Decisions
Poor Charlie's Almanack: 6 key ideas
The core ideas of Poor Charlie's Almanack, each in under a minute, written in our own words. Want the full depth? Get the book.
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- IDEA 1 OF 6
Latticework of mental models
Learn the big ideas from many disciplines and use them together.
A person with one tool sees every problem as a nail.
- IDEA 2 OF 6
Invert, always invert
Ask what would cause failure and avoid it.
Solving problems backwards often works better.
- IDEA 3 OF 6
Incentives drive behaviour
Never underestimate the power of incentives.
Show me the incentive and I'll show you the outcome.
- IDEA 4 OF 6
Circle of competence
Know the edge of what you understand and stay inside it.
- IDEA 5 OF 6
Psychology of misjudgement
Biases like social proof and envy cause costly errors.
Use checklists to counter them.
- IDEA 6 OF 6
Patience and big bets
Wait for rare great opportunities, then act decisively.
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