You Like to Think You’re Immune to The Stuff

Rod Pickett
2 min readDec 2, 2024

Man is many things, but he is not rational.

Oscar Wilde

You will never understand others as long as you think of them as rational beings.

Here are some examples of how people act irrationally.

Loss aversion

People value loss at twice the rate of gain.

The typical person would need to gain $100 to balance the loss of $50 emotionally.

Cognitive dissonance

Once people choose a team, they will interpret any facts they are given as supporting that team.

Projection

People suspect others of committing transgressions that they themselves are doing or would do.

Mindreading

People drastically overestimate their ability to know what others are thinking.

Fortune telling

People believe they can reliably predict the future.

Sunk Cost Fallacy

People continue to invest money and time in something they have already spent money or time on because they don’t want to “lose” their investment.

Rationalization

People make decisions emotionally and justify them afterward with logical explanations.

These are just a few examples of the many ways people are irrational.

It is natural to think of these examples as glitches in otherwise logical thinking.

But that is not the case.

The natural state of people is irrational.

This is true for every person, even engineers and scientists. No one is exempt from irrational thinking.

This includes you.

You will never understand yourself as long as you believe you are a rational being.

You can see the irrationality in others but seeing it in yourself is difficult.

It is so difficult that it is impossible.

Most of the time, it is not especially dangerous.

· Choosing a sports team to root for

· Deciding which foods you like

· Picking the style of clothes you wear

But there are times when this irrational orientation can be dangerous.

It can create financial risk, relational risk, and health risk.

Your only hope is to have people you trust to point out when you are ignoring logic and heading toward danger.

It will also help if you improve your emotional intelligence.

The better you understand your feelings, the more aware you will be of how they influence you.

— Rod Pickett

Now available at Amazon: The Courageous Heart: Wisdom for Difficult Times in paperback and eBook, an Eric Hoffer Award Finalist, a must-read for anyone seeking inspiration and guidance. Get your copy today.

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Rod Pickett
Rod Pickett

Written by Rod Pickett

Rod Pickett is a writer, pastor, teacher, photographer, real estate broker, personal trainer, consultant, trained hypnotist, woodworker and life-long learner.

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