Reference

90% of any given Internet community only view content, 9% edit, and 1% create. Said another way, 1% are participants while 99% are lurkers.

A form of logical inference which starts with an observation or set of observations, and then seeks to find the simplest and most likely explanation for the observations.

A management term where people make decisions based not on what they actually want to do, but on what they think that other people want to do, resulting in a decision that in fact satisfies no one.

Cognitive-behavioral phenomenon that occurs when an individual who is trying to maintain abstinence from a certain behavior experiences a lapse or relapse, leading to feelings of guilt, shame, and hopelessness.

Designing products, environments, and services so they can be used by people of all abilities. Good accessibility benefits everyone, not just those with disabilities.

Programming tasks which could be eliminated with better tools (as opposed to essential complexity inherent in the problem being solved).

A critical vulnerability in an otherwise strong position, named after the mythological Greek warrior who was invincible everywhere except his heel.

The concept that an object can be moved, changed, or otherwise affected without being physically touched (as in mechanical contact) by another object.

The minimum energy which must be available to a chemical system with potential reactants to result in a chemical reaction.

The notion that, in contrast to interpretations of their own behavior, people tend to (unduly) emphasize the agent's internal characteristics (character or intention), rather than external factors, in explaining other people's behavior — i.e. the tendency to believe that what people do reflects who they are.

Attacking an opponent's character or personal traits in an attempt to undermine their argument.

The notion that the human brain has evolved to reason adaptively, rather than truthfully or even rationally, and that cognitive bias may have evolved as a mechanism to reduce the overall cost of cognitive errors as opposed to merely reducing the number of cognitive errors, when faced with making a decision under conditions of uncertainty.

A set of interacting or interdependent entities, real or abstract, forming an integrated whole that together are able to respond to environmental changes or changes in the interacting parts, in a way analogous to either continuous physiological homeostasis or evolutionary adaptation in biology.

A learning tool used to introduce a topic and illustrate the relationship between what the people are about to learn and the information they have already learned.

The tendency for traders with better private information about the quality of a product to selectively participate in trades which benefit them the most.

The tendency for users to perceive attractive designs as more usable, even when they're not. Visual appeal creates a halo that makes people more forgiving of flaws.

A mental shortcut where current emotions — fear, pleasure, dread, comfort — serve as a rapid guide for judgments and decisions, often bypassing slower analytical reasoning.

Predicting how you'll feel in the future about an event or decision. Research shows people consistently overestimate both the intensity and duration of their future emotions.

A specification of how to solve a class of problems — can be a calculation, a process for data, or a form of automated reasoning.

The adage of overestimating the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimating the effect in the long run.

A cognitive bias where decision making is affected by a lack of information, or "ambiguity". The effect implies that people tend to select options for which the probability of a favorable outcome is known, over an option for which the probability of a favorable outcome is unknown.

A categorical syllogism that uses an ambiguous middle term to make its three-part claim, such as, "Only man is a rational animal. No woman is a man. Therefore, no woman is a rational animal."

An attitude in which one sees everything that happens in life (including suffering, pain, and loss), as either a good or, at the very least, a necessary outcome that is entwined with a larger and purpose-driven sense of destiny.

The state of overthinking a decision to the point where no action is taken — when the pursuit of the perfect choice prevents any choice at all.

A cognitive bias that describes the tendency for an individual to rely too heavily on an initial piece of information offered (the "anchor") when making decisions.

Using anecdotal evidence—informal testimony or personal experiences—as if it were sufficient proof for a general claim.

Principle that states that successful outcomes require all relevant factors to be present and that a failure can be caused by the absence of any one of these factors.

A starting assumption or educated guess used to solve a problem, which is then validated by whether it produces correct results. Common in mathematics and physics.

A set of four datasets that share nearly identical summary statistics yet reveal strikingly different patterns when graphed, illustrating the importance of data visualization.

The tendency to interpret the world primarily through human values, interests, and experience, placing human concerns at the center of moral and practical consideration.

The tendency to characterize animals, objects, and abstract concepts as possessing human-like traits, emotions, and intentions.

A phenomenon whereby the rate of uptake of beliefs, ideas, fads and trends \*decreases\* the more that they have already been adopted by others (contrary to the Bandwagon Effect).

A common response to a recurring problem that is usually ineffective and risks being highly counterproductive.

System or entity that not only resists stress and uncertainty but actually thrives and grows stronger under challenging conditions.

Withdrawal or alienation from society or human interaction, often as a result of disappointment or disillusionment with people or society.

The tendency to mistakenly perceive connections and meaning between unrelated things. It has come to imply a universal human tendency to seek patterns in random information.

An assertion is deemed true or false based on the accomplishments of the proposer. This may often also have elements of appeal to emotion.

A logical fallacy that manipulates feelings — fear, pity, pride — in place of a valid argument. Persuasive, but not evidence.

Takes something for granted because it would \*probably\* be the case (or might be the case).

A diplomatic policy of making political or material concessions to an enemy power in order to avoid conflict.

An idiom that refers to the apparent differences between items which are popularly thought to be incomparable or incommensurable, such as apples and oranges, as well as to indicate that a false analogy has been made between two items, such as where an apple is faulted for not being a good orange.

Exploiting a price difference for the same asset across two or more markets, profiting from the gap before it closes.

A model, prototype, statement, pattern of behavior, which other models, objects, statements, copy or emulate, often as a derivative of this canonical example.

Hypothetical vantage point from which an observer can objectively perceive the subject at hand, with a view of the entire system.

The fallacy of concluding something is true (or false) based on the absence of evidence, rather than the presence of it. Silence is not proof.

The formal fallacy of analyzing an argument and inferring that, since it contains a fallacy, its conclusion must be false.

Arguing that, because something is so incredible or amazing, it must be the result of superior, divine, alien or paranormal agency.

A fallacy in which one prematurely claims that an idea or proposal is correct or superior, exclusively because it is new and modern.

When voters have three or more distinct alternatives (options), no ranked order voting system can convert the ranked preferences of individuals into a community-wide (complete and transitive) ranking while also meeting a pre-specified set of criteria.

The notion that the degree of control of a system is proportional to the amount of information available. In other words, one needs an appropriate amount of information to control any system, whatever it is.

The phenomenon where the group performance exceeds the combined contributions of individual group members. There is evidence for both task-specific assembly bonus effects, and a general effect of collective intelligence, analogous to that of general intelligence.

In geometry, an asymptote of a curve is a line such that the distance between the curve and the line approaches zero as one or both of the x or y coordinates tends to infinity — i.e. approaching a value or curve arbitrarily closely.

The tendency to pay disproportionate attention to certain stimuli — particularly those that are emotionally salient, threatening, or personally relevant — while ignoring others.

A cognitive bias that occurs when a proposal is devalued if it appears to originate from an antagonist.

A mental shortcut in which a person faced with a hard question unconsciously answers an easier, related one instead — without realizing a swap has occurred.

The study of how people explain the causes of behavior and events — whether they credit internal traits or external circumstances.

A military strategy in which a belligerent party attempts to win a war by wearing down the enemy to the point of collapse through continuous losses in personnel and material.

The tendency for people to perform differently when in the presence of others than when alone.

The tendency to attribute greater accuracy and authority to the opinion of an authority figure and be more influenced by that opinion. The 1961 Milgram experiment in 1961 is widely cited as evidence of this bias (though this study has more recently been called into question).

The tendency to trust automated systems over one's own judgment or other information sources — accepting computer-generated recommendations even when contradictory evidence is available and correct.

A system that continuously regenerates and maintains itself from within. Living cells are the classic example — they produce the very components that sustain them.

A self-reinforcing cycle where an idea gains credibility simply because more people are repeating it. Popularity substitutes for evidence, and the belief snowballs through social networks.

The tendency to judge the likelihood of events based on how easily examples come to mind, rather than on actual probability or statistical data.

The discomfort of walking next to a stranger who is keeping pace with you, after merging routes (often after a stranger exits a shop or is walking a dog).

The illusion in which a word, a name, or other thing that has recently come to one's attention suddenly seems to appear with improbable frequency shortly afterwards.

Cognitive bias that causes people who encounter evidence which challenges their beliefs to reject that evidence, and to strengthen their support of their original stance.

A product development fallacy where personal use cases and opinions are conflated with predictions of a product’s future success.

A phenomenon whereby the rate of uptake of beliefs, ideas, fads and trends increases the more that they have already been adopted by others.

The tendency to accept vague, generic personality descriptions as uniquely accurate for yourself. It's why horoscopes, fortune cookies, and personality quizzes feel so personally spot-on.

A cost that must be incurred by a new entrant into a market that incumbents don't or haven't had to incur.

If presented with related base rate information (i.e. generic, general information) and specific information (information pertaining only to a certain case), the mind tends to ignore the former and focus on the latter.

Used in reliability engineering, it describes a particular form of the hazard function (a type of failure) comprising three distinct parts — the first part is a decreasing failure rate known as early failures, the second a constant failure rate, known as random failures, and the third is an increasing failure rate, known as wear-out failures.

Mode of applying probability where rather than thinking in terms of frequency or likelihood of some phenomenon, one thinks in terms of current expectations, current states of knowledge, and a quantification of personal belief, wherein new information is processed in a systematic way as it comes in to continually improve on a given estimate.

The tendency to judge the strength of arguments based on the plausibility of their conclusion rather than the validity of the reasoning. People accept arguments with believable conclusions and reject those with unbelievable ones, regardless of logical structure.

The bell-shaped curve of a very common distribution of probabilities (hence it being called the 'normal' distribution) where the most probable events in a series of data occur at the highest point, and all other probabilities distribute uniformly below that in both directions, creating rare event 'tails' on the sides.

The tendency to underestimate your own abilities relative to others, especially in areas where you feel inexpert. The flip side of overconfidence.

A proposed psychological phenomenon where a person who has already performed a favor for another is more likely to do another favor for the other than if they had received a favor from that person.

The surprising observation that in many real-world datasets, the leading digit is far more likely to be 1 than 9. This counterintuitive pattern is so reliable it's used to detect fraud in financial data.

A sorrowful lament or toast for someone who is alive, but who has gone away or is dearly missed.

A statistical illusion where two positive traits appear negatively correlated because you're only observing a filtered subset. The missing data you never see is what creates the false pattern.

