Behavioral Science – Policy Wise

How to get things right?

Checklists seem able to defend anyone, even the experienced against failure in many more tasks than we realized. They provide a kind of cognitive net. They catch mental flaws inherent in all of us-flaws of memory, attention and thoroughness.”
Excerpt from the Book

It’s been more than two years since I started making a to-do list every day. And I am still doing it. It not only helped me plan my day but also made me efficient. The question here is whether a simple to-do list would be really helpful in getting things right. The book I am going to discuss says so. In fact, I was a little skeptical, thinking that it’s more than obvious that a to-do list works; why would someone write a book on it? But this book really makes sense by taking the reader through the evolution of checklists.

To err is to be human. We have all heard this multiple times. In fact, it has been estimated that one of the greatest contributors to accidents is human error in any industry. Perrow found that, on average, 60–80 percent of accidents involve human error. Errors in some fields can be overlooked but not every profession can take the risk of even making a tiny error or overlooking the smallest step. Because a small error in the medical field will cost someone their life. In today’s newspaper, I saw this story where a woman was given blood from the wrong group, leading to the deterioration of her health. How grave is this error? There can never be any justification for it. A small error led to the failure of India’s Chandrayan-2 mission, as we all remember.

Do we know how we can make things right? Do we have the capability and capacity to make things right all the time? How do we deal with extreme complexity of the modern world? Why do we make small errors, and how can we avoid them? Is it possible to be 100% accurate?

Atul Gwanade, a professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School, suggests in his book titled ‘The Checklist Manifesto’ the simplest solution anyone can think of. A checklist can help us manage the extreme complexity of the modern world. A detailed checklist acts as protection against the failure of the human mind, memory, and attention. It increases the success rate. According to him, failure results not so much from ignorance (not knowing enough about what works) as from ineptitude (not properly applying what we know works). That’s where a simple checklist comes into picture.

So, the important question we need to ask here is : why should a common person be aware of this method of checklist? It’s because this is not only useful in the medical field but also in other activities that are sometimes mundane and repetitive but also crucial not to be overlooked. The author provides examples of checklist successes in other diverse fields, such as aviation, investment banking, skyscraper construction, and businesses of all kinds.

The author differentiates between good and bad checklists too.

The author mentions three characteristics that are part of the code of conduct of any profession, the expectation of selflessness, skill and trust-worthiness along with discipline. Discipline is the hardest to develop because human beings are by nature flawed and inconstant creatures. And checklists can help inculcating discipline in the people, adds Gawande.

In the end, he also urges the users to keep refining these checklists to make them work as per changing circumstances and time.

In an age of unremitting technological complexity, where the most basic steps are too easy to overlook and where overlooking even one step can have irremediable consequences, something as primitive as writing down a to-do list to “get the stupid stuff right” can make a profound difference.

Do you create a checklist for anything in your personal or professional life? If yes, do let me know in the comment box. Also, if you liked reading this post and gained something from it, please buy me a coffee by clicking the link below:

The Power of Influence!

How people’s innocent and careless statements or compliments actually have a huge influence on them. Sometimes it makes someone’s day. Other days, people feel miserable for months because of someone’s insensitive remarks. I remember this incident when one of my bosses told me that he doesn’t believe in working from home (WFH). He added that people don’t work when they are working from home. He said this in a lighter tone and with confidence as if his statement had no meaning or weight. However, he didn’t realise how much weight his every statement has on people working under him because of his power and position. By saying what he said, he invalidated all the work done by people from home.

The book “You have more influence than you think: How we underestimate our power of persuasion and why it matters” by Vanessa Bohns provides science-based strategies for observing the effect we have on others, reconsidering our fear of rejection, and understanding how we can use our influence. Vanessa is a professor of organizational behaviour at Cornell University.

The book talks about the idea of influence and persuasion and explains how the meaning of your words changes based on the context and power you hold in society. Have you ever noticed why an insensitive remark by a politician or leader creates so much furor? Because she or he holds more power than the common people in the country.

