What are some cool psychologicalhacks?

JoeCason, Entrepreneur, Musician, Smoothie Drinker

Dr. Barry Schwartz calls it theparadox of choice.

Instead of reading his 304 pagebook, I can simplify what it means in on paragraph without going into greatdetail on why it is true.

Basically, less is more. The morechoices you have, the more unhappy you are with the final outcome. Lets say youhave three choices to buy a new pair of headphones. You buy one of them. Youare unhappy-ish and thinking about what it would have been like to own one ofthe other pairs. However, if someone gives you a pair for your birthday, youonly had one choice. Therefore, you are happier.

So here is how it can be a hack:

In business, give your customersonly one choice and they will be happier. When going on a date, give your dateonly one choice on where to go and she will be happier. Whenever you are buyingsomething new, give yourself only one choice and you will be happier.

I just did this with a newguitar. Instead of going through all of the choices, I had a friend recommendone to me and I didn't even look at other brands.

Less is more. The more choicesyou have, the more likely you will be unhappy with whatever you pick.

What are the disadvantages of beingsmart?

BillWhite, I am a computer programmer, mostly concentrating in languagedesign and imple...

Ingraduate school, my advisor was a very smart guy.  The rumor was that hegot his undergraduate degree from MIT at 14 or so, and his Ph.D. before he was21.  He was the nicest guy you would ever want to meet, and he reallytried to do excellent teaching excellently.  But he didn't know how whatit was like to not understand something.  When I couldn't figure outsomething complicated instantly, he was unable to proceed.  It wasn't thathe was impatient or frustrated, he was just non-plussed.

I think that's the most important problem.  Notunderstanding other people.  But one doesn't have to be smart to get afeeling for this.   Everybody is smarter than somebody else in someway.  I know more about C++ than many people, less about Erlang and evenless about musical counterpoint.  When I talk to people about C++, I'm thesmart one.  When I talk about music I'm the ignoramus.  The same isprobably true for you.  So, figure out where you are the smart one, andsee what disadvantages there are talking to other people.

Why do most people not understandintroverts?

BryanKautzman

https://www.quora.com/Why-do-most-people-not-understand-introverts

What are the things that peoplemost often don't notice about themselves?

Dushka Zapata, Theinsides of my brain are noisy and architectural.

We all - every one of us -exhibit patterns of behavior that are obvious to everyone but that we ourselvescannot see.

We will deny that they exist.

These are our "blindspots". Carl Jung calls them our "shadow".

Have you ever noticed how you areoften involved in situations that are similar across different aspects of yourlife?

Why does everyone leave me?

Or how you have the exact samefight with different people in different relationships?

Have you ever said - or heard afriend say - things like "why does every person I date end upcheating on me?" or "why does everyone betrayme?" or "why doesn't anyone understand me?" or "whydo I always end up in long distance relationships?"

These are all the consequence ofour blind spots.

"Untilyou make the unconscious conscious" saidJung "it will direct your life, and you will call it fate".

Where does the depiction ofsnipers in films and video games wearing baseball caps come from? Wouldn't theywear helmets in real life?

Timothy A. Parkhurst, Retired25-year Marine with service as Scout-Sniper and Parachute Rigger

Ok, so it looks like I’m the onlyactual military sniper providing an answer here. I served as a Marine ScoutSniper for some years, so I think I can provide some truth on this. So far,none of the answers are really correct.

The short answer is yes, theysometimes wear ball caps in certain situations. The other answer is that, yes,they also wear helmets in lots of other situations.

First of all, not all militarysnipers wear ball caps at all. Ball caps being worn in combat zones at allreally comes out of the special operations community at large, not specificallythe sniper community. And that’s mainly because, when engaged in ForeignInternal Defense (FID) or nation building and other unconventional operations,there sometimes isn’t a great need for body armor,including helmets. Ball caps are worn because they’re 1) comfortable, 2)non-threatening to the locals (think winning hearts and minds), 3) they’reuniquely American and guys just like them and, finally, 4) special operationssoldiers and Marines often get away with wearing non-uniform items.

As for the headwear of snipers,just like any combat soldier or Marine, they’ll wear what the mission dictates.If I’m stalking a target through the jungle or forest at close range, I’lllikely be wearing my boonie hat. If I’m working in a static urban position,I’ll probably have my helmet close at hand, although I may not wear it all thetime.

I seriously take issue with Steven Schukert’scomment that “a sniper isn't usually in the heat of the combat zone they don'tneed shrapnel protection”. That’s crap. Most military snipers work with riflesthat are accurate between 800 and 1000 yards. To engage the enemy with directfire at those ranges puts the sniper well within the range of nearly everyother weapon the enemy has, except the standard battle rifle or handgun. Thatmeans machineguns, mortars, rockets, tanks, and every other heavy weapon. Italso means that the enemy doesn’t have to cross too much terrain to get to thesniper.

