Cognitive-Science

Two headlines compete for your attention: A: “Multifaceted approaches to ameliorating socioeconomic disparities” B: “Why poor people stay poor” Both convey similar ideas. But you clicked on B, didn’t you? Or at least your brain wanted to. This isn’t about intelligence or laziness. It’s about cognitive fluency-one of the most powerful forces determining which stories spread and which die in obscurity. What Is Cognitive Fluency? Cognitive fluency is the subjective ease with which our brains process information. ...

It’s 2 AM. You tell yourself “just one more episode” for the third time tonight. The show ended on a cliffhanger, and your brain refuses to let you sleep until you know what happens next. Or maybe you’re at work, supposedly focused on a spreadsheet, but part of your brain is still churning over that unfinished novel you put down this morning. Why do unfinished stories occupy so much mental real estate? The answer lies in a phenomenon discovered in a 1920s Berlin restaurant-and it might be the most powerful tool in a storyteller’s arsenal. ...

Small concepts that rewire how your brain works. Each one short enough to read in minutes, powerful enough to change everything. Forcing Functions Designing irreversible commitments that make failure impossible. Burn the ships. Make public declarations. Put money on the line. When Cortés arrived in Mexico in 1519, he burned his ships. His soldiers couldn’t retreat. They had to win or die. Modern versions: Tweet your goal publicly Bet money you’ll finish Sign a contract with financial penalties Delete the escape route The fancy term: Ulysses contracts - named after Odysseus who tied himself to the mast to resist the Sirens’ song. ...

My uncle is intelligent, educated, and successful. He runs a business, reads extensively, and can hold sophisticated conversations about history, economics, and technology. He also believes: COVID-19 was created in a lab as a bioweapon The 2020 election was stolen A global elite controls world events through secret organizations Vaccines contain tracking microchips Climate change is a hoax to implement global government When I try to discuss evidence, he responds with: ...

It’s 2 AM. I should be sleeping. Instead, I’m lying in bed thinking about that bug I almost fixed. I know exactly where the problem is. I know how to solve it. I just ran out of time. My brain won’t let it go. Or that blog post I started writing three days ago. I have the outline. I wrote the intro. But I haven’t finished it, and it’s nagging at me every time I sit down to work. ...