The best expected outcome for a party when/if negotiations fail. Must be considered by all parties during negotiations as a baseline.

An adage holding that any news headline ending in a question mark can be answered by the word "no" — because if the answer were yes, the publisher would have stated it as fact.

An optical illusion where a color may appear different depending on its relation to adjacent colors.

The cognitive bias of recognizing the impact of biases on the judgment of others, while failing to see the impact of biases on one's own judgment.

In software, refers to a system with no recognizable structure or lacks a coherent architecture.

Literary genre that focuses on the coming-of-age or personal development of a protagonist, often highlighting their moral, psychological, and intellectual growth over time.

The imitation of models, systems, and characteristics found in nature, often for the purpose of solving complex human problems such as environmental tolerance, self-assembly, and the harnessing of solar energy.

The measurable positive effects — reduced stress, improved focus, elevated mood — that humans experience when exposed to nature or natural elements, even artificial ones like a plant in an office or a nature screensaver.

The subconscious tendency of people to prefer the numbers in the date of their birthday over other numbers.

A blending of elements drawn from two previously unrelated domains into a new pattern of association.

A system or device whose inner workings are opaque and whose internal workings can only be guessed at through its inputs and outputs.

The concept of technologies that are still untested or unstable and at the frontier of scientific and engineering development.

An experiment in which information about the test is masked (kept) from the participant, to reduce or eliminate bias, until after a trial outcome is known. If both tester and subject are blinded, the trial is called a double-blind experiment.

An anecdote describing a frog in a pot of water where the water's temperature is gradually raised to the point of killing the frog without their noticing, but if the frog is placed instantly in hot water, it would jump out immediately.

The unintended consequence of trying to persuade someone of something only to result in opposite position being adopted instead.

The belief that military success can only be achieved through the direct physical presence of troops in a conflict area.

A non-arbitrary mapping between speech sounds and visual shapes — rounded shapes tend to be associated with soft-sounding words like "bouba," while jagged shapes are matched with sharp-sounding words like "kiki" — observed across languages and cultures.

A memory distortion in which people remember seeing more of a scene than was actually shown — as if the camera had been pulled back slightly, expanding the boundaries of the image.

The notion of optimizing not the action that is taken but the algorithm that is used to choose that action. In other words, taking into account the cost of making a decision, and using resources to think rather than act.

Decision-makers are limited in their rationality by the cognitive limitations of their minds (experience, logic), the time available to make a given decision, and the tractability of the decision problem itself (deciding the right thing at all). They are looking for a satisfactory solution rather than an optimal one. From Herbert A. Simon.

The erroneous assumption that low-income and developing economies harbor an irrational attachment to livestock which hinders economic investments, whereas in fact the investment in livestock is a very rational and complex calculation of resource investment, power and esteem, gender, and familial ties.

Internet adage recognizing that "the amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it."

Construction or creation of a work from a diverse range of things that happen to be available, as opposed to strictly purpose-fabricated and planned.

The theory that maintaining and monitoring urban environments to prevent small crimes such as vandalism, public drinking, and toll-jumping helps to create an atmosphere of order and lawfulness, thereby preventing more serious crimes from happening.

The observation that adding more people to a late software project makes it even later, because new team members need ramp-up time and increase communication overhead.

The paradox in which a visible safety or privacy measure — meant to reassure — instead signals danger and reduces trust, much like bulletproof glass in a shop that makes visitors assume the neighborhood is unsafe.

A supply-chain pattern where small shifts in consumer demand cause increasingly large swings in orders at each step upstream — so that a minor change at the retail level becomes a wild overreaction by the time it reaches manufacturers.

The act of inferring why an argument is being used, associating it to some psychological reason, then assuming it is invalid as a result. The assumption that if the origin of an idea comes from a biased mind, then the idea itself must also be a falsehood.

Wasting time and resources or consuming processing units while waiting for something to happen.

The notion that a connection implies causality, with one earlier event being the cause of a subsequent event.

Feeling of regret or anxiety that a person may experience after making a purchase, often associated with the fear of having made a wrong or costly decision.

A social psychological phenomenon in which individuals are less likely to offer help to a victim when other people are present.

The experience of a sudden urge to act on an impulse that is precisely what your judgment is telling you not to do, such as overlooking from a tall height or the urge to pull a fire alarm for no reason.

The adage that "the more any quantitative social indicator is used for social decision-making, the more subject it will be to corruption pressures and the more apt it will be to distort and corrupt the social processes it is intended to monitor."

A movement first described in Melanesia which encompasses a range of practices and occurs in the wake of contact with more technologically advanced societies, where there was a belief that various ritualistic acts such as the building of an airplane runway will result in the appearance of material wealth, particularly highly desirable Western goods (i.e., cargo), via Western airplanes.

A policy of offering a combination of rewards and punishments to induce appropriate behavior.

A process in a system of interconnected parts in which the failure of one or few parts can trigger the failure of other parts and so on. Such a failure may happen in many types of systems, including power transmission, computer networking, finance, human body systems, and transportation systems.

Solving new problems by finding and adapting solutions from similar past situations. Experience becomes the primary guide rather than abstract rules.

A product or business unit that reliably generates profit with little investment. The danger is that its success breeds complacency about innovation.

A bank regulation employed by most, but not all, of the world's central banks, that sets the minimum amount of reserves that must be held by a commercial bank.

The spontaneous order of the market — from the market coordination of human action to the coordination of human-to-machine and machine-to-machine economies.

In chemistry, it is a substance which increases the rate of a reaction (or to enable it to occur at all). Applied more generally, it can be something that causes change.

A no-win situation where contradictory rules make it impossible to escape. Any attempt to resolve the dilemma is blocked by the very logic meant to govern it — proving you qualify for relief simultaneously disqualifies you from receiving it.

The finding that high ceilings promote abstract, creative thinking, while low ceilings encourage detail-oriented focus. Physical space shapes mental space.

In probability, when independent random variables are added, their properly normalized sum tends toward a normal distribution (informally a "bell curve") even if the original variables themselves are not normally distributed.

After an investment of effort in producing change, remembering one's past performance as more difficult than it actually was.

A dramatic principle stating that every element introduced in a story must be necessary and relevant to the narrative; irrelevant elements should be removed.

The act of pointing at individual cases or data that seem to confirm a particular position, while ignoring a significant portion of related cases or data that may contradict that position.

Principle that suggests before changing or removing something, it is essential to understand its original purpose and history, to avoid unintended consequences or negative outcomes.

A cognitive process in which people have a difficult time making a decision when faced with many options.

An argument that the art, science, or thinking of an earlier time is inherently inferior to that of the present, simply by virtue of its timing priority or the belief that since civilization has advanced in certain areas, people of earlier time periods were less intelligent.

A type of time illusion in which the first impression following the introduction of a new event or task-demand to the brain can appear to be extended in time.

In cognitive psychology, a process by which individual pieces of information are bound together into a meaningful whole, often used for memorization and mnemonics.

An evolutionary hypothesis which proposes that organisms must constantly adapt, evolve, and proliferate not merely to gain reproductive advantage, but also simply to survive while pitted against ever-evolving opposing organisms in a constantly changing environment.

A logical fallacy where the conclusion is assumed in the premise — the argument goes in a circle, proving nothing. "It's true because it's true."

The observation by the science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke that "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

A learning process in which a neutral stimulus (like a bell) is repeatedly paired with a biologically significant one (like food) until the neutral stimulus alone triggers a similar response (like salivation).

The tendency to erroneously consider the inevitable "streaks" or "clusters" arising in small samples from random distributions to be non-random.

If trade in an externality is possible and there are sufficiently low transaction costs, bargaining will lead to a Pareto efficient outcome regardless of the initial allocation of property.

The phenomenon of the brain's ability to focus one's auditory attention on a particular stimulus while filtering out a range of other stimuli, as when a partygoer can focus on a single conversation in a noisy room.

A programming practice of handling each new edge case by adding special-case code rather than rethinking the underlying design. Quick to write, painful to maintain.

The overarching term for all tendencies to think in certain ways that can lead to systematic deviations from a standard of rationality or good judgments.

The mental discomfort experienced by a person who simultaneously holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values, such as by a situation in which a belief of a person clashes with new evidence perceived by that person.

A technique in science fiction that presents an alternative reality plausible enough to take seriously but strange enough to make the reader question assumptions about their own world.

The damage inflicted on an unintended target or targets — often used in a military context to refer to injuries and deaths of innocent civilians.

A sociological concept where a community or society may at times come together and simultaneously communicate the same thought and participate in the same action, which in turn excites individuals and serves to unify the group.

A Gestalt principle that stimulus elements are likely to be perceived as a unit if they move together.

The economic principle where an agent has an advantage over another when a particular good they can produce at a lower relative opportunity cost (i.e. at a lower relative marginal cost prior to trade) than their competitors.

A system composed of many components which may interact with each other. Examples of complex systems are the human brain specifically, and many biological systems generally, transportation or communication systems, social and economic organizations (like cities), and the whole universe.

The tendency to favor complex explanations or solutions over simpler ones, even when simplicity is more accurate or effective.

The geometric progression ratio that provides a constant rate of return over the time period.

philosophical term originating from Latin, meaning "effort" or "striving." It refers to the innate inclination of a thing to continue to exist and enhance itself. The concept is prominent in the works of several philosophers, most notably in the philosophy of Baruch Spinoza, but it also appears in the writings of Thomas Hobbes and René Descartes.

When an abstraction, idea, or belief is treated as if it were a concrete, real event or tangible entity.

In psychology, the production of fabricated, distorted, or misinterpreted memories about oneself or the world, without the conscious intention to deceive.

A range of values (interval) that act as good estimates of the unknown overall population parameter.

The tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms one's preexisting beliefs or hypotheses, while giving disproportionately less consideration to alternative possibilities.

Bias occurs due to people's overreliance on directly testing a given hypothesis as well as neglecting indirect testing.

A formal fallacy that occurs when it is assumed that specific conditions are more probable than a single general one.

Generally, a political and social philosophy that promotes tradition, hierarchy, and social continuity — though it receives criticism as upholding social and economic inequality, and as making unhelpful societal appeals to nostalgia and a romantic history that has likely been more manufactured than experienced.

Incorrectly remembering one's past attitudes and behavior as resembling present attitudes and behavior.

