The Goal of This Post

In this post, I share some of my favorite passages from the book Clear Thinking, by Shane Parrish.

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Know Your Defaults

In the space between stimulus and response, one of two things can happen. You can consciously pause and apply reason to the situation. Or you can cede control and execute a default behavior.

• The emotion default:
  we tend to respond to feelings rather than reason and facts.

• The ego default:
  We tend to react to anything that threatens our sense of self-worth or our position in a group hierarchy.

• The social default:
  we tend to conform to the norms of our larger social group.

• The inertia default:
  we’re habit forming and comfort seeking. We tend to resist change and to prefer ideas, processes, and environments that are familiar.

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The Emotion Default

Emotions can multiply all of your progress by zero.

Inbuilt biological vulnerabilities leave us even more exposed to the emotion default’s influence: sleep deprivation, hunger, fatigue, emotion, distraction, stress from feeling rushed, and being in an unfamiliar environment.

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The Ego Default

Our desire to feel right overpowers our desire to be right.

• The ego default prompts us to promote and protect our self-image at all costs.
• We mistake how we want the world to be with how it actually is.
• We mistake how we want the world to work for how it does work.

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The Social Default

The social default inspires conformity.

• “Social pressure” refers to: Wanting to belong to the crowd, fear of being an outsider, fear of being scorned, fear of disappointing other people.
• The social default encourages us to outsource our thoughts, beliefs, and outcomes to others.
• Our desire to fit in often overpowers our desire for a better outcome.

Change happens only when you’re willing to think independently, when you do what nobody else is doing, and risk looking like a fool because of it.

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The Inertia Default

The inertia default pushes us to maintain the status quo.

• Cognitive inertia is why changing our minds is hard. Keeping things the way they are requires almost no effort.
• Inertia prevents us from doing hard things. The longer we avoid the hard thing we know we should do, the harder it becomes to do.
• The “zone of average” is the point where things are working well enough that we don’t feel the need to make any changes.

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One Last Takeaway. Take Action.

“We need to learn to manage our defaults…

The way to improve your defaults is by creating an intentional environment where your desired behavior becomes the default behavior.”

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All content credit goes to the author. I’ve shared the bits I’ve enjoyed the most and found most useful.

Cheers ’till next time! Saludos!
Alberto