About Chance

J. E. Littlewood wrote about the law of truly large numbers in his 1986 book, Littlewood’s Miscellany. He said the average person is alert for about eight hours every day, and something happens to the average person about once a second. At this rate, you will experience 1 million events every thirty-five days. This means when you say the chances of something happening are one in a million, it also means about once a month. The monthly miracle is called Littlewood’s Law.

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About Being Right

The Watson Selection Task is an example of how lousy you are at logic, but you are also filled with beliefs that look good on paper but fall apart in practice. When those beliefs fall apart, you tend not to notice. You have a deep desire to be right all of the time and a deeper desire to see yourself in a positive light both morally and behaviourally. You can stretch your mind pretty far to achieve these goals.

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About Sensible Negotiation

There never was a truer maxim than: ‘If you don’t ask, you don’t get.’ But just because somebody asks for something, it doesn’t mean it has to be given. If it’s reasonable and settles things without too much aggravation, monetary sacrifice (if relevant) or bad feeling, fine. But if both parties are dissatisfied then the equation is not right. Remember — it’s a game with two winners.

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About Arguments

Well now then Mardy Bum
I’ve seen your frown and it’s like
Looking down the barrel of a gun
And it goes off
And out come all these words
Oh there’s a very pleasant side to you
A side I much prefer, it’s one that
Laughs and jokes around
Remember cuddles in the kitchen, yeah
To get things off the ground
And it was up, up and away
Oh, but it’s right hard to remember that
On a day like today when you’re all
Argumentative
And you’ve got that face on

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About Poor Memory

Casual remarks or promises that may seem unimportant to you may strike a chord with the other person. You’re then expected to come up with the goods. If you fail to do so, your worth as a true person is in doubt–and it becomes hard to alter that judgement. […] The client would use such behaviour as a barometer of trustworthiness.

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About Anxiety

Then there are people who seem to have almost a genetic pull towards a permanent state of anxiety. This is known as trait anxiety. A person like this is constantly focused on what could go wrong. They engage in many forms of ‘distorted’ thinking and quite often are unable to enjoy life due to this pessimistic way of thinking. They may have an unhealthy need for control and try to reduce the uncertainties of life by trying to prevent the possibilities of things going wrong. Trying to achieve control over things that we can’t hope to influence contributes to more anxiety. You can’t hope to ‘carpet’ the world. You just have to learn to cope with whatever ‘thinking skills’ you can bring to each situation.

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About Stress

You can choose how to react in any particular situation. So the difference between stress and pressure is purely down to the perception of the event. Therefore we can define stress as a situation in which a person: perceives that the demands made upon them exceed their ability to cope.

James Borg – Mind Control