Influences have come to us from various directions and people. Our parents. Family. The schools we go to. The neighbors we have. The colleagues and friends we hang out with. The communities we are part of. The kind of books and newspapers we read and movies we watch. On similar lines, our actions, words, and many other things what we do, have a huge influence on other people. You don’t persuade people only when you are speaking to them or giving them some advice. You influence them through your actions, the kind of work you do, the clothes you wear, and the posts you share online, according to Vanessa in the book. However, since we lack awareness, we don’t understand the power of our influence.

However, many times we underestimate the power of our influence because people admire and follow you secretly rather than coming and telling you that they got influenced by you. They adopted something that you were doing. According to the author, the solution to this is to understand and get better at seeing, feeling, and experiencing our influence over others through better listening, putting yourself in someone else’s shoes, adopting a third party perspective, and becoming a more effective questioner.

The most fascinating chapter in the book is about why it’s so hard to say no. Because deep down, we all want to be good to people. We want to avoid any kind of awkwardness. People feel good when they help others. However, as the author mentions, I agree with her that this awkwardness of saying no also leads to a lot of problems, such as the spread of misinformation and fake news, women agreeing to things that they don’t want to do, leading to sexual misconduct and rape.

I found the book quite fascinating because of the way the author has explained all the concepts with some examples. The book also answers those questions that make you overthink sometimes. Anyone who wants to improve their persuasion and leadership skills must read this book. People who are in leadership and managerial positions must read this book. Also, if you ever felt invisible or inarticulate, you must read this book because the chances are that you are not what you think. People see you and hear you!

Some insightful nuggets from the book are given below:

You are not as invisible as you think.
People do observe us-more than we realise.
People tend to like others with similar views.
Saying is believing effect.
We copy what we see.
People are persuaded by people they like.
People are cognitive misers.
We are inclined to believe what people tell us.
People shout when they think someone is not listening.
People do all sorts of things to avoid embarrassment.
A powerful person’s whisper sounds more like a shout.
Most people do care about other people-more than we tend to give them credit for.
The way to reach all of your goals is simply to ask.

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You can’t do everything!

“It is even more liberating to reflect that everyone else is in the same boat, whether they are aware of it or not”

‘Jitna bhi try kar lo Bunny life me kuch na kuch to chutega hi. Toh jahan hai wahi ka maja lete hain‘ says Deepika Padukone in a dialogue from the movie #YJHD. That’s the crux of this book, ‘Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management For Mortals’ by Oliver Burkeman. The book starts with a very practical statement: In the long run, we’re all dead, which might feel offensive to many people. However, that’s the harsh truth of life. Being alive is just a matter of chance, and nothing is guaranteed.

In fact, the author emphasizes that we have more or less four to five thousand weeks depending upon our health. We must live this finite life recognizing its frailty. We don’t need to rush because we can’t do and should not try to do everything. There is more to life than ticking all the boxes. You are this infinitesimal part of the universe that no one even cares about.

Life on a conveyor belt

Remember the childhood days when we were told that if you finish nursery, grade 1, 2…10th, 12th, graduation and post graduation, you will be in control of your life. The moment you complete these goals, the goal post changes. Now they will tell you to get married, have kids, build a house and buy a car. Things will be sorted for you in life. After that, there will be other experiences or goals to pursue. This was a never ending list. Wow. We also heard them. We followed this path without questioning our parents and guardians. We were running behind something which was never attainable.

Productivity is a trap

One of the most striking lines in the book is that ‘nobody in the history of humanity has ever achieved work-life balance’. The day will never arrive when you have everything in control. We live in the world of ‘existential overwhelm’ because the more we try to cover things, additional wonderful experiences will crop up for us to cover. The more efficient we become, the more people will expect of us.

New technologies and machines never reduced the workload as someone rightly said, work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. As per the research findings, it was found that when housewives first got access to labour saving devices like washing machines & vacuum cleaners, the society’s standards of cleanliness simply rose.

Distracted from distraction by distraction

Come to the real world of social media and distraction. According to the author, we don’t desire to take ownership of our lives and that is why we happily get swayed by social media. We want to numb ourselves emotionally by keeping ourselves busy and occupied. We have become impatient these days. Our attention span has decreased. It isn’t just because we don’t have time that we can’t focus on one thing. We ourselves want to be distracted so that we don’t think about those things that we cared about the most. All new devices and social media have distracted us from important matters. It has made us care about trivial things.

