Learn to see the pattern
Every bubble, scam and company collapse follows a pattern, and so do the everyday mistakes we make with money and decisions. Brain Primer tells the stories behind them, and the ideas that explain them.
Six ways in
- I.
Money & Markets
Why prices, bubbles and your own money decisions behave the way they do.
- II.
Business Collapses
How giant companies fail, and the warning signs nobody wanted to see.
- III.
Scams & Frauds
How the cleverest cons work, and why smart people fall for them.
- IV.
Mind Traps
The mental shortcuts and biases that quietly steer your decisions.
- V.
Incentives & Game Theory
Why people do what they are rewarded for, and how rules backfire.
- VI.
Mental Models
Simple thinking tools that help you see problems more clearly.
Latest stories
Blog →The Cobra Effect: why smart people pay for the wrong thing
Why paying for results so often backfires: Delhi's cobras, Hanoi's rat catchers, a bank's fake accounts, and the question that catches it in ten seconds.
Why fines backfire: the daycare that made parents later
A daycare fined parents who came late and got more late parents. What a fine, a fee or a payment can quietly switch off, and how to keep it on.
Why a bigger bonus can make you worse at your job
Researchers in India offered villagers up to a month's spending to win simple games. What the biggest prize did, and when big rewards help or hurt.
When pay for performance works: the windshield test
One company paid installers per windshield and output rose about 44 percent. Why it worked when bounties, fines and big bonuses backfired.
Watch the films
Why would a reward for dead cobras leave a city with more cobras? Why would the company that invented the digital camera put it in a drawer? Each film follows one story like these to the moment it turned, and shows you what nobody in the room saw in time.
The Brain Primer letter
The warning signs of each pattern, a short exercise to find it in your own life, and a tool to keep. Free, and you can leave with one click.
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