--are simply not absorbed. The mind does not digest them. This is particularly true of statistical studies of performance, which provide base-rate information that people generally ignore when it clashes with their personal impressions from experience. -216 

 Claims for correct intuitions in an unpredictable situation are self-delusional at best, sometimes worse. 

Thinking Fast and Slow- quotes  Nobel Prize Winner

 In the absence of valid cues, intuitive "hits" are due either to luck or to lies. If you find this conclusion surprising, you still have a lingering belief that intuition is magic. -241 

 Quoting Bruno Frey "The agent of economic theory is rational, selfish, and his tastes do not change." -269 The brain responds quickly even to purely symbolic threats. Emotionally loaded words quickly attract attention faster than do happy words (peace, love). There is no real threat, but the mere reminder of a bad event is treated in System 1 as threatening. As we saw earlier with the word vomit, the symbolic representation associatively evokes in attenuated form many of the reactions to the real thing, including physiological indices of emotion and even fractional tendencies to approach or avoid, recoil or lean forward. -301 

 Other scholars, in a paper titled "Bad is Stronger Than Good," summarized the evidence as follows: "Bad emotions, bad parents, and bad feedback have more impact than good ones, and bad information is processed more thoroughly than good. The self is more motivated to avoid bad self-definitions than to pursue good ones. Bad impressions and bad stereotypes are quicker to form and more resistant to disconfirmation than good ones." -302 

 We studied public perceptions of what constitutes unfair behavior on the part of merchants, employers, and landlords. Our overarching question was whether the opprobrium attached to unfairness imposes constraints on profit seeking. We found that it does. -306 

 As we have seen, rationality is generally served by broader and more comprehensive frames and joint evaluation is obviously broader than single evaluation. -361 A divorce is like a symphony with a screeching sound at the end--the fact that it ended badly does not mean it was all bad. -385 An Econ will read and understand the fine print of a contract before signing it, but Humans do not. An unscrupulous firm that designs contacts that customers will routinely sign without reading has considerable legal leeway in hiding important information in plain sight. A pernicious implication of the rational-agent model in its extreme form is that customers are assumed to need no protection beyond ensuring that the relevant information is disclosed. The size of the print and the complexity of the language in the disclosure are not considered relevant--an Econ knows how to deal with small print when it matters. In contrast, the recommendations of Nudge require firms to offer contracts that are sufficiently simple to be read and understood by Human customers. -413

The trouble...

The trouble
with being pretty
is nobody likes you cause you're you
they like you cause you're pretty
and you're pretty

The trouble
with being smart
is not being smart enough to figure out
how to get pretty
I wish I was pretty




The trouble
with being white
is knowing your ancestors didn't act right

The trouble with being tall
Is everybody wants you to play basketball

One event, three explanations

My brain has a rule.

I didn't invent it. I didn't choose it. At least it doesn't feel that way.

The rule is this: unless you can come up with three different explanations for an event, you are not allowed to come to any conclusions.

It is unsettling to think like this.
Hell. It is unsettling to live like this too.

But I do.

And I wouldn't change it...

The Honor Roll

Elliot Spitzer
Daniel Ellsberg
Smedley Butler
Eugene Debs
Stanislav Petrov
John Perkins
Vasily Arkhipov
Nouriel Rabini
Noam Chomsky
Howard Zinn

Words That Work by Frank Luntz

You can have the best message in the world, but the person on the receiving end will always understand it through the prism of his or her own emotions, preconceptions, prejudices, and preexisting beliefs. It's not enough to be correct or reasonable or even brilliant. The key to successful communication is to take the imaginative leap of stuffing yourself right into your listener's shoes to know what they are thinking and feeling in the deepest recesses of their mind and heart. -xi

In essence, it is listener-centered; their perceptions trump whatever "objective" reality a given word or phrase you use might be presumed to have. Again, what matters isn't what you say, it's what people hear. -xiv

In particular, there are seven additional words that have particular powers of persuasion in the world of business, politics, and everyday life, starting with the most powerful: "consequences." -xxv

[The seven new words are consequences, impact, diplomacy, dialogue, reliability, mission, and commitment.)