Oliver Burkeman also talks about how social media has made us angry, less empathic, anxious or numb. The biggest problem and most discomforting thing about it is that we don’t want to face the reality of life and that’s why we choose to be away from it.

Everything has become instrumental

The most striking thing about today’s life is that everything has become so instrumental. And that’s the lament. We are doing everything to reach somewhere, achieve something and prepare for the future. Last month, my friends and I started a community meet-up at my house. Many people asked what you will achieve from it? What tangible results will you get? I seriously don’t know. I don’t expect to achieve anything by doing this. I just would like to listen to people’s stories. It’s like your hobbies should also become businesses. No one wants to relax. No one wants to chill for a while. In fact, spending time on vacation and having leisure has been commercialised. It has become a chore. It’s like you relax to work in the future. Even relationships with time have become instrumental.

The universe doesn’t care about you

The reality is that the universe is totally indifferent to you and whatever is happening in your life. The moment you understand this, the burden you carry reduces. Not only the universe but also no one really cares about what we do with our lives except us. Rather than focusing on doing everything and trying to become this optimized, infinitely capable, emotionally invincible person, we need to focus on what’s possible in our short life span on this earth.

The most effective way to escape this constant race is to stop expecting things differently as the author points out in the book. Face the unpleasantness of this finite life. The more you try to control things, the more they slip through the cracks. You can’t control it and do everything. I know it’s easy to say, but difficult to implement. It is what it is. Don’t use the time, let time pass on you. The fact that you lack control, power, and the desire to get instant relief from all kinds of discomfort is something that you should accept. You trust the idea of patience. According to the author, there are three principles of patience. The first is to acknowledge the fact that life is a journey of navigating from one problem to another. The second principle is to embrace incrementalism. It’s like building a habit or making changes every day and waiting for it to turn into something better after a point of time. And the third principle is about doing something you like every single day without getting any validation and recognition. Just keep doing it.

What can you do to face the finitude of this life, according to the author?

Have patience
Keep a done list
Decide in advance what to fail at
Maintain boundaries everywhere
Minimize your usage of social media
Make your mundane activities interesting
Be curious about your relationships
Cultivate instantaneous generosity
Practice doing nothing and sitting in idleness
Consolidate what you care about

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Rethinking: The Joy of Being Wrong!

“Progress is impossible without change and those who can not change their minds can not change anything”- George Bernard Shaw

Have you ever wondered why some of the most successful companies were later phased out of the market? BlackBerry and Kodak are two such companies that failed to rethink their strategies. The only reason was that the leadership at these companies could not innovate and change themselves in a rapidly changing world. Why did these leaders and people fail to re-think? Because leaders of these companies were trapped in the ‘overconfidence cycle’ where they were fuelled by pride, conviction, validation, and confirmation bias. However, some companies adopted the idea of rethinking and later became market leaders. These companies’ leaders were guided by intellectual humility, doubt, curiosity, and discovery. Apple is one such example that focuses on rethinking the cycle. Rethinking is a skill set and also a mindset. Rethinking encourages us to let go of knowledge and opinions that are no longer serving us well. Flexibility rather than consistency should drive one’s sense of self.

This book, ‘Think Again: The Power of Knowing That You Don’t Know‘ by Adam Grant is one of the most powerful books I have ever read. The book makes you rethink on an individual level, interpersonal level, and collective level. This book has the essence of ‘Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions‘ another powerful book written by Dan Ariely who argues that human beings are irrational beings and mental misers. Their minds cannot cope with the complexity of the world. We want a predictable world and cling to our identities.

The book is neatly divided into three parts. The first part focuses on individual rethinking. The second part talks about interpersonal rethinking and the third part discusses collective rethinking.

The author talks about updating one’s own views under individual rethinking. We listen to views that make us feel good, instead of ideas that make us think hard. As people when we think and talk, we adopt the mindsets of three different professionals: Preachers, Prosecutors, and Politicians. Preachers and Prosecutors already think they are right and try to give sermons/ arguments to prove their points. Politicians say what the audience wants to hear. They lobby and campaign to gather support for their ideas. Adam urges us to ‘think like a scientist’ and have an open mind.