The phenomenon of spending of money on and the acquisition of luxury goods and services as a way to publicly display economic power.

In social psychology, a broad term for the heuristics of how individuals perceive, comprehend, and interpret the world around them — particularly the behavior or action of others towards themselves.

A geopolitical strategy of preventing an adversary from expanding its influence, most famously applied during the Cold War to limit Soviet power.

Aspect of cognition where one is influenced by environmental factors in the perception of a given stimulus. In other words, the effects of a given context can impact our learning abilities, word recognition, and memory.

Learning "facts" about an event that later turn out to be false or unfounded, yet the discredited information continues to influence reasoning and understanding even after one has been corrected.

The fallacy of dismissing a valid distinction just because the boundary between two categories is blurry. The existence of gray doesn't disprove black and white.

In design and psychology, the tendency to prefer contoured or rounded objects, where sharp angles and pointed features evoke a threat response.

The enhancement or diminishment of perception, cognition or related performance as a result of successive (immediately previous) or simultaneous exposure to a stimulus of lesser or greater value in the same dimension.

A biological phenomenon in which an animal shows renewed mating interest when introduced to a new partner, even after losing interest in a previous one — observed across many species.

The principle that humans, on the Earth or in the Solar system, are not privileged observers of the universe.

Copying (and modifying) existing code rather than creating custom-fit solutions — can be used as a positive or negative.

From the French for a sanitary cordon, traditionally refers to forming a quarantine area, but also in politics implies off-limit topics, zones, and parties.

A claim, hypothesis, or other belief that is contrary to the facts and suggests a hypothetical state of the world in which to assess the impact of an action.

The tendency for respondents to understate dissatisfaction because they don't want to offend the organization seeking their opinion.

Dismissing a criticism by claiming that the critic lacks sufficient knowledge, credentials, or training to credibly comment on the subject matter.

Social phenomenon where people in a group try to bring down or sabotage those who try to improve or succeed, out of envy, resentment, or a sense of competition.

An umbrella term for the cognitive, strategic and practical processes by which design concepts (proposals for new products, buildings, machines, etc.) are developed around cooperative efforts in general, and likely a human-centered design process more specifically.

A term for the process of an industrial cycle that revolutionizes the economic structure with periodic extinction of industries as new industries emerge to meet societal needs.

The notion that a sufficient number of adopters of an innovation in a social system is required such that the rate of adoption becomes self-sustaining and creates further growth.

The longest unbroken chain of sequential tasks or activities where delays along that path directly affect the overall completion time of the more general objective.

The tendency to more easily recognize faces of the race that one is most familiar with (which is most often one's own race).

The process of obtaining feedback, services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people — often associated with Internet communities — where when a large group's aggregated answers to questions has been found to be as good as, and often better than, the answer given by any of the individuals within a group.

The instance of a forgotten memory returning without it being recognized as such by the subject, who believes it is something new and original.

The idea that cultures change over time through processes analogous to biological evolution — beliefs, customs, languages, and technologies spread, mutate, compete, and sometimes go extinct.

"The best way to get the right answer on the Internet is not to ask a question, it's to post the wrong answer." The observation that people are quicker to correct a wrong answer than to answer a question.

A principle of software design and life: focus on doing one thing well. Derived from the movie City Slickers, it argues that clarity comes from singular focus.

The difficulty of imagining what it's like not to know something you already know. Experts chronically overestimate how well others understand them because they can't un-know their own expertise.

Superficially aggressive behavior caused by seeing something cute, such as a human baby or young animal.

A conceptual framework used to aid decision-making. Described as a "sense-making device", Cynefin offers five decision-making contexts or 'domains'— obvious, complicated, complex, chaotic, and disorder—that help managers to identify how they perceive situations and make sense of their own and other people's behavior.

A Latin maxim meaning "In matters of taste, there can be no disputes" — suggesting that personal preferences are subjective and cannot be argued as if one preference is "right" or "wrong".

A loss of economic efficiency that occurs when an equilibrium state for a good or service is not achieved or is not achievable.

A project whose participants believe it is destined to fail, yet are compelled to continue — often with unsustainable overwork and leadership in denial about the outcome.

The belief that society or an institution is in irreversible decline. Often more a mood than a fact — every generation tends to think the best days are behind them.

The phenomenon where consumers will tend to have a specific change in preference between two options when also presented with a third option that is "asymmetrically dominated", that is, inferior in all respects to one option, but compared to the other option is inferior in some and superior in other respects — thereby nudging a preference for the dominating option.

Reasoning from one or more premises to reach a certain conclusion. If the premises are true, then the deduction is necessarily true — it is "top-down" (in contrast with 'Induction' which is "bottom-up").

The ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task, allowing one to quickly master complicated information and produce better results in less time.

The observation that if making an option a 'default' option increases the likelihood that it is chosen.

A residential environment whose physical characteristics — building layout and site plan — function to allow inhabitants themselves to become key agents in ensuring their security.

A social psychological term from the attributional approach referring to a set of beliefs used as a shield against the fear that one will be the victim or cause of a serious mishap.

Changing the meaning of a word to deal with an objection raised against the original wording.

The conscious choice not to seek or use available information — even when obtaining it would be free and easy.

The observation that people paradoxically provide more articulate and explicit goals for lower-priority areas of their lives than for the areas they consider most important.

A form of cognitive bias relating to currency, suggesting people may be less likely to spend larger currency denominations than their equivalent value in smaller denominations.

Software design principle that advocates for high-level modules to depend on abstractions, rather than on low-level modules, to allow for flexibility, maintainability, and scalability of the system.

The notion that memory recall of stimuli is a function of the depth of mental processing. Deeper levels of analysis (such as tethering it one's own life or context) produce more elaborate, longer-lasting, and stronger memory traces than shallow levels of analysis (such as rote memorization or visual memorization).

What happens when too many people contribute to a design without a single unifying vision. The result is often a muddled compromise that satisfies no one.

A general, reusable solution to a commonly occurring problem in design or software. Patterns provide a shared vocabulary and proven approach rather than reinventing solutions from scratch.

A series of components that can be reused in different combinations — allowing for consistency, scaling, and efficiency.

A plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem in a story is suddenly and abruptly resolved by an unexpected and seemingly unlikely occurrence, such as the appearance of hero or deity, unknown inventory, or other contrived denouement.

In software, the process of dividing software development work into distinct phases to improve design and project management. Current methodologies include agile, waterfall, prototyping, iterative and incremental development, spiral development, rapid application development, and extreme programming.

The phenomenon where acquiring one new possession triggers a cascade of further purchases to match it. A new couch leads to new pillows, then a new rug, then a new room.

Logical fallacy in which a difference between two things is asserted without any meaningful or relevant distinction being made between them.

The theory explaining how new ideas and technologies spread through a population — from early adopters to the mainstream to the laggards.

In statistics, machine learning, and information theory, the process of reducing the number of random variables under consideration by obtaining a set of principal variables.

In economics, utility is the satisfaction or benefit derived by consuming a product, thus the marginal utility of a good or service is the change in the utility from an increase in the consumption of that good or service. A 'diminishing utility' is simply the ongoing decrease in utility from additional goods or services.

A paradox in social choice theory where aggregating judgments with majority voting can result in self-contradictory judgments.

The tendency for investors to sell winning assets too early and hold losing assets too long — driven by loss aversion and the desire to avoid locking in a loss.

The tendency to view two options as more distinctive when evaluating them simultaneously than when evaluating them separately.

A network architecture where no single node is in charge — components and data are spread across many sources, making the system more resilient.

Complementary modes of problem-solving: convergent thinking narrows options toward a single correct answer, while divergent thinking generates multiple possible solutions by exploring varied and unexpected directions.

Recursively breaking down a problem into two or more sub-problems of the same or related type, until these become simple enough to be solved directly.

Conceived by Walter Doherty and Ahrvind Thadani, the Doherty threshold is an objective for keeping the user thoroughly engaged when interacting with a computer. If a response appears after the 400 ms threshold, users eventually become disinterested according to a study done in the late 1970s.

The cumulative effect produced when one event sets off a series of similar events. The term is best known as a mechanical effect, and is used as an analogy to a falling row of dominoes, and typically refers to a linked sequence of events where the time between successive events is relatively small.

The principle to build systems which rely on repetitive patterns and subsystems in efficient ways to avoid duplication and inefficiency.

The phenomenon that walking through a doorway leads one to forget their current task at hand.

Counting events or occurrences more than once — seen in accounting as a mathematical error, but in macroeconomics as an embedded challenge where boundary problems and logical unit problems arise (i.e. household input is institutional output).

The idea that some extreme events aren't just rare outliers but arise from distinct, identifiable mechanisms — positive feedback loops, tipping points, and phase transitions that amplify them beyond normal scale.

The act of staying in one's car or hesitating to enter one's destination even after arriving due to being engrossed in a podcast or radio story and wanting to reach a stopping point.

In architecture, 'ducks' are buildings that explicitly represent their function through their shape and construction. "Decorated sheds", on the other hand, are generic structures that use signs and imagery to convey their purpose.

The suggested cognitive limit to the number of friends one can maintain, in terms of stable, social relationships, which is usually said to be around 150.

The psychological observation that people's judgments of the unpleasantness of painful experiences depend very little on the duration of those experiences. Such judgments tend to be affected by two factors: the peak (when the experience was the most painful), and how quickly the pain diminishes.

A principle which states that plurality-rule elections (such as first-past-the-post) structured within single-member districts tend to favor a two-party system, and that the double ballot majority system and proportional representation tend to favor multipartism.

A catchy piece of music that continually repeats through a person's mind after it is no longer playing.

In mathematics, a situation concerned with the problem of choosing a time to take a particular action, in order to maximise an expected reward or minimise an expected cost.

Metaphorical environment in which beliefs are amplified and reinforced inside of a closed system.

Inferences about the nature of specific individuals are based solely upon aggregate statistics collected for the group to which those individuals belong.

The reduced costs per unit that arise from increased total output of a product. For example, a larger factory will produce power tools at a lower unit price, and a larger medical system will reduce cost per medical procedure.

A philosophy and social movement that uses evidence and reason to determine the most effective ways to do good — asking not just "should I help?" but "where will my help go furthest?"