Never use a sentence when a phrase will do, and never use four words when three can say just as much. -7

So when it comes to effective communication, small beats large, short beats long, and plain beats complex. And sometimes a visual beats them all. -8

As individuals, while we appreciate the predictability of friends and family, we also cherish those things that surprise and shock us--provided that the outcome is pleasant rather than painful. It's the reason why many of us, in our free time, prefer to try different vacation destinations, different hotels, different restaurants, and different experiences rather than the tried and true. -15

Few words--indeed, few messages of any kind--whether in politics or in the business world, are ingested in isolation. Their meanings are shaped and shaded by the regional biases, life experiences, education, assumptions, and prejudices of those who receive them. -35

The language lesson: A+B+C does not necessarily equal C+B+A. The order of presentation determines the reaction. The right order equals the right context. -41

Americans say we are spending too much on "welfare" (42 percent) rather than too little (23 percent). Yet an overwhelming 68 percent of Americans think we are spending too little on "assistance to the poor," versus a mere 7 percent who think we're spending too much. --46

What I'm arguing is that "welfare" and "assistance to the poor" are in fact different topics. --47

We are a nation of moderate, cautious people with a reform bent, a conservative temperament, and a can-do spirit. We will rise to every occasion and meet every crisis, but we would rather not. -61

Ironically, one of the most effective negative attacks in politics is to accuse your opponent of being . . . negative. -61

I return to the Warren Beatty mantra once again: "People forget what you say, but they remember how you made them feel." -82

Tell someone "two plus two," but let him put them together himself and say "four"--and he is transformed from a passive observer to an active participant. -83

The same people who have no problem forking over $2.65 for a cappuccino at Starbucks will complain bitterly about the cost of a $2.65 pill that keeps them sufficiently health and active so that they can consume whatever unhealthy item Starbucks is selling. -95

Most cereals geared toward children sell energy, excitement, adventure, and the potential for fun--even more than the actual taste of the sugar-coated rice or wheat puffs in the cardboard box. -104

Among Advertising Age's top 100 ad campaigns of all time:
-Only eight involve sex.
-Only seven feature celebrities.
-Only four play on consumer fears and insecurities.
The idea has primacy. Accessible language rules. --117

He broke a cardinal rule of political communication: never repeat a criticism as part of your rebuttal. -120

[The following are a list of Words that Work: Words changed to similar ones with better connotations.]

Gambling vs Gaming
Estate Tax vs Death Tax
Liquor vs Spirits
Capitalism vs the Free Market
Honest Data vs Accurate Data
Banks vs Credit Unions
Corporate Accountability vs Corporate Responsibility

Since I knew that many people would only read the first and last items in the document, I asked that the Contract begin and end with the two highest-priority proposals in the eyes of the voters: a balanced budget amendment and term limits. -156

From a polling perspective, "personalizing" Social Security has a 17 percent advantage over "privatizing" it. -170

Myth: Americans Read
False.
In all my years of conducting polls, dial sessions, and focus groups, I've found again and again that nobody reads. -187

[Tony Robbins quote]
Words change our emotions, whether we know it or not, so I teach people what I call transformational vocabulary--the words you use to change your emotions. I don't mean looking in the mirror and saying "I am good enough, I am strong enough, and by golly people love me." I'm not talking about that crap.
I am talking about a one word change. If I say to you, "We are going to have a break and we are going to have some nutritious food, nutritious snacks. . . ' look at your faces [the participants shake their heads, frowning], but if I say they are delicious . . . [laughter] . . . a very different reaction. -206

And that's why the term "family values" (45 percent) tests better than "traditional values" (18 percent), "American values" (17 percent), or "community values" (11 percent). -217




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Franks Ten Language Rules
Simplicity: small words
Brevity: short sentences
Credibility
Consistency
Novelty
Sound and texture matter
Be aspirational
Visualize
Ask a question
Provide context and relevance
and sometimes

A strong visual will trump them all.