Psychology on Basil Labib

Freakonomics: Should you read it?

gs454236@gmail.com (Basil Labib) — Sun, 25 Jul 2021 11:14:14 +0530

“Why do drug-dealers still live with their mothers?”
“Are Sumo wrestlers corrupt?”
“Legalized abortion led to decreasing crime rates”
“Are real-estate agents really acting in your best interest?”
“Does a child’s name have any effect on their lives?”
“Do parents really matter?”
“Are swimming pools more dangerous for kids than guns?”
“Why should teachers cheat?”

Freakonomics is a study of bizarre, mundane and exceedingly interesting questions. It employs the arsenal of mathematical sophistication to unearth truths and secrets that are hidden from plain sight. Written by an uncanny duo, Steven D. Levitt (the economist) and Stephen J. Dubner (the journalist) as part of an unexpected collaboration.

Our world is so bafflingly connected and complex, it takes sheer effort to identify correlation ( When two variables are connected), indicators (When one variable indicate an information about another) and causality (When one is really the cause of another).

The book warns that if morality dictates what people should do, then economics tells us what they really do. And no wonder, Levitt, a co-author, is a curious economist – a breed of closed-society intellegentsia who are trained to worship rationality over morality, prudence over emotions and numbers over talks because people may lie, numbers don’t.

Yes, Levitt is all that but more. He asks a lot of questions. His questions are a strange assortment of irrelevant (apparently) and outrageous. He had his share of unpleasantness and scorn because after all, even Levitt knows the bell curve of human intellectual distribution.

In a world dominated by people who loves to take sides, Levitt offers the rare third person perspective standing on a pedestal and presenting the true states of affairs. The book doesn’t build on any underlying theme – and perhaps that is the appeal. During an interview, someone asked Levitt “What is the unifying theme of your works?”. He was offered an answer by philosopher Robert Nozick,

“He’s twenty-six years old. Why does he need to have a unifying theme? Maybe he’s going to be one of those people who’s so talented he doesn’t need one. He’ll take a question and he’ll just answer it, and it’ll be fine.”

My thoughts on morality:

People tend to be good, generally. But only if their goodness is recognized and rewarded. If there is a bigger incentive for them to cheat or be bad and/or be assured they won’t be held accountable, they will become bad. There are always outliers, like in any discussion on economics. That is, people who are good just because that’s what they are.

In conclusion

Economics, at its barest, is understanding how people get what they want or need. Incentives strongly dictate human behavior (moral? eh, that’s debatable). Conventional wisdom is more often wrong than right. Measurement of data and its interpretation is essential.

I personally enjoyed reading this book.

Notes: Habits by James Clear

gs454236@gmail.com (Basil Labib) — Fri, 26 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

My Notes

Introduction

Majority fail in making habits because they try to make changes the wrong way.
It is easy to get obssessed with the result.
Never overestimate the importance of one defining moment and underestimate the value of making better decisions on a daily basis.
Don’t focus on the destination. Focus on the path.

Habits

Pattern of every habit:
- Reminder ( trigger )
- Routine ( the action itself )
- Reward ( the benefit )
A good reminder makes it easier for you to start your habit by encoding your new behavior in something that you already do, rather than relying on getting motivated.
Set a visible reminder and link your new habit with your current behavior.
Reminders are specific to you and your habit.
Things that you do everyday without fail, even unconsciously.
“Make it so easy you can’t say no” - Leo Babauta
start small
consistency is key
Reward yourself, atleast with positive self-talk.
Make habits that are important to you, not what you are told.

New Identity

visualize yourself being the better you.
Grow more confident in your new identity by getting approval from others.
All your actions is a reflection of who you think you are. Change your image and you change your habits.

Motivation is unreliable

Define life-goals := tiny, daily behaviors that are repeated until success becomes inevitable.
“Plant the right seed in the right spot, it will grow without further coaxing…”
“Focusing on motivation as the key to habits is exactly wrong…”
“Pick the right small behavior and sequence it right.”
Don’t dive into the deep end and drown as the initial impetus fades.
Dream big, but start small.

Just Do it

The problem: We set deadlines, not schedules.
If we don’t achieve, we feel like failure - even if we improved.
It’s not about always doing your best work, it’s about doing the best you can on a consistent basis.
Stop focusing on result. Focus on consistency.
Don’t refrain when the Muse sings to you. But don’t rely on them.
The focus is on doing the action, not achieving X goal by a certain date.