A set of decision-making principles where entrepreneurs determine goals according to the resources in their possession, contrasted with 'causation', where entrepreneurs will determine goals to achieve and look for the resources to do so.

A person's tendency to attribute a value to an outcome, which they had to put effort into achieving, greater than the objective value of the outcome.

An idiosyncratic substitution of a word or phrase for a word or words that sound similar or identical in the speaker's dialect. The new phrase introduces a meaning that is different from the original but plausible in the same context, such as "old-timers' disease" for "Alzheimer's disease".

The idea that self-control or willpower draws upon a limited pool of mental resources that can be used up. There have both been studies to support and to question the validity of ego-depletion as a theory.

The tendency to rely too heavily on one's own perspective and/or have a higher opinion of oneself than reality.

A German term for an all-in-one solution that tries to do everything — the mythical "egg-laying wool milk sow." In practice, such solutions rarely exist.

A framing technique that identifies the one question whose answer likely resolves a cascade of subsequent questions as well.

A time management framework that categorizes tasks along two axes — urgency and importance — to clarify that what is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.

Putting effort into something that goes unnoticed or unappreciated — like heating a room with the windows wide open, where only the crows outside benefit.

An obvious problem or risk that no one wants to discuss but which everyone is silently considering.

The way complex patterns, behaviors, or properties arise from the interaction of simpler parts that don't individually display those qualities — like how consciousness arises from neurons, or a murmuration from individual starlings.

The phenomenon where emotional states can be transferred to others via emotional contagion, leading them to experience the same emotions as those around them.

Cognitive bias in which people underestimate the influences of visceral drives on their own attitudes, preferences, and behaviors.

Using reverse psychology (and luck) to deceive the enemy into thinking that an empty location is full of traps and ambushes, and therefore induce the enemy to retreat.

The quality of extreme vividness, radiance or present-ness (Greek ἐνεργής; "visible", "manifest"). In rhetoric, a description so vivid it seems to conjure its subject into existence; so powerful it evokes the (unbearable) brightness of being. [

The tendency to value something more highly simply because you own it. Sellers consistently price their possessions above what buyers are willing to pay.

In Zen, a circle that is hand-drawn in one or two uninhibited brushstrokes to express a moment when the mind is free to let the body create.

A measure of disorder or randomness in a system. In any closed system, things naturally drift from order toward disorder over time — which is why so many everyday processes are easy to start but impossible to reverse.

An informal fallacy resulting from the use of a particular word/expression in multiple senses throughout an argument leading to a false conclusion.

In computer programming, the practice of 'catching' an error message before it can be shown to the user and either showing nothing or showing a meaningless message.

A theory of perception and cognition biases referring to how humans think and make decisions using heuristics and biases that have survived evolutionary history, because they hold some evolutionary benefits.

Pattern of behavior in which an individual or group facing increasingly negative outcomes from a decision, action, or investment nevertheless continues the behavior instead of altering course.

French term ("staircase wit") describing the feeling one has when thinking of the perfect reply — but a moment too late when one is already headed away from the moment.

The view that every entity has a set of attributes that are necessary to its identity and function.

The idea that the universe and everything in it has occurred and will recur in exactly the same way an infinite number of times, with every moment repeating in an endless cycle.

The mistaken assumption that a word's original or historical meaning determines its correct present-day usage.

An Aristotelian concept of human flourishing — not mere happiness, but the deep fulfillment that comes from living virtuously and realizing one's full potential.

A phenomenon where software developers fail to use proper software development principles when creating tools — often to facilitate the software development process itself.

A more extreme version of confirmation bias (interpreting information in such a way that it confirms a preconception), where the reality, when compared to real-world evidence, turns out to be less severe or extreme than the expectations.

A shift in the function of a trait during evolution. For example, a trait can evolve because it served one particular function, but subsequently it may come to serve another.

A strategic means of leaving one's current situation, either after a predetermined objective has been achieved, or as a strategy to mitigate failure.

The bias for pre-existing expectations in observing a phenomenon to invariably influence the outcome of that observation.

The probability-weighted average of all possible values. For example, the expected value in rolling a six-sided die is 3.5, because the average of all the numbers that come up in an extremely large number of rolls is close to 3.5.

A pattern of reasoning where one cause of an effect explains that effect entirely thereby reducing (need not eliminate) the need to verify other alternative causes.

An algorithm that uses feedback to multiplicatively decrease the rate of some process, in order to gradually find an acceptable rate.

A psychological phenomenon by which people tend to develop a preference for things merely because they are familiar with them.

Risks of very bad outcomes or "high consequence", but of low probability. They include the risks of terrorist attack, biosecurity risks such as the invasion of pests, and extreme natural disasters such as major earthquakes.

An attributional bias where people attribute relatively more to "extrinsic incentives" (such as monetary reward) than to "intrinsic incentives" (such as learning a new skill) when weighing the motives of others rather than themselves.

A psychological phenomenon in which information regarding negative emotions tends to be forgotten more quickly than that associated with pleasant emotions.

An ambiguity that arises when the meaning of a sentence is changed by placing an unusual prosodic stress, or when, in a written passage, it's left unclear which word the emphasis was supposed to fall on.

The error of assuming that what's true for one part must be true for the whole. One strong player doesn't guarantee a strong team.

The fallacy of assuming that something true of a thing must also be true of all or some of its parts.

Assuming that there is one, simple cause of an outcome when in reality it may be caused by a number of only jointly sufficient causes.

The philosophical claim that no belief can have justification which guarantees the truth of the belief.

A logical fallacy where two things are compared as if they're alike in a relevant way, when in fact the similarities are superficial and the comparison breaks down.

An appeal to an irrelevant, unqualified, unidentified, biased or fabricated source in support of an argument.

Citing someone as an expert on a topic outside their actual area of expertise, or relying on a single opinion to lend unwarranted credibility to a claim.

Assuming that only two alternative statements are held to be the only possible options when in reality there are more.

An informal fallacy which asserts that the truth of an argument must be found as a compromise between two opposite positions.

A psychological phenomenon where a person recalls something that did not happen or differently from the way it happened.

The tendency to overestimate how many other people share your opinions, preferences, and habits — assuming your way of thinking is more "normal" than it actually is.

How people tend to view their qualities, traits and personal attributes as unique, when in reality they are not.

A psychological phenomenon where recognition times or error rates for a particular concept increases as more information about the concept is acquired. The word "fan" refers to the number of associations correlated with the concept.

A logical error where a broad rule is inferred from too few examples or unrepresentative evidence. One bad experience doesn't define the whole.

A disinformation strategy used in sales, marketing, public relations, politics and propaganda, where one is trying to influence perception by disseminating negative and dubious or false information and a manifestation of the appeal to fear.

The loop or circuit that forms when outputs of a system are routed back as inputs, as part of a chain of cause-and-effect.

The apparent contradiction between the lack of evidence and high probability estimates for the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations.

Numbers characterized by the fact that every number after the first two is the sum of the two preceding ones, in the following sequence: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, etc.

Using strategies and tactics that worked successfully in the past — but are no longer as useful.

A principle of visual perception where the brain separates what it sees into a foreground figure and a background. What you focus on depends on how you frame it.

A ritual of pausing for coffee, a treat, and unhurried conversation. More than a simple break — it is about slowing down and connecting with the people around you.

The notion that users get less exposure to conflicting viewpoints and are isolated intellectually in their own informational bubble, particularly on social media platforms.

The intuitive, almost tactile sense that lets someone make quick, effective decisions without conscious analysis. The kind of expertise you can feel but can't easily explain.

Finite games are the familiar contests of everyday life; they are played in order to be won, which is when they end. But infinite games are more mysterious. Their object is not winning, but ensuring the continuation of play. The rules may change, the boundaries may change, even the participants may change—as long as the game is never allowed to come to an end.

The advantage gained by the first-moving significant occupant of a market segment (property rights, branding, investments, etc), contrasted with the disadvantage of being the first to move into a market segment (using unreliable or inefficient technologies, making the first mistakes, etc.).

First order effects directly follow from a cause, while second order effects follow from first order effects.

The experience of going through a process where one is made to feel as though it’s new or unexpected, despite it being obviously routine.

A predictive model of human movement primarily used in human–computer interaction and ergonomics (such as moving a mouse cursor on a screen). This scientific law predicts that the time required to rapidly move to a target area is a function of the ratio between the distance to the target and the width of the target.

The design principle that as the flexibility of a system increases, its usability decreases. The tradeoff exists because accommodating flexibility requires satisfying a larger set of requirements, which results in complexity and usability compromises.

A trope where a caregiver develops romantic feelings, sexual feelings, or both for their patient, even if very little communication or contact takes place outside of basic care.

In aviation, a system that replaces the conventional manual flight controls of an aircraft with an electronic interface.

The substantial and long-sustained increase in both fluid and crystallized intelligence test scores that was measured in many parts of the world over the 20th century.

The notion that it is desirable to draw enemies to a single area, where it is easier to defeat them.

A solution that people will tend to use in the absence of communication, because it seems natural, special, or relevant to them.

The uncertainty in situational awareness experienced, most commonly used as a reference to military operations.

A tactic that aims at getting a party to agree to a large request by having them agree to a modest request first, and then building upon that small agreement to larger agreements justified by that initial trust.

Military term that describes a capability or technology that significantly enhances the effectiveness and output of a military force, allowing them to achieve greater results with less resources.

A constraint or mechanism that compels a particular behavior or outcome. Deadlines, public commitments, and design constraints all serve as forcing functions.

A principle which says that the shape of a building or object should primarily relate to its intended function or purpose.

A set of concepts and theoretical perspectives on how individuals, groups, and societies, organize, perceive, and communicate about reality.

Metaphor drawn from Mary Shelley's fictional creature, representing the tragic consequences of unchecked scientific ambition, creation that turns against its creator, and humanity's dangerous impulse to master forces — including life and death — beyond its control.

When those who benefit from resources, goods, or services don't pay for them, leading to under-provision of those goods.

A pricing strategy by which a product or service (typically a digital offering or application such as software, media, games or web services) is provided free of charge, but money (a premium) is charged for proprietary features, functionality, or virtual goods.

The fundamental response options when humans (and other animals) are exposed to stressful or threatening situations, often summarized by the simpler "fight or flight" phrase.

