There are a lot of people (including me) second-guessing decisions made in the last decade. Here are a couple of my reflections: 1. Forget the old saws - "Stocks in the long term always go up" was disproved as we ended the decade with all major indices lower than they were in January, 2000. If you add in the effects of inflation, the
I've just added a new favorite book to my top ten list: Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini, PhD. The premise of this book is that in our increasingly complex and pressured world, we often make decisions by falling back on instinctive patterns. Cialdini has identified six categories of these reflexes: 1. Reciprocity
Last night at midnight I was sound asleep. Then the phone rang. Within seconds I had picked up the receiver and determined it was a wrong number. But now I was wide awake. Since I had to be up early this morning, I started fretting. I worried that I would not fall back to sleep - which worry, of course, was contributing to my not being
I have always been interested in magic - especially "close-up" magic, card and coin tricks when the audience is just inches away from the magician. In fact, I have done card tricks since I was a teenager. Now (a few decades later), as I research a book on the subject of persuasion (how to get people to think as you would like), I see many
A friend of mine recently ran for public office. He certainly did not lack for things to do and nor does he need the attention. He is a retired senior executive of a large corporation with a nice pension and plenty of financial security. He has consulting assignments if he wants them and offers to serve on Boards of Directors. But, he felt
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