Harnessing the benefits of doubt and embracing the joy of being wrong and dealing with armchair quarterback syndrome/imposter syndrome can help in calibrating one’s confidence. In many cases, people are suffering from the Dunning-Kruger Effect. They have been overconfident when they lack competence in their life. Confidence, competence, and humility are some of the things to be inculcated to lead a happy and successful life.

Adam believes confident humility is the key. It means having faith in our capability while appreciating that we may not have the right solution or even address the right problem. One of the most intriguing concepts the author talks about is that one miniature dictator lives inside our heads. It protects our self-image by feeding us comforting lies and acts as a hindrance in the process of rethinking. Self-identity should be defined in terms of values and not opinions.

Engage with people and groups whose ideas differ from yours. Everyone knows more than you about something. The author encourages us to learn something new from each person we meet. We need to build a challenge network along with a support network. The challenge network will help in providing regular feedback and push for change. Dealing with conflict is necessary either in the workplace or in personal life. All problems are interpersonal relationship problems, mentioned in another book named ‘The Courage To Be Disliked’. Adam talks about two types of conflict: relationship conflict and task conflict. According to the author, it’s better to have a relationship conflict rather than a task conflict. Relationship conflict is unproductive for performance but task conflict leads to higher creativity and smarter choices.

Interpersonal rethinking focuses on changing other people’s behavior by asking questions and actively listening. According to the author, people should take the collaborative approach rather than the adversarial approach while persuading people in an argument. Adam mentions the concept of motivational interviewing which helps people to change their behavior and also leads them to self-discovery. Motivational interviewing involves three key techniques: asking open-ended questions, engaging in reflective listening, and affirming the person’s desire and ability to transform. Betty Bigombe’s successful effort in bringing Joseph Kony, head of the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda, to the conversation table is one of the finest examples of the art of influential listening.

Collective rethinking focuses on creating communities of lifelong learners and targets to change in society at a collective level. And it is possible when things are not seen through a binary lens. Things are not black and white always. Things are grey. Things are complex and people contain multitudes. Nuance is the key. As the author states it takes a variety of views to help people realise that they too contain multitudes.

Rethinking can happen in a learning culture whether it’s in a school, a workplace, a community, or in a relationship. In a learning culture, students are taught to question knowledge. Children need to understand the concept of revising their work multiple times and taking feedback from people. And most importantly people should stop asking kids what they want to be when they grow up. One identity does not define the person. Every kid needs to explore multiple possibilities to flourish in their life. Learning cultures at workplaces display psychological safety under which a climate of respect, trust, and openness is developed. In this culture, people can raise concerns and suggestions without fear of reprisal.

Passions can be developed. We can rethink our careers again. The author has a very insightful perspective on happiness. According to the author, when people chase happiness, they become less happy in their lives. In fact, evidence suggests that putting a lot of importance on happiness leads to depression. According to the author, three factors ruin happiness. We start evaluating life instead of enjoying every moment. We spend too much time striving for peak happiness as opposed to focusing on the frequency of positive emotions. We also focus more on pleasure than the purpose of the activity. According to the author, the Eastern conception of happiness leads to better well-being than the Western conception of happiness. Eastern cultures prioritize social engagement over independent activities. As the author very rightly states ‘our happiness often depends more on what we do than where we are. It’s our actions-not the surroundings that bring us meaning and belonging’.

“If you don’t look back at yourself and think, ‘wow, how stupid I was a year ago, then you must not have learned much in the last year” -Ray Dalio (Bridgewater Founder)

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Wealth: A Matter of Mindset Over Money

Let me tell you the story of my grandmother! I spent my childhood with her. I have seen her saving one rupee each day which led to huge savings later in her life. She did unbelievable things. She has a lot of patience. She believes in moving mountains even if she is old and sick. She never loses hope. She believes in the idea of compounding. Certainly, she does not understand the economics behind compounding. I have seen her converting hundreds into lakhs bit by bit. You must be thinking why I am telling you this? Recently, I saw a post about a book called, “The Psychology of Money” on Linkedin. This title made me curious and I decided to read this book. While I was reading this book, I realised that these pearls of wisdom on wealth and happiness were always there in front of my eyes. It usually goes unnoticed. The author of this book, Morgan Housel tells you those simple and obvious things about building wealth as Sherlock Holmes once said, ‘The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes.‘ It’s possible that we see these snippets in our daily life, but we never understood their significance of them.

