You can't change what you don't see. Self-awareness is the unglamorous skill of noticing your own patterns — what triggers you, what drains you, which stories you tell yourself. The advice here helps you observe yourself honestly without drowning in self-analysis.
Goodhart's Law: people optimise the number, not the thing the number stood for — pair every metric with a guardrail and treat it as a thermometer, not a steering wheel.
Inaction is a choice too — every yes carries a hidden no, and every no carries a hidden yes.
Assume the project has already failed and work backwards to find the blind spots optimism hides.
Emotional investment bends your thinking — you need the most clarity precisely where it is hardest to achieve.
The feeling that you are a fraud usually means you care about quality -- not that you are actually unqualified.
To understand behavior, look at incentives, not stated values — people respond to what they are rewarded for.
Understand a rule's purpose before you decide it's unnecessary.
The endowment effect makes you overvalue what you own — ownership is not the same as worth.
The framing effect makes identical information feel different — notice who is framing the question and how.
The curse of knowledge makes experts forget what confusion feels like — always start from the listener's level.
The halo effect makes us assume that likeable people are also right — separate charm from competence.
Zero-sum thinking limits you — in many situations, both sides can win if you look for it.
Repetition makes claims feel true — but familiarity is not evidence.
The false consensus effect makes you overestimate how many people share your views — ask instead of assuming.
High emotion lowers your evidence threshold — when certainty feels strongest, scrutiny matters most.
Negativity bias makes one bad thing outweigh many good ones — correct for it deliberately.
We blame others' character but excuse our own behavior by circumstances — the situation usually matters more.
The spotlight effect makes you think everyone noticed — they almost certainly didn't.