That’swhy Marine Scout Snipers place such emphasis on stalking and concealmenttraining. If they can’t see me, they don’t know where to shoot or send apatrol. But that doesn’t mean for a second that the sniper isn’t in the thickof it.

What question can you ask someone that will spark deep, interesting conversation

Franklin Veaux

Here’s a good one that can start an interesting conversation and reveal quite a bit about someone. I've asked many people this question.

You have a partner (a boyfriend, girlfriend, spouse, whatever) you live with. One day you come home to find your partner’s car in the driveway, the doors open, the engine running. There's no sign of your partner anywhere. You try to call them: no answer.

A day goes by. Still no trace of your partner, calls are not answered, nobody’s seen them. Nothing. Two days go by. Three days go by. A week goes by. Nothing.

Then one evening you get a phone call. You pick up the phone and it's your partner. Before you can say a word, they say “I don't have time to explain, get out of the house right now.” What do you do?

Jay Bazzinotti

When Napoleon took power he was disgusted by the sight of his soldiers wiping their noses on their sleeves. To prevent this he had the uniforms made with hard metal buttons sewn on the sleeves. Today men’s suits still have buttons sown on the sleeve. Sometimes that have actual button holes but they are never meant to be unbuttoned. Some people say the buttons were functional at one time so that suit jacket sleeves could be rolled up to do work as well. But we don’t do that either anymore.

Another common thing that has passed from history is the “proof content” on liquor bottles. Most people know that 100 proof booze is 50 percent alcohol. This goes back to the time in old England when it was decided to tax liquor. To prove the liquor content the booze was mixed with gunpowder and burned. If it burned with a steady blue flame it was at least 50 percent alcohol, therefore 50 percent alcohol was 100 percent proved.

Matt Mickiewicz

The key to any successful negotiation is leverage, and the willingness to walk away.

The best way to get leverage, is to do parallel interviews with multiple companies at the same time, and structure the interview rounds to maximize the possibility of 2 or more paper offers being received at (roughly) the same time.

In terms of common mistakes, don’t base your salary request off of what they are currently earning instead of the market value for their skillset. If you were being underpaid before, this approach will perpetuate your wage gap.

Use objective, third party resources that take years of experience, company size and geographic location into account to come up with your numbers. For example, Payscale offers free salary surveys for people looking to get a new job or negotiate their current salary.

Hired also offers several resources to educate job seekers on the market rate for their skills, like our salary calculator and State of Salaries report, which looks at average software engineering salaries in tech hubs across the U.S.

Finally, don’t forget you can negotiate much more than just your base salary. For example, if you’re a sales person you might negotiate of a higher-tiered commission or bonus if you reach a certain success threshold. You can also negotiate paid time off, cell phone/commute subsidies, or flexibility to work from home a few days a week if that’s important to you.

Camille Miller

My son cannot lie. He is also a genius, with a very high IQ.

He has autism, and as a result he has great difficulty lying. One of the effects of autism is that the affected individual simply cannot imagine a reality differently than it is.

Example: At 2 years old I picked up a banana and held it to my ear, saying, "Ring ring! Who is it? Hello?" as if it were a telephone. He lost it and started screaming. Why? Because he knew the banana was a BANANA, and not a telephone. Not only could he not comprehend the alternative reality - it was actually upsetting to him!

Learning to pretend, make believe, or imagine an alternative reality has been a great challenge for him. Lying is arguably the greatest game of make believe possible (often with negative consequences), because you have to convince not only yourself, but others as well, of a different reality. And he just can't do it.

Now that you understand why he has difficulty lying, let me tell you about his intelligence.

I hesitate to say how high his IQ is because people are competitive and mean and I don't want a debate, but it is high. MUCH higher than mine. He tests out of subjects in school, and amazes people with his abilities regularly. He is ten years old.

He has been amazing since birth, but people really began noticing it at 3 years old, when he was able to construct block towers that shouldn't have been able to stand - but they did! He could pull a melody apart and put it back together in another key before he was six. He can actually hear fish eating, and picks up on other sounds happening outside of a regular sensory range. Think Einstein, Mozart, Newton - that's his kind of company. DaVinci & Beethoven are his heroes.

Though my son has many social weaknesses (like the inability to pretend/lie), he has a truly astounding intellect. So no, I don't believe honesty and intelligence are related.

How can you tell when someone isfaking confidence?

AngieNeik

How can you tellwhen someone is faking confidence?

Quite easilyactually.

When someonefakes confidence, it is going to show itself as

ARROGANCE.

The person isgoing to overcompensate for their lack of confidence big time, and so will:

·       brag about himself

·       in a poor attempt of false humility, isgoing to have others brag about his accolades (a rehearsed action)

·       display larger than life body language,taking up more personal space than necessary

·       laugh nervously to cover up forinsecurity

·       put others down

·       humiliate others

·       talk badly about others

·       be louder than necessary

·        create arguments for the sake of arguing