Think Like a Freak:
• This book explores the concept of "thinking like a freak," which entails seeing the world through multiple lenses in order to arrive at creative solutions and ask the right questions.
• It encourages the reader to abandon traditional logic and think unconventionally.
• Break through mental barriers, challenge conventional wisdom and think differently in order to become more successful.
• Includes tips and tricks on how to become a better problem solver, decision maker and innovator.
• As a UX designer, you can benefit from this book by breaking out of your comfort zone, thinking more creatively and innovatively, and finding unique solutions for design challenges.
• Additional recommended reading for UX designers includes the books Never Split the Difference, The Design of Everyday Things, and Creative Confidence.
🎀 Highlights
Have you ever made a particular choice just because everyone around you seemed to support it?
We’re often restricted by conventional wisdom about how the world works.
In these blinks, you’ll learn to see the world as no one else does, and, in doing so, to find solutions that you would not have otherwise considered. In short, these blinks will show you how to think like a freak.
never depend on the predictions of an expert,
how the legalization of abortion in the 1970s led to a massive drop in crime in the 1990s.
When we try to solve problems, most of us are guided by conventional beliefs. However, there’s a problem with conventional beliefs: they’re often wrong.
Most people believe that consuming local food reduces environmental impact.
recent study found that this movement was actually counterproductive because the small farms it supports consume more energy for production, outweighing any positive effects of reduced transportation.
57 percent of the time they’ll jump to the kicker’s left side, and 41 percent to the right.
a kick “straight up the middle” is seven percent more likely to be successful than a kick to either corner.
you’re right-footed, as most players are, aiming towards the left will result in a stronger, more accurate kick.
If you’re right-footed, as most players are, aiming towards the left will result in a stronger, more accurate kick.
imagine how popular you’ll be when you tell a “locavore” friend that the local-food movement actually hurts the environment!
roughly 80 percent of people rated themselves as “above average”, even though – by definition – just 49.99 percent of them can be above-average drivers.
What have children learned from their parents? And, has an appetite for learning been established?
Yet because the media focuses on a single aspect of the problem – “what’s wrong with our schools” – we overlook the initial question: why do American kids usually know less than those from many other countries?
How? He redefined the problem – from “How can I eat more?” to “How do I make hotdogs easier to eat?” This
to invent new techniques, such as dunking the buns in water and eating them separately from the sausages, which turned out to be his key to success. "When you ask the question differently, you're able to look for answers in different places."
to invent new techniques, such as dunking the buns in water and eating them separately from the sausages, which turned out to be his key to success. "When
the increase in abortions in the 1970s resulted in fewer births of unwanted children, which in turn meant that fewer children were growing up in the kinds of difficult circumstances that often lead to criminality.
The reason is that poverty and famine are symptoms of another problem: the absence of a workable economy and credible political, social, and legal institutions.
“When it comes to generating ideas and asking questions, it can be very fruitful to have the mentality of an eight-year-old”.
the strongest incentive for people to save energy, participants were instructed to rate the relative influence of four factors on their decision to conserve energy.
most important factor was protection of the environment. The second most important factor was that energy conservation benefits society. The third factor was that it saves money.
How? By employing certain strategies, such as faking cruelty, you can make people reveal their true intentions.
The only way for them to be certain that a local promoter had read all of their instructions thoroughly was to check whether the bowl of M&M’s backstage included any brown ones. If it did, the rest of the equipment would need to be very carefully checked. The band understood that promoters driven by “easy money” would overlook the passage about the M&Ms, while those motivated by professionalism would not.
In the “Munchies” section of their rider, they requested M&M’s, with the proviso “WARNING: ABSOLUTELY NO BROWN ONES."
acknowledge that persuasion is difficult because people tend to ignore facts that don’t fit their worldview.
despite the fact that the vast majority of climate scientists believe that global warming will probably lead to worrisome changes for our environment, the American public is not very concerned.
Scientifically literate people were actually more likely to hold an extreme opinion – e.g., that climate change is extremely worrisome or totally insignificant.
What’s certain is that, in order to persuade someone, you’ll first have to get her to listen. This means respecting her point of view and then telling her a story. Since people tend to be overconfident in their own views and mistrust opposing ones, it’s best not to pretend that your argument is watertight. Instead, acknowledge the strengths of your opponent’s argument and explain how you still arrived at the opposite point of view.
One popular mantra that is actually bad advice: a
One popular mantra that is actually bad advice: a winner never quits, and a quitter never wins.
there are already enough forces which bias us against quitting.
Firstly, social pressure: we have been taught that quitting is a weak thing to do. Secondly, sunk costs: the more we
Firstly, social pressure: we have been taught that quitting is a weak thing to do. Secondly, sunk costs: the more we invest in something, the more reluctant we are to quit.
the “Concorde Fallacy,” after the supersonic airplane. Everyone involved knew that the project wasn’t economically viable, but hesitated to quit because they’d already invested so much money.
lost a lot more money than they would have had they quit sooner.
engaging in one thing, we also forgo the opportunity to do something else.
by engaging in one thing, we also forgo the opportunity to do something else.