Luck and risk

The book is divided into 20 chapters that take the reader from one timeless lesson to another about building wealth. As per the author, past experiences impact one’s behavior towards money. He believes that financial outcomes are driven by luck, independent of intelligence and effort. Luck and risk both play an important role in someone’s life. Outcomes are not only guided by individuals’ efforts but also by actions outside of our control. One of the best things to be said by the author is this: “Not all success is due to hard work and not all poverty is due to laziness” Therefore, he suggests keeping this thing in mind before judging people. Housel suggests having the virtue of contentment and not to risk what you have. According to him, there are many things that you should never risk. For instance- reputation and freedom, family and friends and happiness are some invaluable things that no one should ever risk in their life.

Things are uncertain and many times not dependent on historical factors. You should always be ready to face surprises in the financial market because no one clearly knows what might happen next. You must always give space to the room for error and be always ready to deal with unknowns. You should be ready to take risks but don’t take a risk that can wipe you from the world. Pessimism is so seductive and believable because setbacks happen too quickly to ignore. In comparison, progress happens too slowly to notice. Improvement is driven by compounding that always takes time. On similar lines, you should be ready to face losses in the financial market. Housel adds that true financial optimism is to expect things to be bad and be surprised when they are not. Nothing is free in life. Market returns are also never free. You should always be ready to lose some money and be ready to face the consequences. It’s like give and take. If the market gives you some returns, it also takes some back.

Compounding is the key

The most important concept discussed in this book is “compounding”. Time is the most powerful force in investing. The duration of investment matters. It takes time to accumulate funds. It makes little things to grow big and big mistakes fade away. However, our minds are not built to comprehend the enormous power of compounding. As I told earlier, I have seen compounding working in my own life. Once my grandmother bought something worth ten lakh rupees when she was earning only 10 thousand rupees per month. It looked totally absurd to me and I tried to stop her from buying something so expensive when her income is so less. But she told she will slowly make this payment. Still, I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t believe till the date she was able to complete the whole payment. So compounding works in a way that our mind is not ready to sense it.

Survival Mentality

“Staying wealthy is more important than getting wealthy”, says the author. Keeping your money safe and using it rationally is more important than getting more money. Nothing should be taken for granted. Investing requires taking risks, being optimistic, and putting yourself out there but keeping money requires humility, fear, and most importantly frugality. The ability to survive plays an important role in becoming wealthy and in creating happiness. The author adds that sticking around for a long time should be the cornerstone of anyone’s strategy in life. Growth takes time. Be it about money or in career. And growth requires surviving all the unpredictable ups and downs that everyone inevitably experiences over time. Applying a survival mindset means appreciating three things in life:

You need to have enough savings to survive any disruption, pandemic and chaos in your life.
Planning is important but the most important is to plan on the plan not going according to the plan.
You need to have sensible optimism.

Being in control of your life

The best wisdom shared in this book is about how money can give you the freedom to control your time. As the author adds that the highest form of wealth is the ability to wake up every morning and say, “I can do whatever I want today” The ability to do what you want, when you want, with who you want, for as long as you want is priceless. It is the highest dividend money pays. Being in control of your life makes you happy.

Savings are linked not to your income but your humility

Creating wealth has no direct relationship with the income you earn or the investment returns you get. It depends on the saving rate. Saving the money you have and exercising frugality are the ways to build wealth. I have seen this habit not only in my grandmother but also in other family members. They don’t throw old clothes, boxes, and many household stuff and re-use them many times. They don’t go out and spend money to experience things as the new generations want to do. They have their own justification. However, saving money is the only way to build wealth. Spending money is also linked with your ego. If you desire less, you can save more. Housel has something interesting to say about increasing your savings. If you want to increase your savings, raise your humility than your income.

Saving money is the gap between your ego and your income & your income and wealth is what you don’t see.

