Our brains actively construct a model of the world, which is our actual experience. Incoming sensory data serves mainly to verify and correct this internal model.
— Danny Penman“I'd been a patsy all my life, an easy mark for the appeals of fundraisers or sales operators who would come to my door. I'd end up with unwanted magazine subscriptions… There must be something other than the features of the offer that got me to say yes, because I don't want those features, it must be the way the offer was presented to me.”— Robert Cialdini
Influence & Persuasion Expert; Author of "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
The quote archive
Wisdom in fragments
A growing archive of 3,000+ moments, drawn from every interview.
However, if the supply is infinite, (that's true of emails), then you're never actually going to get that position of mastery over time. What's going to happen is that you just get busier and busier and move faster and faster!
— Oliver BurkemanGuardian columnist & author on psychology, time management, and happiness
The idea of time as something distinct from us, which we are then having to fight and struggle with all the time would simply not have existed to the mediaeval English peasant, who would have existed much more in what anthropologists call 'task orientation'.
— Oliver BurkemanGuardian columnist & author on psychology, time management, and happiness
What's going to happen is that you just get busier and busier and move faster and faster! We treat productivity tools as if they're going to lead to our salvation, they're absolutely not going to.
— Oliver BurkemanGuardian columnist & author on psychology, time management, and happiness
The efficiency trap is very modern, but it's now become a holdover from the Industrial Revolution. If you only relate to time, as if it were a certain kind of 'thing', like a natural resource… something that you could maximise, then you're going to be in a perpetual state of psychological struggle because you won't be using the right conceptual tools to live in time.
— Oliver BurkemanGuardian columnist & author on psychology, time management, and happiness
The most critical element is the cultural integration. The distinct cultures of the two companies present a significant challenge, consuming 80-90% of our efforts. Our goal is to forge a unified team culture, permeating from senior leadership to the deepest levels.
— Abhijit DubeyIt's crucial to adopt a bold mindset right from the start. I advocate for setting almost unrealistic targets. If we only aim for realistic targets, our efforts will be limited to minor tweaks rather than significant transformations.
— Abhijit DubeyIn my role, I assess new investments and innovations not just through financial lenses but also considering their societal and environmental impacts. This broader perspective is a key difference from the shareholder-centric approach.
— Abhijit DubeyWestern management styles and Eastern management philosophies are not mutually exclusive. In fact, blending the best elements of each can be highly effective. It's not about choosing one philosophy over the other. It's about selecting and integrating the best aspects of both to enhance how you run a business.
— Abhijit DubeyThere's an entirely different category of knowledge, the utility of which isn't immediately apparent. This category is equally, if not more, crucial, especially for those aspiring to make creative or innovative strides.
— Malcolm GladwellAuthor of "The Tipping Point" & Popular Cultural Theorist
An uneducated unconscious is a perilous entity. The intuition of a seasoned doctor with 30 years spent diagnosing ailments is immensely beneficial. Conversely, the intuition of a teenager is not only unfruitful, but potentially hazardous.
— Malcolm GladwellAuthor of "The Tipping Point" & Popular Cultural Theorist
There's compelling evidence to suggest that the current mental health crisis among the youth may, to some extent, stem from individuals who haven't had the chance to navigate smaller tribulations and are consequently overwhelmed when faced with significant challenges.
— Malcolm GladwellAuthor of "The Tipping Point" & Popular Cultural Theorist
It's the disadvantages that offer a more fertile ground for learning, albeit for a smaller cohort. The depth of learning and engagement derived from tackling difficulties is substantially richer compared to that gleaned from facing advantages.
— Malcolm GladwellAuthor of "The Tipping Point" & Popular Cultural Theorist
When you engage with highly successful individuals who are open and honest about their journeys, it's invariably surprising to learn how much they attribute their achievements to good luck and favourable circumstances.
— Malcolm GladwellAuthor of "The Tipping Point" & Popular Cultural Theorist
Consider a car with malfunctioning brakes; it's unsafe to let it on the street, as it could cause harm. You'd need to confine it, but you wouldn't punish it or moralize its malfunction. Instead, you'd seek to understand why its brakes failed.
— Robert SapolskyNeuroscientist & primatologist known for stress research and public engagement
We must start by eliminating a culture that falsely implies the existence of agency where there is none and condones differential treatment of individuals based on a misguided notion of self-control.
— Robert SapolskyNeuroscientist & primatologist known for stress research and public engagement