The cognitive phenomenon where people are more likely to take action towards a goal after temporal landmarks that represent new beginnings, such as a new home, new workplace, or even walking through a doorway.

The total direct and indirect costs associated with the execution of a transaction, often applied in finance but not limited to that domain.

The phenomenon of mutual friends meeting based on their friendship to the original "connector" friend, and then over time the two new friends developing a friendship not dependent on the original friend, and can be both seen as positive or exclusionary, depending on context.

A cognitive bias that limits a person to use an object only in the way it is traditionally used.

Outcomes are asserted to have been caused by the misconduct or wrongdoing of decision makers.

The fallacy that simple knowledge of an issue is akin to solving that issue, derived from the phrase, "And knowing is half the battle!"

A theory proposing that living organisms interact with their inorganic surroundings on Earth to form a synergistic and self-regulating, complex system that helps to maintain and perpetuate the conditions for life on the planet.

A logical fallacy in which someone argues that their rejected or ridiculed ideas must be correct because Galileo was also ridiculed and turned out to be right — ignoring that being mocked does not make one correct — i.e., "everyone says I am wrong, _therefore_ I am right."

A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over with a working simple system.

The mistaken belief that, if something happens more frequently than normal during a given period, it will happen less frequently in the future (or vice versa).

The mathematical study of strategic decision-making, where your best move depends on what others do. It models competition, cooperation, and conflict.

The adage from Bill Gates that, "Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years."

A phenomenon where information is better remembered if it is generated from one's own mind rather than simply read.

Phenomenon where knowledge or experiences are lost between generations due to incomplete or selective transmission, leading to a distorted or incomplete understanding of historical events or cultural practices.

A set of principles describing how humans naturally perceive visual elements as organized patterns and wholes rather than separate parts, organized into categories including proximity, similarity, continuity, closure, and connectedness.

A feeling of warmth, togetherness, and relaxed social comfort — applied to places, people, gatherings, or moments that make you feel at home among friends.

The parable of a young husband and wife and how they deal with the challenge of buying secret Christmas gifts for each other with very little money, where they each sell items they own (watch and hair) to buy gifts for the other that, as it turns out in a twist ending, are no longer useful to the other (a watch chain a combs, respectively), an example of comic irony.

A Wiradjuri concept encompassing wind, change, and the feelings of fear and apprehension that accompany transformation.

The observed Internet phenomenon where if an online discussion (regardless of topic or scope) goes on long enough, sooner or later someone will compare someone or something to Hitler or Nazism.

The practice of waking up early to go outside and listen to birdsong — a quiet act of attention to nature's first sounds of the day.

Continuing to work on a task or project well past the point at which extra effort is not adding value.

A mathematical relationship where the ratio of two quantities equals the ratio of their sum to the larger of the two quantities (~1.618), a pattern that appears in natural environments including the spiral arrangement of leaves and other plant parts.

When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure. People optimize for the metric itself rather than the outcome it was meant to track.

The tendency to forget information that can be found readily online by using Internet search engines such as Google.

The ability of a system, machine, or product to maintain a limited functionality even when a large portion of it no longer works or has broken down.

The condition of existing in grains or granules, referring to the extent to which a material or system is composed of distinguishable pieces. It can either refer to the extent to which a larger entity is subdivided, or the extent to which groups of smaller indistinguishable entities have joined together to become larger distinguishable entities.

An analogy referring to a highly probable, high impact yet neglected threat. Example include the impact of new technologies, global climate change, rising inequality, etc.

A monetary principle stating that "bad money drives out good". If there are two forms of commodity money in circulation — which are accepted by law as having similar face value — the more valuable commodity will gradually disappear from circulation. Seen more often in earlier contexts of silver or even copper coins.

The cognitive bias which causes people to think individuals are more attractive when they are in a group.

The tendency to believe either that the characteristics of an individual group member are reflective of the group as a whole, or that a group's decision outcome must reflect the preferences of individual group members.

A psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people in which the desire for harmony or conformity results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome.

Fixed Mindset is the belief that abilities are innate, and failure is interpreted as a lack of those abilities, where Growth Mindset is the belief that one can acquire abilities provided appropriate effort.

In shopping mall design, the moment when consumers enter a shopping mall or store and, surrounded by an intentionally confusing layout, lose track of their original intentions, making consumers more susceptible to make impulse buys.

A form of irregular warfare in which a small group of combatants such as paramilitary personnel use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, raids, petty warfare, hit-and-run tactics, and mobility to fight a larger and less-mobile traditional military.

A finding in motor neuroscience that reactive movements are executed roughly 10% faster than self-initiated ones — the person who draws second in a duel moves more quickly, even though they still usually lose due to the delay of reacting.

A design principle describing the natural eye movement pattern on evenly distributed content, dividing pages into four quadrants based on reading gravity from top-left to bottom-right.

A nostalgic reference to a past period remembered as happy, peaceful, and successful.

The biological notion that every organism has an optimum size, and a change in size inevitably leads to a change in form.

The tendency to let one positive trait — attractiveness, confidence, a nice smile — color your judgment of a person's entirely unrelated qualities. First impressions cast a long shadow.

In computing, the challenge in determining just from code and an input, whether the program will actually finish (halt), or continue to run forever.

Embedding data directly into the source code of a system, whereas 'soft code' embeds data in external locations or configuration files. These two coding practices have tradeoffs of time to develop, scaling, and sustainability.

The tendency to be overconfident on hard tasks and underconfident on easy ones. We overestimate our chances when things look difficult, and underestimate them when things look simple.

Drawing a broad conclusion from too few instances or an unrepresentative sample, ignoring that the evidence is insufficient to support the generalization.

A type of reactivity in which individuals modify an aspect of their behavior in response to their awareness of being observed.

The tendency for benefits and resources to be simply enjoyed and ignored (headwinds), whereas, unequally, barriers and hindrances command attention as something to overcome (tailwinds).

A neuroscientific theory claiming that an increase in synaptic efficacy arises from a cell's repeated and persistent stimulation. It is an attempt to explain synaptic plasticity — the adaptation of brain neurons during the learning process. Commonly summarized as, "What fires together, wires together."

A parable of two differing cognitive style — hedgehogs are specialized and drill deeply into a given area where foxes are generalists and prioritize invented solutions.

The tendency of humans to quickly return to a relatively stable level of happiness despite major positive or negative events or life changes.

The dominance of one group or state over others — not just through force, but through cultural, economic, or political influence that becomes accepted as normal.

A form of indirect protection from a disease or circumstance when a large proportion of a population has become inoculated to it, thus protecting the at-risk individuals.

The attentional ability for individuals in a mass-transit environment to navigate a crowd and not impede others’ navigation, such as by stopping suddenly, being distracted by a phone, or zig-zag walking.

Not conforming with accepted or orthodox standards or beliefs.

Any approach to problem solving, learning, or discovery that employs a practical method — not guaranteed to be optimal, perfect, logical, or rational — but instead sufficient for reaching an immediate goal.

Describes the time it takes for a person to make a decision as a result of the possible choices he or she has: increasing the number of choices will increase the decision time logarithmically.

The idea that when a person decides to take on a project, the ignorance of future obstacles allows the person to rationally choose to undertake the project, and once it is underway the person will creatively overcome the obstacles because it is too late to abandon the project.

An arrangement of items (objects, names, values, categories, etc.) in which the items are represented as being "above", "below", or "at the same level as" one another.

A mathematical optimization technique where an iterative algorithm starts with an arbitrary solution to a problem, then attempts to find a better solution by making an incremental change to the solution. If the change produces a better solution, another incremental change is made to the new solution, and so on until no further improvements can be found.

Looking backwards after an event has occurred and arguing for its obvious predictability, when in fact at the time it was not or was much harder to predict.

A set of considerations is thought to hold good only because a completed process is read into the content of the process which conditions this completed result.

Group intelligence that emerges from the collective efforts of individuals and reflects a collective intelligence. Commonly seen in sociology, political science, biology, and technology.

A traditional Hawaiian practice of reconciliation and forgiveness, centered on restoring harmony through mutual responsibility and letting go.

The axiom that "it always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law."

In economics and finance, a probability distribution with a positive mean and right fat tail — a returns profile of a hypothetical investment that produces small returns centered on zero and occasionally exhibits outsized positive returns.

The tendency of individuals to associate and bond with similar others, as in the expression "birds of a feather flock together".

An argument that accounts for a phenomenon in terms of the very phenomenon that it is supposed to explain, which results in an infinite recursion.

The compulsion to fill every available space with detail or decoration, leaving no surface empty. In design, sometimes the most powerful move is restraint.

The tendency to interpret others' behaviors as having hostile intent, even when the behavior is ambiguous or benign.

A perceptual theory of mass communication that refers to the tendency for individuals with a strong pre-existing attitude on an issue to perceive media coverage as biased against their side and in favor of their antagonists' point of view.

The apparent phenomenon that a person who experiences a successful outcome with a random event has a greater probability of success in further attempts. Not necessarily a fallacy, as recent studies using modern statistical analysis show there is evidence for the "hot hand" in some sporting activities.

A framework of processes (not restricted to interfaces or technologies) in which usability goals, user characteristics, environment, tasks and workflow of a product, service, and process are given attention at each stage of the design process — where the focus is on user experience and outcomes as opposed to feature specifications alone.

The observation that humorous items are more easily remembered than non-humorous ones, which might be explained by the distinctiveness of humor itself, the act of understanding the humor, or simply the emotions that the humor causes.

An 18th-century Scottish term for lounging in bed long after it's time to get up. A charming word for a universal guilty pleasure.

Danish concept that refers to a feeling of coziness, warmth, and contentment, often achieved through simple pleasures and social interactions, and emphasizing a sense of comfort, security, and togetherness.

The tendency for people to increasingly choose a smaller (but more immediate) reward over a larger (but later) reward as the delay occurs sooner rather than later in time.

Entities that are so large, both spatially and temporally, that they exceed our ability to fully comprehend them, and are often characterized by their non-local and non-linear properties, such as climate change or nuclear radiation.

A term coined to describe a phenomenon reported in a controversial scientific study which claims that, although humans cannot consciously hear ultrasound (sounds at frequencies above approximately 20 kHz), the presence or absence of those frequencies has a measurable effect on their physiological and psychological reactions.

The dependence of the state of a system on its history. For example, a magnet may have more than one possible magnetic moment in a given magnetic field, depending on how the field changed in the past.

