Brian Keng

  • Rational People

    “You believe things that aren’t true.

    Let me say that a different way: many things that are true are true because you believe them.
    …
    If you think that (more expensive) wine is better, then it is. If you think your new boss is going to be more effective, then she will be. If you love the way a car handles, then you’re going to enjoy driving it.

    That sounds so obvious, but if it is, why is it so ignored? Ignored by marketers, ignored by ordinarily rational consumers and ignored by our leaders.”
    Seth Godin, All Marketers Are Liars

    We pretend and pretend and pretend that we’re rational, but we’re not.  Not even close.  At least not rational in the double blind scientific kind of way.  The funny thing is that we don’t like to hear it.  We don’t like to hear that we only like Coke because of the can, or brand name clothes because of the label, or even hint at the possibility that we might not be rational.   But what’s so wrong with that?

    I like Coke better than Pepsi — I think.  Brand name clothes look better than generic ones — most of the time.  And I definitely think I’m rational — except that I’m not.  And like everyone else, I usually choose to ignore this fact to my great detriment.

    Facts are facts and that would be enough in a rational world.  And there’s the rub, people are not rational.  So why do we pretend that they are (probably because we might have to then admit that we’re not rational)?  Delivering a message (i.e. marketing) is done much more effectively when it appeals to the emotions and perhaps with a bit of logic sprinkled on top — not the other way around.  The few who understand this go places, the others sit around wondering why people don’t listen to the facts.  Now doesn’t that sound rational?

  • Blue Shirts

    A couple of years ago I was at a mall with a friend and I saw a shirt I liked; it was blue.  I looked at the size, the pattern, and the style and I decided I liked it.  My friend who had been looking around came up to the counter before I was about to pay and said: “Hey why are you buying the same shirt?”  I looked down at the shirt I was wearing, and then at the shirt I was about to buy, and they were the same — at least in colour and pattern (the shirt I was buying had French cuffs).  My response was completely rational: “I like this colour, that’s why I’m buying the shirt.  When I find something I like I stick with it.”  The sales girl listening in on our conversation then asked: “Don’t you ever get bored?”  I also had a rational answer for that too: “Maybe, but when I do, I’ll find another colour of shirt that I like and stick with that.”  And what’s funny about this story is that it was a perfect metaphor for my philosophy at the time.

    I also have another shirt my friend gave me; it’s orange and white with stripes.  Funny thing is, I like it better than my (two) blue shirts even though I would never have bought it myself.  But what was wrong with my logic?  I liked blue shirts.  So I bought blue shirts even though I already had one.  Why should that stop me from buying another?

    The answer is that I might not find an orange and white striped shirt or even known that I liked orange and white striped shirts.   Looking back it seems a bit silly, but sometimes a frog doesn’t realize he’s in a well until somebody asks him about his shirt.

  • Reminders

    Day to day life is complicated.  It’s understandable that we can’t expect to remember everything we need to do. That’s why reminders are useful.  They help us remember to go to the dentist or about a friend’s birthday but they don’t seem to do a good job covering the really important things.  For instance, when do you ever get a reminder to evaluate if your life is on track? Or a reminder to step outside your comfort zone? These kinds of reminders are arguably even more important than the day to day ones, yet we rarely receive them.

    The problem is that we all know what we should be doing.  Whether we remember and act on it is a different story.  That’s why I love to read inspirational stories, motivational speeches and witty quotes.  They all serve as reminders for how to live my life (and how NOT to live my life).  I only have one life to live and I have to make sure that I don’t miss out on the important event of all — living life.

    P.S. One great reminder I found is Stuart Knight.  Check out this YouTube video of him and I think you’ll quickly find his reminders as useful as I do.

  • Productivity tips, tricks and hacks for academics

    This is a must read for you grad. students out there (and I’m sure it’s applicable to non-academics too):

    Productivity tips, tricks and hacks for academics by Matt Might:
    1. My philosophy: Optimize transaction costs.
    2. Don’t work from home.
    3. Eliminate temptation to waste time.
    4. Salvage dead time with technology.
    5. Get rid of your TV.
    6. Consolidate email accounts.
    7. Work from a laptop.
    8. Use a calendar system.
    9. Power-use a smartphone.
    10. Turn off instant messaging.
    11. Minimize collaboration costs.
    12. Use a citation/paper-management system.
    13. Procrastinate productively.
    14. Iterate toward perfection.

  • Changing Tables and Inertia

    “I started to force myself to think again about what I wanted in poker, in business, in life, it was easy to get caught up and engrossed in what I was currently doing, and that made it easy to forget that I always had to the option to change tables.  Psychologically, it’s hard because of all the inertia to overcome.  Without conscious and deliberate effort, inertia always wins.”
    Delivering Happiness, Tony Hsieh

    It’s funny how much a simple game can teach you about life.  In the above quote, Tony Hsieh draws parallels between poker and business (and life).  I think everyone gets caught up in the inertia of what they’re currently doing.  Today, I have this to do; tomorrow, that; the day after, something else.  There’s always something else but the pay off may not be worth it.

    As Tony mentioned in his book, the real winning decisions aren’t the ones where you decide how to play your cards, they’re the ones about which table to sit at.  And maybe the only other more important lesson that we all forget is that we always have the option to change tables.  Always.  With the only caveat being that it requires conscious and deliberate effort.  Success may not come easy, but it definitely isn’t complicated.

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