Cognitively Yours

  Raja R,  Author "When we see the world only through the lens of our own needs, we are trapped and blind to the perspectives of other people" “There are three things extremely hard: Steel a diamond and to know one’s self.” Blind spots are part and parcel of a car’s mirrors. The viewing angle of the side mirrors just overlaps that of the cabin’s rearview mirror. This can be disorienting for drivers used to seeing the flanks of their own car in the side mirrors. Just like car mirror, we all have blind spots that are built into ways that we naturally think. Our blind spots can be labelled as stupidity. Many a time, we feel dim-witted, we do feel that we should have known or realised or should have thought about it, seems so obvious in retrospect. Ignorance or not knowing makes us feel stupid, but the blind spot is not knowing that we do not know. A dumbfounding study more than a decade ago, that many now find hard to believe revealed that, if people are asked to focus on a ...

Raja R,  Author "The mere act of classification reinforces stereotypes, if you want to weaken some stereotype, eliminate the classification" We tend to compare things, and judge their similarity. We essentially make a list of features. These features are simply what they notice about the objects. We count-up the noticeable features shared by two objects. The more we share, the more similar they are. Let us imagine these three scenarios and how we make the decision based on these three scenarios. 1. We have a financial goal say building a nest egg for retirement planning and we have a financial plan to achieve the goal based on asset allocation. Now, while comparing the categories for investment we come across a category “tax saving schemes” which is a heterogeneous one consisting of instruments of various asset classes. Savings on tax does help you in achieving your financial goal fast, but limiting your choices to the category and overlooking the asset allocation could prove...