The use of pictorial images to make actions, objects, and concepts in a display easier to find, recognize, learn, and remember.

In ecology, a way in which animals distribute themselves among several patches of resources. The theory predicts that the distribution of animals among patches will minimize resource competition and maximize fitness.

An economic theory where "ideal theory" assumes strict compliance and works out the principles that characterize a well-ordered society under favorable circumstances, and "non-ideal" is worked out after an "ideal conception of justice has been chosen" and addresses what the parties are to do when conditions are not as perfect as they are assumed to be in ideal theory.

The tendency of individuals to offer greater aid when a specific, identifiable person is observed under hardship, as compared to a large, vaguely defined group with the same need. Often summarized as concrete images and representations being more powerful sources of persuasion than abstract statistics.

An argument that supports both sides of an issue by using terms that are selectively emotionally sensitive.

Assuming that correlations within data show that one variable causes another, and ignoring a possible underlying variable that is responsible for variables to correlate.

The fallacy of assuming what's true of the parts must be true of the whole (or vice versa). One corrupt employee doesn't make a corrupt company, and one great player doesn't make a great team.

A cognitive bias whereby people perceive their knowledge of others to surpass other people's knowledge of them.

The tendency to believe you have more influence over outcomes than you actually do, especially in situations governed by chance.

The notion that most people feel they understand the world with far greater detail, coherence, and depth than they really do.

The tendency to be overconfident in predictions when data seems to form a coherent story, even when that data is unreliable or incomplete. Pattern recognition feels like insight but can be misleading.

A cognitive bias where people overestimate their own qualities and abilities relative to others — most people, for example, rate themselves as above-average drivers.

The notion that one is more likely to identify as true statements those they have previously heard (even if they cannot consciously remember having heard them), regardless of the actual validity of the statement. In other words, a person is more likely to believe a familiar statement than an unfamiliar one.

The tendency for people to overestimate the length or the intensity of future emotional states.

The practice, in electronics, of designing the input impedance of an electrical load or the output impedance of its corresponding signal source to maximize the power transfer or minimize signal reflection from the load.

The dangerous assumption that because a known error is unlikely, it won't happen. In complex systems, improbable events become inevitable given enough time or scale.

A legal term indicating that a criminal has been caught in the act of committing an offense.

A storytelling technique that drops the audience into the middle of the action, skipping the setup. The backstory fills in later, but the hook comes first.

Theory proposing that logic has a three-part structure: asserting something, the negation of this assertion, and a third position that is neither or both.

A fallacy where something is declared "better" or "faster" without specifying compared to what. Without a baseline, the claim is meaningless.

When different methods of comparison are used, leaving a false impression of the whole comparison.

In semiotics, the phenomenon of a sign pointing to (or indexing) some object in the context in which it occurs — a sign that signifies indexically is called an index

A reasoning error where a broad conclusion is drawn from insufficient or weak evidence. The premises may point in a direction, but they don't adequately support the leap.

A method of reasoning in which the premises are viewed as supplying some evidence for the truth of the conclusion (in contrast to deductive reasoning and abductive reasoning).

The Japanese concept of taking power naps at work, on the subway, and in other public places, where the practice is seen not as a sign of laziness, but of diligence — that one is working themselves to exhaustion.

The fallacy of assuming that because the experts of a field of knowledge disagree on a certain point, the scholars must know nothing, and therefore the legitimacy of their entire field is put to question.

The moment when a trend fundamentally changes direction or accelerates — a turning point where gradual shifts become dramatic ones.

The study of decisions in transactions where one party has more or better information than the other. This asymmetry creates an imbalance of power in transactions, which can sometimes cause the transactions to go awry, a kind of market failure in the worst case.

The tendency to seek more information even when it won't change your decision. More data feels productive but can delay action without improving outcomes.

When network participants pass on information they assume to be true, but cannot know to be true, based on information on what other users are doing.

The pattern of favoring people who belong to your own group while being skeptical or dismissive of outsiders, often unconsciously.

A system built within an existing platform (due to constraints, preferences, etc.) that has become so complex that it has become a poor replica of an existing platform.

Icelandic term for 'intuition', but can also mean 'the sea within' and more generally conveys a sense of inner awareness and ability to empathize with others from within one's own self.

The concept that flawed, incorrect, or nonsense input data produces flawed, incorrect, and nonsense output.

The cognitive bias that occurs when people judge the probability of obtaining a sample statistic without respect to the sample size. In other words, variation is more likely in smaller samples, but people may not expect this.

A learning process through which the strength of a behavior is modified by reinforcement or punishment.

The insistence that the ultimate meaning of an expression must be consistent with the intention of the person from whom the communication originated. For example, a work of fiction that is widely received as a blatant allegory must necessarily not be regarded as such if the author intended it not to be so.

When an interface accumulates so many methods or options that it becomes unwieldy and nearly impossible to implement correctly. Simplicity is a feature.

A software design rule holding that no client should be forced to depend on methods it does not use — large interfaces should be split into smaller, more specific ones so each client only knows about what it needs.

A cognitive bias in which people wrongly think they have direct insight into the origins of their mental states, while treating others' introspections as unreliable.

Intuitive beliefs defined in the architecture of the mind, formulated in an intuitive mental lexicon. Higher-order or "reflective" propositional attitudes are provided by other beliefs that describe the source of the reflective belief as reliable, or that provide explicit arguments in favour of the reflective belief.

The property of remaining unchanged despite changes in conditions or perspective. In science and math, invariants reveal the deep structure beneath surface variation.

The tendency towards dismissing any innovation or less-than-trivial solution originating from inside an organization — typically because of lack of confidence in the staff.

The fallacy of concluding, on the basis of an unlikely outcome of a random process, that the process is likely to have occurred many times before.

A software design principle where a framework calls your code, rather than your code calling the framework. Often summarized as "don't call us, we'll call you."

A metaphor used by journalists and other writers to illustrate how information should be prioritized and structured in a text (e.g., a news report), typically following a pattern of most important/breaking to least-important/fully-detailed.

Latin for "he said it himself" — an assertion without proof; or a dogmatic expression of opinion.

The degradation of serial recall when speech sounds are presented, even if the list items are presented visually. The sounds need not be a language the participant understands, nor even a real language; human speech sounds are sufficient to produce this effect.

The tendency that many writers make claims about what ought to be (prescriptive), based on statements about what is (descriptive).

Predicts that when multiple homogeneous stimuli are presented, the stimulus that differs from the rest is more likely to be remembered.

The repetition of a process in order to generate a sequence of outcomes — the outcome of each iteration is then the starting point of the next iteration.

User experience design principle that states that users expect websites or applications to follow the design patterns and conventions that they are already familiar with, to reduce cognitive load and increase usability.

The observation that improvements in the efficiency of resource use often lead to increased total consumption of that resource rather than decreased consumption. As efficiency lowers the effective cost per unit, demand rises enough to offset or exceed the original savings.

A framework for understanding self-awareness through a 2x2 matrix of what is known or unknown to oneself and to others, producing four quadrants: Open (known to all), Blind (seen by others but not oneself), Hidden (known to oneself but concealed), and Unknown (not yet recognized by anyone).

Contrast with the Fear of Missing Out (FOMO), JOMO is the experience of relief, delight, and lack of anxiety associated with \*not\* participating in every and all activities that in particular are captured and shared via social media.

An aphorism that "no matter who you are, most of the smartest people work for someone else."

A non-conventional solution or hack to a problem — often both frugal in nature and demonstrating a degree of creativity.

The moment when something that was once popular no longer warrants the attention it previously received, particularly when attempts at publicity only serve to highlight its irrelevance.

Making improvised repairs using whatever tools and materials are available. The fix works, but it's not pretty — and it was never meant to be permanent.

The cognitive bias that a person's actions are inherently inclined to bring morally fair and fitting consequences to that person, to the end of all noble actions being eventually rewarded and all evil actions eventually punished. In other words, the tendency to attribute consequences to a universal force that restores moral balance.

A classical Japanese dance-drama known for the stylization of its drama and for the elaborate makeup worn by some of its performers.

A management philosophy built on continuous, incremental improvement — making small, frequent adjustments across every aspect of an operation to steadily raise efficiency, quality, and morale.

A Finnish term for drinking at home alone in your underwear, with no intention of going out. Elevated to a national concept — no shame, just comfort.

A method to manage and improve work across systems, where work tasks are typically visualized to give participants a view of progress and process. This approach aims to manage work by balancing demands with available capacity.

The observation that every major project hits a messy middle phase where progress stalls and doubt creeps in. Perseverance through this valley is what separates success from abandonment.

A framework for ranking civilizations by how much energy they can harness — from a single planet's resources (Type I) to an entire galaxy's output (Type III) and beyond.

The person in a family or community who preserves its stories, traditions, and connections across generations — the living thread that holds collective memory together.

Using multiple contradictory arguments to defend the same position, none of which are consistent with each other. Named after Freud's story of the borrowed kettle.

A species that has a disproportionately large effect on its environment relative to its abundance. Such species are described as playing a critical role in maintaining the structure of an ecological community, affecting many other organisms in an ecosystem and helping to determine the types and numbers of various other species in the community.

The phenomenon whereby the three-dimensional structural form of an object can be perceived when the object is moving, such as a rotating wire shape cast onto a screen.

A design principle that most systems work best when kept simple rather than made complex. Simplicity should be a key goal, and unnecessary complexity should be avoided.

A workaround or quick-and-dirty solution that is clumsy, inelegant, inefficient, difficult to extend and hard to maintain, yet nonetheless is operational.

"Everything you read in the newspapers is absolutely true — except for that rare story of which you have firsthand knowledge." A wry reminder that media accuracy looks different from the inside.

The process of arranging different objects so that they are at 90-degree angles from each other, and then often photographing them from above, but could also be used as a method for organizing, packing, and arranging more broadly.

A vision of modern life as fundamentally out of balance — humanity's relationship with technology and nature seen as one of escalating disharmony, made iconic by the 1982 experimental film of the same name.

A film editing (montage) effect by which viewers derive more meaning from the interaction of two sequential shots than from a single shot in isolation.

In statistics and decision theory, the risk that results when a statistical model assumes the normal distribution, but is applied to observations that have a tendency to occasionally be much farther (in terms of number of standard deviations) from the average than is expected for a normal distribution.

