11 Tendencies to Help You Make Fewer Mistakes

Warren Buffet is worth $117.3 billion

His partner, Charlie Munger, is worth $2.5 billion.

They say it's simple - Make Fewer Mistakes.

Here's the 11 Tendencies Charlie says you should understand to help you do that: pic.twitter.com/Yn2EVdORw8

— Clint Murphy (@IAmClintMurphy) June 10, 2023

• Reciprocation

Humans have a subconscious tendency to reciprocate favors and disfavors.

When you go into a store, they offer you a bottle of water or, in a high-end jewelry store, they offer you a glass of champagne.

The goal is to trigger your desire to reciprocate or buy.

— Clint Murphy (@IAmClintMurphy) June 10, 2023

When you accept the water or champagne, you take a step towards a purchase.

The answer is simple, unless you intend to buy, do not accept.

• bring water
• no champagne

Also, do not accept the free dinner in Las Vegas with a promise to watch the timeshare presentation.

— Clint Murphy (@IAmClintMurphy) June 10, 2023

• Overoptimism

When life is going well, you're too optimistic.

You make decisions with the thought it will all turn out well.

Consider for a minute, the investments made in the last two years, 13 years into a market bull run.

Now, some appear to be mistakes.

— Clint Murphy (@IAmClintMurphy) June 10, 2023

When life is going well, whether personally, professionally, or financially, you cannot let it go to your head.

Practice the Stoic concept of premeditatio malorum. Imagine what can go wrong and what can be taken away from you.

With this lens, consider more balanced decisions.

— Clint Murphy (@IAmClintMurphy) June 10, 2023

• Pain Avoidance

For many people, reality can be painful.

To avoid this pain, you turn to chemicals:

• drugs
• alcohol
• nicotine

You abuse substances to "take away the pain."

Instead, before you take the drugs, ask yourself "What am I trying to avoid" and sit with it.

— Clint Murphy (@IAmClintMurphy) June 10, 2023

• Liking & Loving

You're conditioned from birth to like and love.

For example, a mother is conditioned to love her child.

A downside is that you want to be liked and loved, which social media and advertisers use against you.

They play on your desire to be liked.

— Clint Murphy (@IAmClintMurphy) June 10, 2023

Do not tie your success or self-regard to results or external materials to combat this.

Learn to find happiness and contentment inside yourself.

With social media, focus on the process and creation, not the likes and retweets.

Process > results, always.

— Clint Murphy (@IAmClintMurphy) June 10, 2023

• Envy & Jealousy

You're conditioned, through evolution, to envy and jealousy.

What started for early humans as a desire to have available food has become a desire to have what you see others have.

Unfortunately, with social media, you see too much of what others have.

— Clint Murphy (@IAmClintMurphy) June 10, 2023

When you see the Kardashians, you want their lifestyle.

When you see someone with 1 million followers on Twitter, you want their followers.

A behavior that served our ancestors doesn't serve you.

Learn to look internally. To value what you have and disregard what you don't.

— Clint Murphy (@IAmClintMurphy) June 10, 2023

• Kantian Fairness

Kant believed you behave in a way that, if followed by others, will make the human system better for all of us - the categorical imperative.

The problem becomes when you expect the world to always be fair. To follow the rules of fairness.

— Clint Murphy (@IAmClintMurphy) June 10, 2023

You can't expect life to always be fair.

You can't expect people to always behave in the right way.

When you realize life is unfair, and people will not always be fair, you're less likely to be surprised and more likely to be prepared.

— Clint Murphy (@IAmClintMurphy) June 10, 2023

• Doubt-Avoidance

You're programmed to remove doubt from your life.

One way you remove doubt is to make quick decisions, which sets you up for mistakes.

To prevent this:

• Question your decisions
• Take time before decisions
• Have friends challenge your choices

— Clint Murphy (@IAmClintMurphy) June 10, 2023

• Disliking & Hating

You're programmed to like and love.

You're also programmed to dislike and hate, which can be used against you.

Consider how politicians use your hate to program you against your neighbors.

You'll make poor decisions when dealing with people you dislike.

— Clint Murphy (@IAmClintMurphy) June 10, 2023

To combat this tendency, you must separate a person from a concept.

If you dislike a person, you don't need to dislike their ideas.

If you dislike a political party, you don't need to dislike every position they have.

By doing this, you can remove polarization.

— Clint Murphy (@IAmClintMurphy) June 10, 2023

• Excessive Self-Regard

Many people believe their success is a result of their work and their failures a result of bad luck.

You believe people "like you" are better than others, which leads to cliques and a lack of diversity.

— Clint Murphy (@IAmClintMurphy) June 10, 2023

You also often overestimate your abilities to your detriment, as is the case with sports betting.

To combat this:

• practice humility
• challenge your successes
• seek out divergent opinions
• surround yourself with diverse people
• understand how to eliminate hiring bias

— Clint Murphy (@IAmClintMurphy) June 10, 2023

• Reward & Punishment

"Incentives are superpowers....the most important rule in management is to get the incentives right"

Your desire for rewards and punishment is used against you daily:

• employment practices
• free to play video games
• social media engagement

— Clint Murphy (@IAmClintMurphy) June 10, 2023

To combat this tendency, design the right incentive programs for your teams.

Ask yourself, how your desire for rewards and punishment avoidance is being used against you.

Have a plan and focus on the process to achieve it.

Also, focus on internal, not external,
factors.

— Clint Murphy (@IAmClintMurphy) June 10, 2023

• Influence From Association

This tendency has positive and negative angles, which cause you problems.

For example, advertisers of beer or cigarettes show a very lively and desirable scene and your brain associates their product with that image.

— Clint Murphy (@IAmClintMurphy) June 10, 2023

If you dislike someone or a company, you will downplay their success and overplay their failures.

To combat this tendency, separate people, companies, and parties from ideas and performance.

Also, recognize when an advertiser tries to use it against you.

— Clint Murphy (@IAmClintMurphy) June 10, 2023

TL;DR:

Understand these 11 tendencies to succeed:

• Reciprocation
• Overoptimism
• Pain avoidance
• Liking & loving
• Envy & jealousy
• Kantian fairness
• Doub-avoidance
• Disliking & hating
• excessive self-regard
• Reward & punishment
• Influence from association

— Clint Murphy (@IAmClintMurphy) June 10, 2023

This has been a "cheat sheet" on 11 of the key tendencies Charlie Munger recommends we avoid to succeed in life and business.

If you found value, please:

1. Follow @IAmClintMurphy
2. Retweet the 1st Tweet:https://t.co/xcQgZE2kDB

— Clint Murphy (@IAmClintMurphy) June 10, 2023

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— Clint Murphy (@IAmClintMurphy) June 10, 2023