Develop a risk-taking attitude (without being dumb)
Every week we curate 3 ultra-focused ideas to reduce life complexity. On Saturday we share them with you via email.
Let’s start!
Risk Taking and It's Implications (Personal & Economic)
Decision-making (and life in general) is the realm of risk. You have to evaluate every situation with two parameters:
what's the chance of failure (a qualitative analysis),
how big will be the damage (a quantitative analysis).
And keep in mind that risk is always personal.
Driving a motorbike at super high speed is veeery dangerous for me. Not so much for a professional racer.
Living in constant fear of risks makes our lives useless. So we need to develop an attitude for risk-taking.
This means:
appreciate your own skills,
and think (think, think!) on what are your top values.
[Listen to the full content here: Risk Taking and It's Implications (Personal & Economic)]
Understanding Your Emotions
When you talk about decision-making, emotions seem the enemy. They look like the opposite of rationality. It's not true.
Emotions serve a purpose: they are your brain’s way of telling you something good or bad is happening in your life. They are feedback. Aaaaaand that’s about it. | Mark Manson
Using emotions as a reason for mindless actions is dangerous. Nonetheless, you need to understand them.
What good or bad situation caused a particular emotion? Do you deserve what's happening to you? What will maintain a good emotional state and overcome a bad one?
These questions are always necessary for a rational decision.
[Read the full content here:Â Understanding Your Emotions]
How to think better
The basics of thinking better are fairly simple. Mainly, they rely on creating healthy thinking habits that encourage us to always question our initial intuitions, to avoid shortcuts, and to consider the second-order consequences of our decisions. | Ness Labs
Thinking is a skill, and it's trainable like any other. How?
Analyze what goes on in your mind. Take notice on how you elaborate on thoughts and emotions. That's the first necessary step to improve the decision-making process.
When you register your thinking activity, cognitive biases are still there. Oversimplification is also there.
But you become better at recognizing those mistakes and preventing them.
[Read the full content here:Â How to think better]
Best book of the week (for me)
The Fifth Season, N.K. Jemison
Pros → It's an interesting fantasy allegory of our society. The protagonist is part of a group of people with an indispensable set of skills for humanity. The rest of the society takes advantage of them through violence.
Cons → The first 30-40% of the book is boring. (I've read this one in Italian. Maybe the translation made the beginning boring)
And you? Which book did you enjoy recently? Let us know. We are always on the lookout for exciting new titles.
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Thank you for reading this newsletter.
Now, I’m curious about you. What decisions are challenging you at the moment? What are the mental strategies that you find more helpful?
Write me back!
And don’t forget to share We Who Think with your smartest friends. Thank you!
Until next week,Â
Samuele
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Very interestin, thank you