A Swedish philosophy of moderation and balance — not too much, not too little, but just the right amount.

Software with too many layers of abstraction stacked on top of each other, making it difficult to understand or modify any single piece.

Decision-making principle that suggests that the best time to make a decision is when the maximum amount of information is available, but not so late that the decision cannot be made in time to meet its intended purpose.

Solving problems through an indirect and creative approach, i.e. using reasoning that is not immediately obvious and involving ideas that may not be obtainable by using only traditional step-by-step logic.

Retaining undesirable code because removing it is too expensive or has unpredictable consequences.

The design aesthetic phenomenon where figures with edges that are smooth are more likely seen as continuous than edges that have abrupt or sharp angles.

Scandinavian social code that emphasizes humility, conformity, and egalitarianism, and discourages individualism and self-promotion.

In probability theory, a theorem that describes the result of performing the same experiment a large number of times. According to the law, the average of the results obtained from a large number of trials should be close to the expected value, and will tend to become closer as more trials are performed.

A fundamental principle of gestalt which says that people will perceive and interpret ambiguous or complex images as the simplest form(s) possible.

You can only optimize for two of three competing goals — price, quality, or speed — never all three at once.

The principle that when a system in equilibrium is disturbed, the system will adjust itself in such a way that the effect of the change will be reduced or moderated.

A type of preference reversal that occurs when the lesser or smaller alternative of a proposition is preferred when evaluated separately, but not evaluated together.

In memory, sharpening is usually the way people remember small details in the retelling of stories they have experienced or are retelling those stories. Leveling is when people keep out parts of stories and try to tone those stories down so that some parts are excluded.

A thought experiment by Jorge Luis Borges imagining a vast library containing every possible arrangement of characters across 410 pages — most pages are gibberish, but somewhere within are every book ever written and every book that could be.

Adjective connoting "small in size" or "trivial" — often used to refer to narrow outlooks and trivial perspectives.

The quality of ambiguity that occurs in the middle of a rite of passage, where one no longer hold their pre-ritual status, but have not yet transitioned to the final state — a standing on the threshold.

A shared language used for communication between people who do not share a native tongue — often a third language distinct from either speaker's mother tongue.

A software design principle holding that objects of a superclass should be replaceable with objects of a subclass without altering the correctness of the program.

A term's connotations are relied on to sway the argument towards a particular conclusion, as opposed to an argument itself.

A local optimum is the best solution within a nearby range of options; a global optimum is the best solution overall. Getting stuck at a local peak means missing the highest summit — a fundamental challenge in optimization, strategy, and everyday decision-making.

The practice of considering the future implications of current choices in the context of future situations, where there might be short-term losses strategically made in favor of the potential for long-term gains down the road.

A notion of thinking which provides a counterpoint to what it views as today's "faster/cheaper" mindset and to promote "slower/better" thinking.

In statistics, a model which describes a distribution of occurrences where a large portion of the distribution are far from the "head" or central part of the distribution. Often applied in a business, to apply to business models that can offer many different varieties of uncommon goods (Amazon or Netflix), as opposed to few varieties of common goods (Walmart).

A phenomenon where an apparently statistically significant observation may have actually arisen by chance due to the sheer size of the parameter space to be searched.

The tendency to feel the pain of losing something more intensely than the pleasure of gaining something of equal value. Losses loom larger than gains.

A pricing strategy where a product is sold at a price below its market cost to stimulate other sales of more profitable goods or services.

Aa measurement of the risk resulting from information and capabilities being lost or not being shared among team members. From the phrase, "in case they get hit by a bus."

The argument that you can't predict the effects of a new economic policy by looking at historical data alone, because people change their behavior in response to the policy itself. Past patterns break when the rules change.

The phenomenon where when one engages in something they're excited about, they will naturally pull others into their orbit.

Studying or working late into the night by lamplight, or the intellectual work produced from such devoted effort.

The belief that the outcomes of non-regulated random occurrences can be encapsulated by statistics and modeling.

Mistaken belief that there is a fixed amount of work to be done in an economy, and therefore increasing automation or immigration will lead to higher unemployment, ignoring the potential for new jobs to be created.

A plot device in the form of some goal, desired object, or another motivator that the protagonist pursues, often with little or no narrative explanation. The MacGuffin's importance to the plot is not the object itself, but rather its effect on the characters and their motivations.

The instance one is bombarded by a flood of memories and experiences made conscious by the unexpected stimuli of a connected object or place — as in the madeleine that sparked Proust's memories of his childhood in "In Search of Lost Time."

A decision support technique of options plotted on a two-by-two matrix where the matrix diagram is a simple square divided into four equal quadrants. Each axis represents a decision criterion, such as cost or effort. Each axis is divided into two sections (example: low cost/high cost and easy/difficult).

Implementing presumably unlikely input scenarios, such as comparisons with very specific strings, to mask functionality.

The belief that one's thoughts, wishes, or rituals can directly influence events in the world. From superstitions to prayer to "jinxing it" — the feeling that thinking something can make it so.

Major factors explain major portions of the results, where minor factors explain only minor portions.

The phenomenon where individuals systematically overestimate the prevalence of their current state (neighborhood, local environment) over the global knowledge of the states of others, which may accelerate the spread of choices, risky behaviors, social contagions.

Two divergent scheduling ideologies — the maker's schedule is one that allows for deep, uninterrupted, creative work, whereas the manager's schedule accounts for meetings, immediate tasks, and changing priorities.

A trait that is more harmful than helpful — in contrast with an adaptation, which is more helpful than harmful.

A management approach focused on setting specific, measurable goals for employees. Effective for clarity, but risks reducing complex work to what's easily quantified.

A phenomenon in which large groups of people share the same false memory — such as many recalling Nelson Mandela dying in prison in the 1980s, when he was actually released in 1990 and died in 2013.

The term for when the government sets future standards beyond what the current market can deliver, and the market pulls that technology into existence.

The process by which a mental health professional labels the patient's accurate perception of real events as delusional, and therefore misdiagnoses accordingly.

Maslow used the terms ‘physiological', ‘safety', ‘belongingness' and ‘love', ‘esteem', ‘self-actualization', and ‘self-transcendence' to describe the pattern that human motivations generally move through, in a ranked and building fashion.

A bias against acknowledging the achievements of those women scientists whose work is attributed to their male colleagues.

A state of extreme funk/irritability after waking up — i.e. getting up on the wrong side of the bed.

A phenomenon of human visual perception in which colorless gratings appear colored contingent on the orientation of the gratings. It is an aftereffect requiring a period of induction to produce it.

Perceptual phenomenon that demonstrates an interaction between hearing and vision in speech perception. The illusion occurs when the auditory component of one sound is paired with the visual component of another sound, leading to the perception of a third sound. The visual information a person gets from seeing a person speak changes the way they hear the sound.

The fallacy of making decisions based solely on \*observable\* metrics, while ignoring all others.

The difference between a measured value and the true value. Every measurement carries some degree of error — understanding its sources is key to good science.

The form of a medium embeds itself in any message it would transmit or convey, creating a symbiotic relationship by which the medium influences how the message is perceived.

The mental element of a person's intention to commit a crime; or knowledge that one's action or lack of action would cause a crime to be committed.

The tendency to treat money differently depending on where it came from or what it's earmarked for, even though all dollars are objectively equal.

An explanation of a thought process, typically in a more abstract form, about how something works in the real world.

The tendency to develop a preference for things simply because you've encountered them before. Familiarity breeds not contempt, but comfort.

A now standard law of network theory that states that the value of any given network is proportional to the square of the number of connected users of that system. In other words, more users increase the value of a network at an exponential rate.

A style of management characterized by excessive observation, supervision, or other hands-on involvement from management.

The observation that the number of objects an average person can hold in working memory is about seven.

An informal fallacy where someone thinks that the way they see the world reflects the way the world really is.

A philosophical problem concerning the relationship between thought and consciousness in the human mind, and the brain as part of the physical body.

A product that has been targeted to be built with just enough features to gather validated learning about the product and its continued development and no more.

Recall of specific memories are less accurate because of post-event information that in part over-writes or fills-in the specific memories (intentionally or not).

Describing an occurrence in vivid detail, even if it is an exceptional occurrence, to convince someone that it is a problem.

Problems that are caused by organisms being imperfectly or inadequately adapted to novel environmental conditions.

The missing letter effect refers to the finding that, when people are asked to consciously detect target letters while reading text, they miss more letters in frequent, function words (e.g. the letter "h" in "the") than in less frequent, content words.

Malagasy expression, literally “it exists but it’s empty,” which is colloquially ‘out of stock,’ but also serves as a more philosophical notion of having the capacity and expectation to have something, but to not currently be in possession of that thing.

A learning technique that aids information retention and retrieval in memory by making use of connected encoding, and retrieval cues.

A surface with only one side and only one boundary (as a ring of paper that has been cut, one part turned 180 degrees, and reassembled), making it unorientable.

The finding that how information is presented — visually, audibly, or otherwise — affects how well it's learned and remembered. The medium shapes the message.

A source of statistical bias where point-based measures of spatial phenomena are aggregated into districts, (such as population density or illness rates), and the resulting summary values (e.g., totals, rates, proportions, densities) are arbitrarily influenced by both the shape and scale of the aggregation unit.

The degree to which a system's components may be separated and recombined, often with the benefit of flexibility and variety in use.

Someone's habits of working, particularly in the context of business or criminal investigations.

The tendency of people to think of currency in nominal, rather than real, terms. In other words, the numerical/face value (nominal value) of money is mistaken for its purchasing power (real value) at a previous point in the general price level (in the past).

A market structure in which a single buyer substantially controls the market as the major purchaser of goods and services offered by many would-be sellers — the inverse of a monopoly.

Algorithmic approach for building simulations and predictive models where the intervention of random variables makes them hard to predict in more standard models.

The tendency to more easily recall memories that match your current emotional state. When you're sad, sad memories surface more readily — and vice versa.

An ambitious, exploratory and ground-breaking project undertaken without any expectation of near-term profitability or benefit and also, perhaps, without a full investigation of potential risks and benefits.

The observation that the number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years — an empirical trend that has held for decades and driven exponential growth in computing power.

