Bruce Hoag PhD – Psych Hacks

Make Things Easier

Would you like to make things easier? Would it be nice if when you thought about the future and started to make plans for it, that things would just work out? That something wouldn’t always come up that prevented you from doing what you intended? And would it help you to be able to make…

How to Get Momentum

Momentum is a term used in physics. It’s meaning presupposes motion. It doesn’t apply to something or someone who isn’t moving; who’s just resting. You can be immobile – unable to move, inert – not moving regardless of the reason, or in motion. For physicists, however, momentum only applies if you’re moving already. To understand…

When the Answer Is Not the Answer

In 1947, economist and Nobel Laureate Herbert Simon published a book entitled Administrative Behavior. In it, he coined a new word: satisficing. Satisficing – a combination of the words “satisfy” and “suffice” – is anything that seems to satisfy your requirements and is also sufficient to the task. It flies in the face of what…

Your Own Theories Can Deceive You

When I taught MBA students, I explained that a theory was nothing more than a possible explanation of the facts. Now these were just the facts that we knew about. They weren’t necessarily the most important ones. In fact, they could easily have been the least significant ones. And they weren’t all of the facts. They could’ve been a…

Does It Matter If Lessons Are Learned?

It’s altogether too common to hear leaders, whether in companies or governments, try to absolve themselves of the responsibility for something catastrophic by speaking of the lessons that they have learned. Although some humility usually accompanies such admissions, the overall message seems to be that “we didn’t know any better.” Just learning lessons doesn’t solve…