These laws were identified and developed by Carlo M. Cipolla who was Professor of Economics at UC Berkeley up his death in the year 2000. The full description and implication of these 5 basic laws can be read in his article The 5 Basic Laws of Human Stupidity The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity. Law 1: Underestimation Always and … Read more
There are two types of ignorance: Deliberate Ignorance and Understandable Ignorance. Understandable Ignorance A non-financial expert is not expected to know how to calculate discounted cash flow valuations for publicly listed firms. A European is not expected to know how baseball scoring works. A non-programmer is not expected to understand the syntax of C++ or php … Read more
I read an interview with Kathy Button Bell in the NY Times yesterday. She is Chief Marketing Officer at Emerson. She talks about being coached by the U.S. Olympic Lacrosse coach during her time at Princeton: Kind and Tough, How a Boss should be“She just knew how to inspire you to do more. The thing … Read more
We would achieve much more if we got out of our own way. The difference between the top athletes and the rest is not better physical ability, but an ability to avoid talking themselves into failure at the key moments. Performance = Potential – Self-Sabotage I remember Peter Allis commenting on golf years ago. A … Read more
Fear of Failure Clinging to one’s comfort zone Arrogance Defensiveness Impatience Rigid mindset Lack of perspective From Pablo Cardona and Helen Wilkinson’s book “Growing as a Leader“. Have a great weekend.
This week we decided where my daughter will go to school – potentially for the next 15 years. I have spent a lot of time thinking about what criteria are important in selecting a school and this blog is a summary of 3-4 months of that reflection. To Prepare One for Living How do you … Read more