The phenomenon of taking more risks because someone or something else bears the cost of those risks.

The paradox that people are held morally responsible for outcomes significantly shaped by factors beyond their control — even though most ethical frameworks assume moral judgment should depend only on what a person freely chose.

An observation in artificial intelligence research that high-level reasoning requires relatively little computation, while low-level sensorimotor skills like perception and mobility demand enormous computational resources.

Separate pieces of information, that by themselves have limited usability, become important and/or revealing when combined. Of particular importance in digital confidentiality and privacy.

An industrial design principle which seeks to give users the most advanced design, but not more advanced than what they were able to accept and embrace.

An attitude of assuming positive intent, as opposed to looking for alternate or disingenuous motivations.

The fallacy where an arguer conflates two similar positions — one modest and easy to defend (the "motte") and one much more controversial (the "bailey"). The arguer advances the controversial position, but when challenged, they insist that they are only advancing the more modest position.

The notion that listening to Mozart (and similar classical music) makes one smarter and can improve test scores — though not scientifically verified.

A factitious disorder wherein those affected feign disease, illness, or psychological trauma to draw attention, sympathy, or reassurance to themselves.

The observation that if something can go wrong, it eventually will. A reminder to design for failure and plan for the unexpected rather than assuming the best case.

A management concept where workers are not given insight to the processes, priorities, or even the purpose of the company, and are simply given tasks to accomplish without context. The term itself alludes to mushroom cultivation of "being kept in the dark and fed bullshit."

Acknowledging that a comparison being made requires certain alterations that don't need to be stated but they will be made.

A military doctrine holding that when two adversaries each possess enough destructive power to annihilate the other, neither side will strike first — because doing so guarantees their own destruction in retaliation.

The tendency to assume other people are more selfishly motivated than they actually are. We expect bias in others while remaining blind to our own.

The human tendency to believe that we see the world around us objectively, and that people who disagree with us must be uninformed, irrational, or biased.

The tendency of people to prefer the letters in their name over other letters in the alphabet.

Term used to describe the violation of personal boundaries and invasion of privacy by individuals with narcissistic tendencies or personality disorder, often causing emotional harm and psychological distress to their victims.

A state in a strategic game where no player can improve their outcome by changing strategy alone. Everyone is doing their best given what everyone else is doing — even if the collective result isn't optimal.

The differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype. It is a key mechanism of evolution, the change in heritable traits of a population over time.

A debate about human behavior as determined by a person's genes (nature), or by the environment during a person's life and upbringing (nurture).

The capacity to remain in uncertainty, mystery, and doubt without grasping for definitive answers — an intellectual openness that John Keats considered essential to creative greatness.

The notion that, even when of equal intensity, things of a more negative nature (e.g. unpleasant thoughts, emotions, or social interactions; harmful/traumatic events) have a greater effect on one's psychological state and processes than neutral or positive things.

The tendency to disregard probability when making a decision under uncertainty. Small risks are typically either neglected entirely or hugely overrated.

A strong attraction to novelty and new experiences. Neophiles thrive on change and are drawn to the unfamiliar — sometimes at the expense of depth or commitment.

The effect of the value of a product or service where it is dependent on the number of others using it.

Philosophical razor asserting that what cannot be settled by experiment is not worth debating — a stricter position than Occam's Razor, reflecting the view that disputes without observable consequences fall outside meaningful discourse.

The phenomena of people being unable to recall information concerning events immediately preceding their turn to perform.

A concept in the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche which argues for an affirmation of life itself, despite its troubles and pains.

The practice of deliberately doing nothing — sitting idle, staring out a window, or letting your mind wander without any productive goal.

The adage, often in computer programming, that the first 90 percent of the code in a project accounts for the first 90 percent of the development time, and the remaining 10 percent of the code accounts for the other 90 percent of the development time. In other words, the tendency to underestimate the amount of time to complete a project when it is "nearly done".

Rejecting a practical solution because it isn't perfect. By comparing real options to an impossible ideal, nothing ever measures up.

The fallacy of attempting to make a generalization true by changing the generalization to exclude a counterexample.

Confidence in one's self-image tends to make one less worried about the consequences of subsequent immoral behavior, thus making one more likely to make immoral choices.

The sphere of thought encircling the earth that has emerged through evolution as a consequence of growth in complexity and consciousness — an evolution beyond the geosphere (inanimate matter) and the biosphere (biological life).

A belief people hold when facing a disaster which causes them to underestimate both the likelihood of a disaster and its possible effects, because people believe that things will always function the way things normally have functioned.

A guiding reference point — a fixed, clear, and durable goal that keeps a team or strategy oriented through uncertainty and change.

The tendency for organizations towards reinventing the wheel rather than adopting and adapting an existing, adequate solution.

The tendency for performance to initially improve when new technology is instituted, not because of any actual improvement in learning or achievement, but in response to increased interest in the new technology.

An extreme measure of last resort that may solve an immediate problem but carries severe collateral costs — named for the idea that, like a nuclear strike, the fallout affects everyone.

A notion that positive reinforcement and indirect suggestions as ways to steer or influence the behavior and decision making of groups or individuals (while still preserving freedom of choice).

The phenomenon that occurs when at some stage of development, certain ideas become so universally accepted and commonly used that their contributors are no longer cited.

The tendency for people to overestimate the degree to which their personal mental state is known by others. Additionally, a tendency for people to overestimate how well they understand others' personal mental states.

A problem-solving principle which says that all else being equal, the simplest solution is more often the correct one.

Programming mistake that occurs when a programmer incorrectly references or iterates through an array or loop, resulting in the code either skipping over or repeating one element.

The tendency to judge harmful actions as worse, or less moral than equally harmful omissions (inactions) because actions are more obvious than inactions.

A philosophy of hospitality centered on anticipating guests' needs and fulfilling them wholeheartedly, without pretense or expectation of anything in return.

The burden of proof is on the person who makes the claim, not on the person who denies (or questions the claim).

A four-step decision-making framework — Observe, Orient, Decide, Act — originally developed for military strategy. The faster you cycle through the loop, the greater your advantage.

Software design principle that states that software entities should be open for extension but closed for modification, meaning that they should be designed in a way that allows for easy addition of new functionality without changing the existing code.

The value of the best alternative forgone where, given limited resources, a choice needs to be made between several mutually exclusive alternatives. Assuming the best choice is made, it is the ‘cost' incurred by not enjoying the benefit that would have been had by taking the second-best available choice.

Causes a person to believe that they are at a lesser risk of experiencing a negative event compared to others.

A way of expressing how large a number is by which power of ten it is closest to — used for rough comparison, where a difference of one order of magnitude means roughly a tenfold difference.

The interest companies pay when their structure, policies, and culture stay fixed as the world changes — i.e. the accumulation of non-investment towards long-term planning.

A phenomenon of visual processing in which certain line orientations are more quickly and easily processed and discriminated than other line orientations.

A design principle where components of a system are independent, so changing one doesn't affect the others. Orthogonal systems are easier to understand, test, and modify.

In behavioral finance, the attempt made by investors to avoid negative financial information.

An error made in evaluating the quality of a decision when the outcome of that decision is already known.

The tendency for the perception of out-group members as more similar to one another than are in-group members, e.g. "they are alike; we are diverse."

An observation point that is distant from other observation, due perhaps to variability in the measurement, or perhaps an indication of experimental error.

A problem without precedent that does not fit within existing problem sets or models of understanding — the kind of problem "most civilizations would encounter just once, and which they tended to encounter rather in the same way a sentence encountered a full stop."

A person's subjective confidence in their judgements are greater than the objective accuracy of those judgements.

Building something far more complex or robust than the situation requires. The extra effort adds cost and rigidity without meaningful benefit.

When an expected external incentive such as money or prizes decreases a person's intrinsic motivation to perform a task.

An informal fallacy of generalization, where a generalization is accurate, but comes with one or more qualifications which eliminate so many cases that what remains is much less impressive than the initial statement might have led one to believe.

Understanding the relationship between components of complex systems where interactions between the components occur at different "paces" of evolution. The categories are nature, culture, governance, infrastructure, commerce, and fashion.

Extended deliberation or negotiation aimed at reaching consensus through open dialogue, though now often used informally to mean excessive, drawn-out, or unnecessary talk and fuss.

An artifact in Greek mythology where an object that is originally seen as a gift turns out to in fact be a curse. The only thing remaining at the bottom of Pandora's Box is 'Hope.'

An experimental laboratory in which behavior could always be observed, and therefore modified — ultimately a symbol of a society of surveillance and discipline.

Situation where a common belief or practice is not properly scrutinized or tested because it is widely accepted and assumed to be effective, often leading to ineffective or even harmful outcomes.

A fundamental change in the basic concepts and experimental practices of a scientific discipline.

A statement that, despite apparently valid reasoning from true premises, leads to an apparently-self-contradictory or logically unacceptable conclusion.

The observation that having too many options can lead to anxiety, decision paralysis, and reduced satisfaction — and that limiting choices often produces better outcomes.

A psychological phenomenon in which the mind responds to a stimulus, usually an image or a sound, by perceiving a familiar pattern where none exists.

A state of allocation of resources in which it is impossible to make any one individual better off without making at least one individual worse off.

The observation that work expands to fill the time available for its completion. Give someone a week for a two-hour task, and it will somehow take a week.

The ability not to remember irrelevant information. Scientifically speaking, memory inhibition is a type of cognitive inhibition, which is the stopping or overriding of a mental process, in whole or in part, with or without intention. Also, an adaptive process, as it is essential not only to activate the relevant information, but also to inhibit irrelevant information.

The guiding concept or big idea behind a design, often expressed as a simple diagram or statement. In architecture, it's the core move everything else follows.

How the set of decisions one faces for any given circumstance is limited by the decisions one has made in the past or by the events that one has experienced, even though past circumstances may no longer be relevant.

A theory suggesting that trends in culture, politics, etc., tend to swing back and forth between opposite extremes, much like the pendulum of a lock.

Lack of attention that is not associated with any physical or instrumental defects — where objects or events that are unexpected and should be easy to notice simply are not.

A temporal perceptual illusion where in perceiving a sequence of consecutive stimuli, subjects tend to overestimate the elapsed time between two successive stimuli when the distance between the stimuli is sufficiently large, and to underestimate the elapsed time when the distance is sufficiently small.