Keystone Habits

A keystone habit is a behavior that naturally pulls the rest of your life in order.
Eg: Fitness, Work out, morning run, daily meditation.

Get back on track (quickly)

Best strategy isn’t to avoid failure, it’s to plan for it.
Must have a plan to get back on track before you get off track.
Be specific about your habits. When, where, exactly how are you doing to do it?
Stick to your schedule, even in small ways.
This will prove to yourself that you can achieve even when the circumstances are not favorable.
Have a person as an incentive.
Design your environment for success.

Overcome Bad Habits ASAP

Bad habits are a way of dealing with stress and boredom.
Bad habits can’t be eliminated. They must be replaced.
Choose a substitute that provides a similar benefit.
Cut out as many triggers as possible.
Join forces with somebody.
Visualize yourself succeeding.
You lived without the bad habit before. If you could then, then you certainly can now.
Be aware of your bad habits.
It takes perseverance but it isn’t impossible.

Conclusion

Knowledge is useless without action.

Footnotes

This post is a condensed form of the most essential ideas from the book “Transform Your Habits” by James Clear . My objective has been to ensure that a single read through this post will revive all the keystone ideas in the book, thus optimizing the time for reading yet another book.

My intention has been to propogate productivity. All copyright belongs to the owner and I hope he will understand the good nature of the work presented here.

As always, suggestions are welcome.

To infinity and beyond.

Specialisation

gs454236@gmail.com (Basil Labib) — Mon, 22 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

What is this about?

So, here’s the thing, imagine the following situation:

You are the manager of a team of experts (say successful authors, famous musicians, legendary programmers etc) who are proficient in a field you know nothing about and are responsible for building a product/service/solution (you will be surprised to realize how prevalent this is in modern production chains).

You have no idea if the person does his[1] job optimally or at his best potential. You only see the end result and “declare” it as state of the art simply for lack of a better alternative.

The problem, of course, is the fact that the specialised group of people being small in number and having no competition, have no compulsion to actually work. Just the signal that they are working is enough though it is at the cost of quality and undermining of the society.

The problem is especially daunting if that job happens to be critical, eg: operating system design or military embedded software (These examples are not exhaustive but merely the first ones to come in my mind) for in this case, the peril is due on the people who consumes that product. No wonder we have had many such instances of loss and destruction which probably isn’t even recorded.

I pursue the point that it must be true simply because of the sheer vulnerability it exposes us to and for the utter fallible nature of the so-called “experts”, humans in general.

But why do people behave this way?

People behave this way because it is human nature.

An obvious step to solve this problem might be to verse ourselves in the craft. This definitely is a solution but alas suffers from two shortcomings:

The entry point to achieve that level of expertise will consume the undertaker’s lifetime (or a significant portion of it) because simply of the sheer volume of content that we have generated and the inherent limitations of the human mind to comprehend and assimilate knowledge.
Exactly because of the first point, by the time you become an expert, the investment in terms of time and energy (and perhaps wealth) that you have garnered becomes a priority and there is nothing to stop you to follow the path of your peers and simply signal the achievement of optimality though it seldom is true.

And we are back at where we started from.

The Principal-Agent Problem

Ok, so without knowing what it was called, I stumbled upon the idea of the principal-agent problem . I got to know what it’s called in Naval’s Almanack .

Isn’t it truly amazing how idea is so decoupled with language? Of course, it has to be because ideas are created (discovered?) first and then named for future reference. Now, this is a really powerful idea and I’ll save it for another post.

I’ll keep my title though. :)

In conclusion

We have come full circle around this vicious, fundamental and omnipresent cycle that is simply a dangerous byproduct of what we are capable of. I wanted to point out this specifically for two reasons,

It impacts everyone of us in deeper ways than we imagine.
I am trying to curate good mental models and build a viable structure of ideas.

So, whenever you go out, keep an eye for these cycles and hopefully these words will assist you then.

Footnotes

[1] - I seek your pardon but I find it extremely uncomfortable with the awkward he/she, his/her and all the nonsense that I find spewed almost everywhere nowadays. I will randomly select a pronoun (with a probability of 50%) and let it be my subject for that thought process. It, of course, doesn’t diminish the efficacy of these words for the other genders.

On a second thought, I thought using the more neutral ‘it’ but refused as it felt too mechanical and gave me the feeling that I was talking to machine with many cogwheels and eyes as red as T800. It’s bad English works this way and I hope they will come up with something more suitable.

