Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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Upgrade your users
The goal of someone creating products is not creating great products, rather the goal is creating great users. Your products should be focused on helping users become better at whatever it is they need to get done. Build with an approach that helps users have deeper and richer experiences. Designers need to focus not only…
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Don’t overthink everything
Overthinking can interfere with effective problem solving by making our thoughts more pessimistic and fatalistic. We may believe we are helping ourselves with constant deliberation but fixating on problems often leads to focusing on our feelings about the problems rather than the actual problems themselves. We end up creating stressful circumstances which hinder our ability…
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Arguments help both sides see more clearly
Understanding the different forms of conflict can help turn arguments from something to be avoided into something that helps both sides process their thoughts and see more clearly. Relationship conflict is the personal and emotional strife that results from disagreements. Differences in personality and style causes stress between the parties. Task conflict occurs when there…
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Highly agreeable people tend to be less effective leaders
Agreeable people create a lot of harmony and get along well with others. However, sometimes they are too polite and don’t do enough to challenge others. Acquiescence bias (or agreement bias) is the tendency to agree with a statement when in doubt. Social norms encourage agreeable behavior which make one appear more polite and respectful.…
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You must not fool yourself
During a commencement speech at Caltech in 1974, the physicist Richard Feynman said, “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself – and you are the easiest person to fool.” Our understanding of the world is far from perfect and our brain constantly makes up stories to fill in the gaps in a…
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Only compete against yourself
If you constantly compete and compare yourself to others, you will end up only working against yourself. Strive to be inspired by the greatness of others without using them as a measure of your own success. Instead of trying to write songs that are better than Bob Dylan, write a song that is better than…
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