Concepts

Literature and Drama

Kobayashi Maru

A training exercise in the Star Trek universe designed to test cadets in a no-win scenario. Captain Kirk 'wins' by altering the original conditions of the game — seen either as cheating or creative problem-solving.

Internet and Media

Streisand Effect

The phenomenon where an attempt to hide, remove, or censor a piece of content has the unintended consequence of drawing more attention to that content.

Self

Revenge Bedtime Procrastination

Phenomenon in which people who don’t have much control over their daytime life refuse to sleep early in order to regain some sense of freedom during late night hours.

Economics

Pareto Principle

The observation that for many situations, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.

Non-English Term

Tsundoku

The practice of acquiring books but letting them pile up without reading them.

Adage, Anecdote, Metaphor

Matthew Effect

The old adage "for to him who has, will more be given..." — that those with existing status, privilege, wealth, etc. stand to benefit even more from it, compared to those without starting resources. In other words,"the rich get richer and the poor get poorer."

Myth or Parable

Ouroboros

The symbol and idea of a snake eating its own tail, often interpreted as a cycle of rebirth and renewal.

Decision-Making

Doris Day Effect

The notion that a setback or obstacle on a given path provides an opportunity for another path that in turn becomes potentially much more fruitful.

Economics

Externalities

Unintended side effects (can be good or bad) to those not involved.

Economics

Cost-Benefit Analysis

A systematic approach to estimating the strengths and weaknesses of alternatives that satisfy transactions, activities or functional requirements.

Bureaucracy

Field of Dreams Fallacy

The notion that, "if you build it, they will come" where all that's needed to do is to simply produce a product and the market will beat a path to one's door, without considering the economic, political, cultural, and entrepreneurial effort and luck at play.

Problem-Solving

Zugzwang

A situation found in chess and other games wherein one player is put at a disadvantage because they must make a move when they would prefer to pass and not move.

Myth or Parable

Hero's Journey

One of the most common mythological templates that involve a hero who goes on an adventure, and in a decisive crisis wins a victory, and then comes home changed or transformed.

Design

Desire Line

An unofficial path created as a consequence of active use caused by heavy traffic, usually representing the shortest or most easily navigated route between an origin and destination. Desire lines can be physical paths as well as paths to achieving particular outcomes in a system usability context (such as navigating websites or using a smartphone).

Design

Affordances

An object or system's properties that show the possible actions that can take be taken with it, thereby suggesting how they may interact with that system or object. For example, a button can look as if it needs to be turned or pushed, those characteristics communicating its affordances.

Culture

Kulturbrille

Recognizing the phenomenon that all of us see the world through our own tinted lenses which we are largely ignorant in our wearing of them. To those with similar lenses (cultures), we have a sense of familiarity and safety, while with others we feel detached and afraid.

Problem-Solving

Adjacent Possible

A mapping of possibilities in a present circumstance that captures both the immediate limits as well as the creative potential for change and innovation.

Science

Drake Equation

A probabilistic argument used to estimate the number of active, communicative extraterrestrial civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy.

Society

FOMO - Fear of Missing Out

An apprehension that others might be having rewarding experiences from which one is absent.

Interpretation

Imposter Syndrome

The idea (and fear) that one will be exposed as a 'fraud' in their position or for their accomplishments, even in the face of objective evidence to the contrary.

Society

Peter Principle

The idea that employees rise to the rank just beyond their competency, as they are evaluated on performance to their current role and not their intended one — at which point they cease to be promoted.

Technology

Ikea Effect

The exaggeratedly high value and attachment placed on products that one builds themselves, regardless of the end result quality.

Non-English Term

Ikigai

Japanese for 'reason for being' — a relationship of the values and features that make life worthwhile for an individual, incorporating passion, mission, profession, and vocation.

Society

NIMBY - Not in My Back Yard

An attitude of opposition to development projects in one's community. While defended as Jane Jacob's-style neighborhood preservation, it can often be used to safeguard expensive real-estate, maintain "aesthetics", and perpetuate social inequality.

Literature and Drama

Grok

To understand something so completely that it becomes a part of oneself.

Adage, Anecdote, Metaphor

Hanlon's Razor

The aphorism which reminds us to never attribute to malice something that can simply be explained by incompetence.

History

Black Swan Event

A metaphor that describes an event in history that comes as a surprise, has a major effect, and is normalized after the fact.

Physics

Half-Life

A probabilistic rate of decay where the quantity of something is reduced by half. Used most often in physics to describe the exponential decay of radioactive elements.

Statistics

Simpson's Paradox

A problem in statistics where trends appear in different groups of data but disappear (or even reverse) when these groups are combined.

Philosophy

Reasoning from First Principles

A thought process that breaks down complex systems to their most basic, self-evident assumptions, and then building step-by-step from these granular pieces to a logical whole.

Society

Overton Window

Range of ideas tolerated in public discourse, according to current climates that will tend to exclude extreme perspectives.

Causality

Butterfly Effect

The idea that a very small action can eventually lead to a significant difference to a system — such as a butterfly flapping its wings which eventually accumulates weeks later into a hurricane.

Mathematics

Fermi Problem

A rough calculation to arrive at a reasonable estimate — unknowns and all — where the result could be considered logically approximate.

Psychology

Dunning-Kruger Effect

The phenomenon that unskilled people assess their ability at a task to be much higher than it is, and that highly skilled individuals often underestimate their own abilities.

Adage, Anecdote, Metaphor

Yak Shaving

The process of performing a series of tasks (often nested inside completing other tasks, like side quests) to accomplish a goal, each of which seems necessary in context but becomes less and less linked to the original goal.

Psychology

Gaslight

To knowingly present false information to someone, making them doubt their own observations, memory, and self-trust.

Psychology

Marshmallow Test

A purported connection between self-regulation and long-term positive outcomes, where the ability to forego immediate rewards is evidence of a discipline that serves in many other beneficial areas of life.

Problem-Solving

Maslow's Hammer

The over-reliance on a particular tool simply because that tool is either more immediately available or because it's more familiar.

Adage, Anecdote, Metaphor

Cobra Effect

An attempted solution to a problem actually makes the problem worse.

Non-English Term

Kintsugi

The Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with lacquer mixed with powder of a precious metal. The repair is seen as part of the object's delightful history and not something to hide.

Technology

Hype Cycle

The experience of any new technology over time where its inception generates inflated hype, followed in turn by disillusionment, and finally back up to a renewed but realistic opportunity.