Acquiring material things is for self-satisfaction. No one gets impressed because of someone else’s possessions. In fact, people are impressed when someone possesses the qualities of humility, kindness, and empathy. Do not take any financial decisions because you are influenced by someone. Do not buy things because you just wanted to show off to someone. It is a total waste because people are influenced because of your good behavior and not because of your money, house, and the kind of stuff you own. In fact, it literally means that your real wealth is what that no one sees it. The author believes that ‘the only way to be wealthy is to not spend the money that you do have. It’s not just the only way to accumulate wealth, it’s the very definition of wealth.

The creation of wealth is linked to the psychology and behavior of the person. Saving money is like developing a good habit as James Clear shows in his book Atomic Habits. You don’t need a specific reason to save. Savings without a specific goal give you leverage to deal with unpredictable situations. It gives you flexibility and control of your time. The author also adds that you need to focus on being reasonable than rational because ultimately you are a human being who has emotions and feelings. You need to cut down on your expense but it does not mean that you stop living.

People change so do their goals in life

People’s desires and goals change so it is difficult to make long-term plans. The surprising thing is that people themselves don’t realise that how much they have changed in the past and how much they are going to change in the future. The author suggests keeping two things in mind whenever you are making a long-term decision. Firstly, you should avoid extreme ends of financial planning because people adapt to circumstances and the thrill of chasing dollars or living a simple life diminishes after a point. Secondly, you need to accept that things change and be ready to move on. The most beautiful thing author has to say is that you must have humility when things are going right and forgiveness & compassion when they go wrong. Because we never know what will happen and always be grateful for things that we have.

The crux of building wealth is to be humble, practice frugality and make saving your daily habit. Be a Ronald Read and not Richard Fuscone!

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Tiny changes can make a big difference!

Image Source: https://medium.com/@aidanhornsby/notes-on-atomic-habits-c021e38eeae7

“If you can get 1% better each day for one year, you will end up 37 times better by the time you are done”

First, let me tell you the story of this tiny plant. Last year during the lockdown, I was spending good time gardening, writing, and clicking pictures. I reused an old plastic bottle and filled it with some soil and planted a small stem of my favorite plant-pothos. I fastened it in my balcony grill. Every alternate day I was watering it. But after some days, I saw it drying. I got disappointed and stopped thinking about it. I also reduced the frequency of giving water. Days and months passed. One day on a weekend, I saw a tiny green stem inside the old plastic bottle. I couldn’t believe it. It felt like some extra grass grew. I went closer to the bottle and there was a sweet smile on my face. I finally knew that my plant survived. It survived: because of everyday’s care & nurture that got accumulated for days. On similar lines, your good habits are like these tiny changes you make every day that leads to a bigger change later in your lives. (Scroll it down to see the beautiful plant as of today)

Reading this book makes you believe that small habits can make a big difference. And what is a habit? A habit is a behaviour that has been repeated enough times to become automatic. James Clear believes in incremental change. He feels that success is the product of daily habits-not-once-in-a-lifetime transformations. The interesting thing about this book is that it not only tells you how to create good habits but also how to break bad habits. He also warns the readers to be careful about the future trajectory of their lives as it will be dependent on their daily habits.

To me, this book feels like the combination of popular books Sapiens (A Brief History of Humankind) and Nudge(Improving Decision about Health, Wealth and Happiness) Like Sapiens, this book tells us that we have the brains of our ancestors but temptations they never had to face. We still crave calorie-dense foods because our brain’s reward centers have not changed for approximately 50 thousand years. Like Nudge, James Clear argues that the environment matters more than motivation. As Richard H Thaler talks about the concept of “choice architecture” that shapes people’s behavior, James Clear believes that every habit is context-dependent. People often choose products not because of what they are, but because of where they are. Accordingly, we need to design our environment such that we pursue our good habits. For instance- if you want to hydrate yourself, you must keep the water bottlers near you. We have to create space for every habit. A stable environment where everything has a place and a purpose is an environment where habits can easily form.