Logs

Jan 30, 2021 - First draft written.
Feb 22, 2021 - Edited and added a bit more material.

Systems and Everything Else

gs454236@gmail.com (Basil Labib) — Wed, 17 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

This is probably the best life skill I have come across in a while that I wish to talk about.

What is this post about?

Have you struggled to find a bearing in the world? With so much information and activity to process, does it make your mind feel despaired? Have you endeavored (tried?) to find a list of fundamental principles to live by? Everyone has a core belief through which stems (either consciously or unconsciouly) all of their thoughts and actions. But I disgress, this is for another time.

Sure there are! You can find them in the works of Charles Munger, Naval Ravikant, Steve Jobs and so on. Today, there is not a scarcity of books that confidently lays down lists of dos and donts to ensure success. I don’t intend to question there effifacy here (or now).

I have wondered if there was not a list but a single guiding principle. An idea that encompasses every other great/remarkable/(insert your adjective) idea. Wouldn’t it be truly amazing?

This post is my attempt to introduce that idea.

Fact: Words are imperfect and language isn’t competent enough to communicate our thoughts correctly. Proceed with caution.

TLDR

Learn to see systems underneath.

What are Systems?

Have you been to the movies? Have to listened to a catchy pop or a classical album? Have you read stories that left you in awe? Or the classics?

Never done these things? Alright, have you been to the supermarket? Or the spa? Or the gaming club? Or to silly little school? Have you talked to your parents? Or interacted with any other human being?

Well, if you have done any of these things, you have experience what a system is though you haven’t known what it is.

Systems are everywhere, hidden in plain sight. The ones who exploit them reap the benefits.

For a really lean specific example, I am thinking right now of the system I am in with you, the reader. You are an audience unscathed by this new idea and are perhaps reading this article to gain new insights (or the title was intriguing enough?) My aim here is to write sufficiently well to get the idea across. And for that, I must put myself in your shoes and resonate with a woman who has never had a whiff of this idea. What will happen then, you might ask? By doing so, I’ll be a good teacher.

It is not straightforward to look at things presented to you superficially and immediately observe the system working underneath. Yes, granted the idea is kind of vague but abstractions are good. Look at computers.

The why and the how

Most people when confronted with a new idea/theory/person tends to ask questions from the “what” spectrum. But I think it will be more fruitful to start your analysis by asking the “how” and more imporntantly the “why” questions.

Gmail

The Gmail service of Google is almost ubiquitous. I look around and almost everyone is armed with one. But why is Google giving away free email accounts? With such a nice UI and the syncing and the security? It surely costs money to host our accounts. Think about it. We are still paying. Not in terms of cash or credit but hidden from plain sight. Have you noticed ads popping up with content (rather surprisingly) coherent with the last email conversation you had with your sister? Well, now you know the answer.

This was just a concrete and rather crude example of how systems thinking and poking for the why can lead to insightful results, often shocking even you.

Pop songs

Have you listened to any of The Beatles songs? Or ABBA or Adele or Taylor Swift? (Choose your era). Why were those songs such a rage? Asking yourself why they wrote the lyrics they did and why they sang it the way they did will lead to new insights. What was going on in their minds? I hear you protesting “but I don’t have a singer’s voice”. In that case, you have missed the point.

Of writers and words

How do writers write such enthralling stories, weaving such intricate worlds and drawing us into them? What is so great about Shakespeare or “The Catcher in the Rye”? Don’t emphasize on the end result but focus on the path to the end result. Then, practise that path to convince yourself you know it and most importantly, don’t walk it. Then you will have developed taste.

Why me?

Never be convinced with what people offer you. Ask why are they offering that and why to you? It will soon become apparent. If you are struggling to decide on a choice, ask what systems are at work and how they interplay. This will lead you to make more valuable decisions in life.

So, What Do I Take Home?

I quote Neil Kakkar from this post (which you should check out too),

There’s two kinds of people.
Bob, who will see this list, find some skills very interesting, and then go about honing those skills.
Alice, who will see this list, and wonder how I came up with these. Alice would then try to understand the system that generated these ideas. Then, she’ll adopt the system, and come up with skills possibly more relevant to herself.
Having the option to do both is powerful. Since Bob is the default, learn to be like Alice. Choose systems when things are important to you.

Don’t listen to anything I said here. Look at the system that led me to these ideas and exploit the system. Then you’ll have followed what I said. :)