I studied physics to nearly the farthest levels you can at one of the great institutions. Now I study evolutionary psychology more. I’ve thought about these things a lot. As a practicing businessman and inventor, I look to nature — physics — for ideas to create and engineer to bring to market. As a leader I look to people — biology — to interact with, team up with, buy from,[…] Keep reading →

[This post is part of a series on empathy gaps. If you don’t see a Table of Contents to the left, click here to view the series, where you’ll get more value than reading just this post.] As a final note on empathy gaps, I wanted to note a few examples of empathy gaps — using them, observing them in others, and observing them in yourself. Researchers normally present empathy[…] Keep reading →

[This post is part of a series on empathy gaps. If you don’t see a Table of Contents to the left, click here to view the series, where you’ll get more value than reading just this post.] Now we are familiar with empathy gaps — that when you feel one emotion you generally can’t conceive of your motivations when feeling a different emotion. We get how insidious they can be[…] Keep reading →

[This post is part of a series on empathy gaps. If you don’t see a Table of Contents to the left, click here to view the series, where you’ll get more value than reading just this post.] As usual, understanding ourselves better helps us overcome the problems of empathy gaps — that when you feel one emotion you generally can’t conceive of your motivations when feeling a different emotion. Yet[…] Keep reading →

[This post is part of a series on empathy gaps. If you don’t see a Table of Contents to the left, click here to view the series, where you’ll get more value than reading just this post.] Yesterday I talked about the effect that when you feel one emotion you generally can’t conceive of your motivations when feeling a different emotion, nor do you realize you can’t, also known as[…] Keep reading →

If the first cherries of spring don’t warrant a post of their own, I don’t know what does. Billions of years of evolution led to them tasting so good — on their side and mine. After all the amazing tropical fruits of Vietnam and China, I like being reminded of how good some local fruit here can taste. Every spring I eat cherries until they make me feel woozy. Then[…] Keep reading →

My physics training tells me economics views some things in a weird way. In physics, if your theory predicts something to happen a certain way and it happens differently, you say your theory is wrong, at least partly, and you work to improve it. Nature is always correct. You try to get your theory to predict what nature does. When economics predicts people to behave some way and they don’t,[…] Keep reading →