***Change can take years -before it happens all at once***

Our daily habits(positive/negative) compound for us and lead to a bigger change. And the thing is that whenever we have breakthrough moments, we don’t realise the reason behind them. The author has talked about the concept of “plateau of latent potential”. This is that moment where we get breakthrough results, but the thing is that we human beings generally don’t have patience. We can’t wait. I can share from my own personal experience. When I started preparing for civil services, things seem insurmountable and I also felt for some time that I don’t know if I can do this. But I got results. I couldn’t even clear prelims in my first attempt. But in my subsequent attempts, I cleared prelims and mains both. And it does not mean that I didn’t work hard in my first year. My result was a cumulative effect of all years and not only of the current year when I cleared the examination.

The author challenges the norm of setting goals if anyone wants to succeed. He adds: “If you want better results, then forget about setting goals. Focus on your system instead.”

There are three layers of behavior change:

Outcome-based habits: What you get
Process-based habits: What you do
Identity-based habits: What you believe

The ultimate form of intrinsic motivation is when a habit becomes part of your identity. The more pride you have in a particular aspect of your identity, the more motivated you will be to maintain the habits associated with it. True behavior change is identity change. It means that to make your habit permanent, you must make your habit part of your life and identity.

One of the best things Clear has to say is that you need to unlearn and continuously edit your belief systems to upgrade your identity. And this cannot happen overnight. For instance- doing exercise is a good habit but to build a healthy body, you have to get out of your bed every single day at the same time. Go for a walk. Repeat this every single day despite all odds.

As per Clear, there are four simple steps to build a better habit: Cue; Craving; Response & Reward The cue gives you an indication about reward, craving makes you feel like getting that reward, the response is the actual habit you perform and rewards are the end goal of every habit. This whole process is also called a feedback loop.

Developing good habits or changing habits first and foremost requires you to understand what you are actually doing. The author tells us to create a list of our daily habits so that we can observe our thoughts and actions. We need to ask this question after making our daily list, does this habit help me become the type of person I wish to become? Below are the laws that we need to apply to cultivate good habits and eradicate bad habits.

Even our family, friends, and people we follow play an important role in shaping our behaviours. We pick up the habits from the people around us. As the author adds that ‘ we don’t choose our earliest habits, we imitate them’. We imitate the people we admire. The best strategy to develop a good habit is to surround yourself with the people who have the habits you want to have yourself. Sticking with good habits requires you to create short-term rewards. As our brains are still tempted towards instant gratification, we need to create a habit tracker. The author adds that a habit tracker makes you believe that you are working towards becoming the type of person you wish to become.

In the end, the author talks about ‘the Goldilocks Rule’ that will help you to stay motivated in life and work. As per this rule, humans experience peak motivation when working on tasks that are right on the edge of their current abilities. Not too hard, Not too easy, Just Right. Reaching the goldilocks zone makes you achieve the state of flow. Flow is something one achieves when they have immersed themselves in what they are doing. But doing the same thing or following the same habit can also bring some boredom. The biggest challenge for self-improvement is dealing with this boredom. “The only way to become excellent is to be endlessly fascinated by doing the same thing over & over. You have to fall in love with boredom”, adds the author. Mastery requires more practice than planning. Though habits are important, they are not enough. You need to have a combination of automatic habits and deliberate practice. And most importantly, you need to review and reflect on these habits to continuously fine-tune them as one thinker has rightly said” a genius is not born, but is educated and trained”.

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We are irrational beings?

Nobel laureate Herbert Simon gave the concept of “bounded rationality” which tells us that the human mind can not cope with the complexity of the world due to the limitations in their mental capacity. To make sense of this complexity, we create a simplified mental model of reality and work with this model. Obviously, the model created by us is full of biases, stereotypes and irrational views. On similar lines, the author of this book-Dan Ariely tries to understand the rationale behind irrational decisions taken by human beings who are termed as the most intelligent species of their time. A personal tragedy motivated him to write this book.

The quote “Man is not truly one, but truly two” by Dr. Jekyll tells the crux of human behaviours. We always wonder after seeing various newspaper reports related to irrational crimes like teenage pregnancy, rape of children, extreme violence etc committed by sane individuals. Generally, it happens in a fit of arousal which can vary from hunger, anger, excitement, jealousy and importantly sexual arousal. This happens because human beings are not only irrational but systematically and predictably irrational. MIT Behavioral economist Dan Ariely proved in his book through various experiments which makes you understand irrationality in human behavior so that we can design our choices for the better decision-making process.

