They are devices, skills, connections or properties that allow us to amplify our effort and do our work with more impact.Ī drill press is an asset, so is your law degree. “It’s all in your head.” Where else would it be?Īssets are ownable. And our brains are powerful, though not always (or even often) under our conscious control. Does that mean that those ailments weren’t real, or that the patient was not trying hard enough to get well?Īlong the way, we’ve persuaded ourselves and others that our brains don’t matter so much, and that the stories in our lives are not nearly as important as the molecules.Īnd yet, every time we look closely, the opposite appears to be true. And yet, sham knee surgery (in which the patient is sedated, cut and stitched, but no internal changes occur) is just as effective as ‘actual’ knee surgery for certain physical ailments. Knee surgery works for some people, and those people, apparently, had an actual injury and the surgery fixed it. If expensive wine tastes better to you, but you can’t tell wine apart in a double-blind taste test, does that mean it doesn’t really taste better to you, or that you have shallow tastes?Ĭan luxury goods, spiritual practices or a change in the weather change our situation? If a placebo heals your illness, does that mean it was all in your head in the first place? That you weren’t really sick, or didn’t really want to get better? Attitude and skill are useful proxies, while the easy-to-measure stuff is simply an expensive and hurtful distraction. Now that we can measure so many things, we might as well put that to use. Just because someone interviews well, is friendly, or looks like you doesn’t mean that they can do the work that needs to be done. ![]() By finding an actual proxy, a useful one, he was able to assemble a skilled team on a budget. ![]() When building the Oakland A’s into a championship contender, Billy Beane discovered that every other team was using these sorts of proxies to scout who would be worth drafting. It’s easy to imagine that we don’t fall prey to these irrelevant signals, but a quick look at the height of elected officials makes it clear that we do–we keep picking the tall ones. ![]() So we look for proxies that may give us a clue as to how someone will ultimately contribute to our project.įalse proxies include: Height, race, gender, attractiveness, charisma in meetings, famous college, etc. We do judge a book (and a condiment) by its cover, all the time.Īnd hiring and managing people is far more important and risky than buying ketchup. We rely on labels and cultural cues to give us a hint about what to expect. You’re not allowed to read the book before you buy it or taste the ketchup before you leave the store. It’s one of the most important topics in my new book. They’re toxic, wasteful and a tempting trap.
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