Cognitive Bias

Your brain is not broken. It's just running shortcuts that were never designed for the world you live in.

A cognitive bias is a systematic pattern in how you think — not a random mistake, but a predictable one. Your brain takes the same shortcut every time, and it gets it wrong in the same direction every time. These aren't glitches. They're features of a mind built for quick survival decisions, now operating in a world of complex information, advertising, and political messaging.

The key word is predictable. If your errors were random, nobody could exploit them. But because they follow patterns, anyone who studies those patterns can use them against you. Marketers do it. Politicians do it. Algorithms do it. They don't need to lie to you — they just need to present information in a way that triggers the shortcut.

There are over a hundred documented cognitive biases. You don't need to memorise them all. But you do need to accept one uncomfortable truth: you have them. Every single one. Knowing they exist doesn't make you immune, but it does give you a chance to pause before the shortcut runs.

The goal isn't to stop thinking fast. It's to notice when fast thinking is doing your deciding for you.

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References

• Daniel Kahneman — Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011)
• Dan Ariely — Predictably Irrational (2008)