Dan Ariely in this book has tried to substantiate through various experiments that despite all achievements and wonders achieved by human beings, we behave irrationally in our daily life because of wiring in our brains. We behave irrationally because its easy for our brain to make things clear in a complex world. He talks about relativity and tells that we don’t have ‘internal value meter’ that can evaluate the worth of any product or other emotional things also. We always compare things to understand its worth. In fact, relativity helps in the decision-making process but it also makes life miserable because of never-ending quest of getting physical and other emotional things in life better than others.

These ideas are very much visible in our daily life. We all experience the phenomenon of comparing with our neighbors, friends, colleagues etc. In fact, we also get suggestions from others that don’t compare yourself with others. However, we can’t stop doing this because we don’t have any other way to measure things. Not only this, we make very crucial decisions in our life like buying things, subscribing magazines, choosing the life-partner etc with the help of relativity.

The zero-price effect creates an emotional pull for all human beings to participate in the processes which offer things for free. We automatically accept the free beer or Pepsi or energy drink not because we liked it or we needed it but because it’s free. At times, the zero price can affect our decision-making process in a negative manner also as seen in terms of wastage of common resources owned by humanity.

One of the interesting findings in the book is that “we live simultaneously in two different worlds -one where social norms prevail and other where market norms make the rules”. In fact, social norms and market norms exist together in the society but whenever they collide, it creates a lot of problems. We can not measure the value of emotions and other social norms in monetary terms. When the social norms are converted into market norms, it is very difficult to go back. Here the author gave the example of a study conducted in a school in Israel where parents were penalized if they came late to pick up their children. The result was disastrous after this, as parents now didn’t feel guilty about coming late to pick up their kids, as social norms were converted into market norms.

The author also talks about the rampant consumerism, procrastination, problem of self-control, the high price of ownership not only in terms of physical products but also in terms of ideas, point of views. When we agree to one point of view, we just don’t want to change it because of the fallacy of high valuation of whatever we have. And he also proves that due to our stereotypes and expectations, we get in what we expect. The value of price is very important in our life. We lavishly enjoyed the food in a high-end restaurant even if the food is bland because we have paid more for it. That’s why the author mentions that our headache disappears when we take a 50 cent aspirin but it persists when we take an aspirin worth of a penny.

At the end of this book, the author spoke about the character of human beings and why we are dishonest? In fact, as per the author, we are honest till the moment it suits our requirements. When there is an opportunity, many honest people will cheat. It happens because small transgressions do not wake up our conscience and super-ego as propounded by Sigmund Freud. We cheat on small things because of the absence of internal honesty monitor.

In the era of digital banking, the author provides a radical perspective that people are more prone to cheat when they are not dealing with cash. He makes the argument that when we cheat under electronic transactions, we don’t feel it in our hands and therefore we don’t even realize that we are doing something wrong. In fact, it is so true that when we spend money through credit cards, we don’t feel the pinch but when we buy things through cash, we feel about spending money. In fact, this can be the reason behind various electronic frauds happening in various parts of the world. Daniel also revealed one interesting thing about honesty. That is when someone reminds us about moral values and principles, we follow it immediately.

The author also talks about our behavior to influence others and sacrifice ‘ personal utility’ to gain ‘reputational utility’. It happens because we want to show others that we are ‘unique’ and different.

However, the realization that we are predictably irrational also creates opportunities to frame our choices and influence the decision-making process of individuals to make better decisions in life. The zero-price effect can be used to frame good policies in terms of making it free to travel in public transport, using electric vehicles etc. Social norms are cheap and have a strong emotional backing which can be used to influence people to pay taxes, to take care of the elderly etc. In fact, we need to be reminded of moral codes every now and then so that our super-ego does not sleep and makes us aware whenever we try to commit any dishonesty.

In this book, the author provided stimulating and thought-provoking details of human behavior and how human beings are systematically irrational because we repeat our behaviors again and again. This book along with “Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness” authored by Richard H. Thaler & Cass R. Sunstein and “The Art of Thinking Clearly” written by Rolf Dobelli provides a holistic understanding of human behaviour, its irrationality and how to capitalise on this irrationality by using incentives, nudges, social norms, default options, providing feedback etc to improve decision-making process.

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