Locks won’t protect you from the thieves, who can get in your house if they really want to. They will only protect you from the mostly honest people who might be tempted to try your door if it had no lock.
In the scientific world, the Not-Invented-Here bias is fondly called the “toothbrush theory.” The idea is that everyone wants a toothbrush, everyone needs one, everyone has one, but no one wants to use anyone else’s.
If you’re a company, my advice is to remember that you can’t have it both ways. You can’t treat your customers like family one moment and then treat them impersonally – or, even worse, as a nuisance or a competitor – a moment later when this becomes more convenient or profitable.
Put simply, the link between creativity and dishonesty seems related to the ability to tell ourselves stories about how we are doing the right thing, even when we are not. The more creative we are, the more we are able to come up with good stories that help us justify our selfish interests.
One of the big lessons from behavioral economics is that we make decisions as a function of the environment that we’re in.
Even the most analytical thinkers are predictably irrational; the really smart ones acknowledge and address their irrationalities.
When you get a checking account, you should have a savings account, and the number for the savings account should be one off of your checking account.
We are all far less rational in our decision-making than standard economic theory assumes. Our irrational behaviors are neither random nor senseless: they are systematic and predictable. We all make the same types of mistakes over and over, because of the basic wiring of our brains.
Giving up on our long-term goals for immediate gratification, my friends, is procrastination.
I don’t think we should go around life and being miserable all the time and feel the pain of paying. It’s a question of what categories we want to spend more on and what categories we want feel that we are spending too much on and we want to cut down.
Your immediate environment is comprised of coffee shops, supermarkets, websites, apps and all kinds of things – none of which have an interest in your long-term or short-term financial well-being.
The idea that you will make the right decision every time is very unlikely.
Honesty is a complex and tricky thing, and we don’t want to be honest all the time.