Cognitive-Bias

I once spent three weeks building a custom CSS framework. It had exactly the features I wanted. Perfect naming conventions. Elegant utility classes. Beautiful documentation. I showed it to my team. They said, “Why not just use Tailwind?” My response? “Because mine is better.” Was it actually better? No. Objectively, Tailwind had: More features Better documentation Larger community More battle-testing Active maintenance But I couldn’t see that. All I could see was MY framework, MY design decisions, MY time invested. ...

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: ...

I once turned down a $40,000 freelance contract because I was afraid of losing my $80,000 salary. The math was simple: take the contract, it would take 3 months, that’s $160k annualized. Way better than my salary. But my brain didn’t see “$160k potential.” It saw “giving up the guaranteed $80k.” The fear of losing my steady paycheck was stronger than the excitement of potentially making more. I said no. The person who took the gig finished it in 2 months, got referred to three more clients, and now runs a six-figure freelance business. ...

I once deployed code to production because a VP told me to, even though I knew it would break things. I was a junior engineer. They were a VP of Engineering. They said, “Ship it now. We need this for the demo tomorrow.” I tried to explain: “The tests are failing. The database migration isn’t ready. This will cause data corruption.” They responded: “I understand your concerns, but I’ve been doing this for 20 years. Trust me. Ship it.” ...

I once rejected a brilliant engineering candidate because their resume had a typo. Not in their work history. Not in their technical skills. In the summary section: “atention to detail” instead of “attention to detail.” My brain went: “Typo → careless → probably writes buggy code → not a good hire.” I passed. Another company hired them. They became a principal engineer there and later gave a keynote at a major conference. ...

I used to think Tailwind CSS was terrible. Not because I’d used it extensively. I’d tried it for maybe an hour, felt uncomfortable, and decided it was “just inline styles with extra steps.” Then I spent the next six months seeing only evidence that confirmed my belief: Blog posts criticizing Tailwind? Bookmarked and shared. Tweets praising Tailwind? Scrolled past or found reasons to dismiss them. Projects struggling with Tailwind? “See, I knew it was problematic!” Projects thriving with Tailwind? “They would’ve been fine with CSS modules.” I wasn’t evaluating Tailwind objectively. I was collecting ammunition to defend a conclusion I’d already made. ...

I once spent three hours researching React state management libraries. Redux. MobX. Zustand. Jotai. Recoil. XState. Valtio. Context API. useState. useReducer. Each had passionate advocates. Detailed comparisons. Migration guides. Benchmark tests. By hour three, I was paralyzed. Which one was “right”? What if I chose wrong? What if I regretted it? I started with a simple problem: “I need to manage state in my app.” I ended with decision fatigue, imposter syndrome, and zero lines of code written. ...

I spent six months building a SaaS product that nobody wanted. The code was beautiful. The architecture was solid. I’d invested countless nights and weekends. I’d turned down freelance work to focus on it. I’d told everyone it was going to be “the one.” And the market response was… crickets. Any rational person would’ve shut it down and moved on. Instead, I spent another six months trying to “make it work.” I pivoted. I added features. I changed the pricing. I rewrote the landing page seventeen times. ...

I once watched a junior developer with three months of React experience tell a senior architect with 15 years of experience that “Redux is dead and anyone still using it doesn’t understand modern development.” The senior architect smiled politely and continued the code review. That junior developer was me. And I was living proof of the Dunning-Kruger Effect. If you’ve ever wondered why the least knowledgeable people often have the strongest opinions, or why beginners sometimes appear more confident than experts, you’re about to understand one of the most fascinating cognitive biases in psychology. ...