Beyond the Blind Spots
We can’t erase cognitive biases; they’re baked into the architecture of the mind.
But we can name them, work around them, and even turn them into tools.
Every time we act with awareness, we expand the space where free will lives — growing capability and bringing a bit more of the best of what we can become into how we are now.

Peak-End Rule
We judge experiences by their most intense moment and how they end.
This can make hard work feel worthwhile — if the final stretch is rewarding.

Recency Effect
We give more weight to the most recent events than to earlier ones.
This bias can distort judgment, but used consciously, it helps us stay adaptable and responsive to new information.
Free will benefits when we integrate the latest lessons without forgetting the long view.

Self-Serving Bias
We tend to credit ourselves for successes and blame outside forces for failures.
Left unchecked, this bias can block growth by shielding us from needed self-reflection.
Used consciously, it can strengthen a pride that motivates ongoing successes.

Pygmalion Effect
Higher expectations can improve performance.
When we believe better is possible — in ourselves or others — we act in ways that help bring it about.
Free will expands when we set expectations that invite growth instead of reinforce limits.

Sunk Cost Fallacy
We continue a course of action because of what we’ve already invested, even when it no longer serves us.
This bias traps resources in losing ventures and outdated policies.
Free will is strengthened when we judge by future potential, not past expense.

Present Bias
We give more weight to the present than to the future.
This can keep individuals and nations from investing, undermining infrastructure and delaying the development of the greatest tool for a UBI: the sovereign wealth fund.
Accepting the promise of the future prices its gains into the present.

Endowment Effect
We overvalue what we already own.
It makes us cling to bad investments, outdated systems, deadweight possessions, and less effective policies.
Learning to value what is not — and may never be — wholly our own allows us to let go and make space for the better.

Zero-Sum Thinking
We assume one person’s gain must mean another’s loss.
This bias fuels needless conflict that revels in the decline of others, even as that decline diminishes oneself.
In a growing, innovative economy, value is realized through exchange; it isn’t lost that way.

Loss Aversion
Losing $100 feels worse than gaining $100 feels good.
That asymmetry drives bad policy; we overprotect against small losses and miss larger gains.
Practicing appreciation for objective benefit motivates action.

Confirmation Bias
We naturally seek information that confirms what we already believe and dismiss what contradicts it.
This bias narrows our view, making us less able to adapt when reality changes.
Challenging it keeps free will strong by ensuring our choices are shaped by the full range of evidence.
Respecting discord is not weakness.

Status Quo Bias
We tend to prefer the familiar, even when better options exist.
This bias trades possibility for comfort, treating change as a threat rather than a tool that can empower and enrich free will.

Framing Effect – Part 2
Jean Calvin’s Protestant Work Ethic has long maintained a 14th century predestination mindset in policy and philosophy.
Pushing back against this framing restores the reality of free will and opens the door to creative solutions going forward.

Framing Effect – Part 1
How information is presented can change the choice we make, even when the facts are the same.
We can let others’ framing limit our perspective, or we can reframe to see new possibilities.
Used deliberately, framing can strengthen free will by making more options visible.

Anchoring
The first number or detail we hear becomes a mental reference point.
Even if it’s random, it tugs every later judgment toward it.
This bias can act like a gravity well by pulling decisions off course unless we make the effort to recalculate from scratch.

Availability Heuristic
We judge likelihood by what’s easiest to recall.
If an event is vivid or recent, it feels more common than it is.
News cycles exploit this, making rare dangers seem constant and steady gains invisible.
When perception is skewed, free will can be weakened by acting on a distorted map of reality.

Negativity Bias
The negative holds onto our attention and memory more than the positive: the one sharp rock on the trail instead of all the beautiful views.
That once kept our ancestors safe, but today it magnifies rare dangers and hides steady progress.
When this bias shapes policy and perception, it can weaken free will by narrowing what we dare to attempt.

The Mind’s Blind Spots
Free will is only as strong as our ability to see our options clearly.
When the mind’s own shortcuts distort what we see, they narrow the choices we believe we have.
These 20 posts are about finding those blind spots and learning to move beyond them.

Gene Drive = Eradication

A gene drive could permanently eliminate screwworm. Clean, scalable, final. But we haven’t funded it. Why? Because it requires foresight, patience, and trust.
#GeneDrive #Biotech #GlobalSolutions
#20postchallenge

This Advice Explains the Economy, Too
“Show up. Know the text. Have an idea.”

This isn’t just personal—it’s how value gets created.

These 3 steps scale:
Show up → Enable participation
Know the text → Understand nested context
Have an idea → Spark new value

It’s how value becomes real.
#20PostChallenge #Economics #ValueCreation