Surprisingly, two major decisions to quit left people happier: breaking up with one’s partner and quitting one’s job. Of course, this doesn’t mean that people would be better off quitting more jobs or relationships, but there’s nothing in the data to suggest that quitting leads to misery either.
Conventional wisdom is often wrong, and challenging popular dogmas can give you a better understanding of how things
Conventional wisdom is often wrong, and challenging popular dogmas can give you a better understanding of how things work.
Have you ever made a particular choice just because everyone around you seemed to support it?
We’re often restricted by conventional wisdom about how the world works.
In these blinks, you’ll learn to see the world as no one else does, and, in doing so, to find solutions that you would not have otherwise considered. In short, these blinks will show you how to think like a freak.
Find geniuses with feaky unconvenriolnl ideas
never depend on the predictions of an expert,
how the legalization of abortion in the 1970s led to a massive drop in crime in the 1990s.
When we try to solve problems, most of us are guided by conventional beliefs. However, there’s a problem with conventional beliefs: they’re often wrong.
Most people believe that consuming local food reduces environmental impact.
recent study found that this movement was actually counterproductive because the small farms it supports consume more energy for production, outweighing any positive effects of reduced transportation.
57 percent of the time they’ll jump to the kicker’s left side, and 41 percent to the right.
a kick “straight up the middle” is seven percent more likely to be successful than a kick to either corner.
you’re right-footed, as most players are, aiming towards the left will result in a stronger, more accurate kick.
If you’re right-footed, as most players are, aiming towards the left will result in a stronger, more accurate kick.
imagine how popular you’ll be when you tell a “locavore” friend that the local-food movement actually hurts the environment!
roughly 80 percent of people rated themselves as “above average”, even though – by definition – just 49.99 percent of them can be above-average drivers.
What have children learned from their parents? And, has an appetite for learning been established?
Yet because the media focuses on a single aspect of the problem – “what’s wrong with our schools” – we overlook the initial question: why do American kids usually know less than those from many other countries?
How? He redefined the problem – from “How can I eat more?” to “How do I make hotdogs easier to eat?” This
to invent new techniques, such as dunking the buns in water and eating them separately from the sausages, which turned out to be his key to success. "When you ask the question differently, you're able to look for answers in different places."
to invent new techniques, such as dunking the buns in water and eating them separately from the sausages, which turned out to be his key to success. "When
the increase in abortions in the 1970s resulted in fewer births of unwanted children, which in turn meant that fewer children were growing up in the kinds of difficult circumstances that often lead to criminality.
The reason is that poverty and famine are symptoms of another problem: the absence of a workable economy and credible political, social, and legal institutions.
“When it comes to generating ideas and asking questions, it can be very fruitful to have the mentality of an eight-year-old”.
the strongest incentive for people to save energy, participants were instructed to rate the relative influence of four factors on their decision to conserve energy.
most important factor was protection of the environment. The second most important factor was that energy conservation benefits society. The third factor was that it saves money.
How? By employing certain strategies, such as faking cruelty, you can make people reveal their true intentions.
The only way for them to be certain that a local promoter had read all of their instructions thoroughly was to check whether the bowl of M&M’s backstage included any brown ones. If it did, the rest of the equipment would need to be very carefully checked. The band understood that promoters driven by “easy money” would overlook the passage about the M&Ms, while those motivated by professionalism would not.
In the “Munchies” section of their rider, they requested M&M’s, with the proviso “WARNING: ABSOLUTELY NO BROWN ONES."
acknowledge that persuasion is difficult because people tend to ignore facts that don’t fit their worldview.
despite the fact that the vast majority of climate scientists believe that global warming will probably lead to worrisome changes for our environment, the American public is not very concerned.
Scientifically literate people were actually more likely to hold an extreme opinion – e.g., that climate change is extremely worrisome or totally insignificant.
What’s certain is that, in order to persuade someone, you’ll first have to get her to listen. This means respecting her point of view and then telling her a story. Since people tend to be overconfident in their own views and mistrust opposing ones, it’s best not to pretend that your argument is watertight. Instead, acknowledge the strengths of your opponent’s argument and explain how you still arrived at the opposite point of view.
One popular mantra that is actually bad advice: a
One popular mantra that is actually bad advice: a winner never quits, and a quitter never wins.
there are already enough forces which bias us against quitting.
Firstly, social pressure: we have been taught that quitting is a weak thing to do. Secondly, sunk costs: the more we
Firstly, social pressure: we have been taught that quitting is a weak thing to do. Secondly, sunk costs: the more we invest in something, the more reluctant we are to quit.
the “Concorde Fallacy,” after the supersonic airplane. Everyone involved knew that the project wasn’t economically viable, but hesitated to quit because they’d already invested so much money.
lost a lot more money than they would have had they quit sooner.
engaging in one thing, we also forgo the opportunity to do something else.
by engaging in one thing, we also forgo the opportunity to do something else.
Surprisingly, two major decisions to quit left people happier: breaking up with one’s partner and quitting one’s job. Of course, this doesn’t mean that people would be better off quitting more jobs or relationships, but there’s nothing in the data to suggest that quitting leads to misery either.
Conventional wisdom is often wrong, and challenging popular dogmas can give you a better understanding of how things
Conventional wisdom is often wrong, and challenging popular dogmas can give you a better understanding of how things work.
