We live in a time when vanity is a major driver of human actions. How can we define it? Several sources converge in defining vanity as self-complacency, overconfidence in one’s abilities, and in attracting others. With a close connection to narcissism. The term vanity comes from the Latin vanus, which stands for vain, empty, useless, […]

Momma says stupid is as stupid does. This is what used to say Forrest Gump in the homonymous film, meaning by this that stupidity is not so much a people attribute but a characteristic of human behaviour. In short, even smart people do stupid things: the good news is that they also can benefit from […]

One of the main, as well as ordinary, aspects of my work, is to define the boundaries of situations before determining the actions to be taken. When I am dealing with many, sometimes too many people, offering the same interpretation of a given situation, my mind goes to this excerpt from Konrad Lorenz, taken from […]

How many times have you felt subtle disappointment or even anger when someone said, “I told you so”? Yes, because the person who says “I told you so…” gives you the feeling to be sure to have correctly interpreted a particular situation, predicting its development; as you obviously did not. You, of what was happening, […]

More and more often we encounter situations in which we need to call on experts, that is, people with knowledge and experience in a specific topic, superior to the ones we can rely on as an individual, group or organization. In my experience, ascertaining whether we are actually in the presence of an expert in […]

Recently a colleague, who works primarily for companies in perpetual search of talent, was puzzled by the content of this video and asked me what I thought about it. After watching it carefully, I realized that Simon Sinek, the author, had in two minutes challenged many of his beliefs about recruitment: beliefs that with my […]

How often it happened to you to buy things that you did not need? Or to buy from one person rather than another without the quality of what you were about to buy playing a crucial role? Much more than you imagine, I bet. In this post, I want to focus on a mechanism that […]

Who is Procrustes? And for what reason should you (quickly…) get off of his bed? Procrustes is a character recorded in Greek mythology as living on Mount Corydalle, along the sacred road linking Eleusis and Athens, who offered hospitality to pilgrims: a generous dinner was followed by a rest on a bed that he wished […]

I often came across not so prepared people who combine lack of competence with a good deal of overconfidence. One day I asked myself: What prompts an incompetent person to adopt an attitude that edges on arrogance? Is there a connection between ignorance and overconfidence? These questions remained unanswered until I learned about the Dunning-Kruger […]

Situations like the one in the cartoon are quite common, especially in organizations where the culture of blame has deep roots. Situations that make us ask a few questions: Why are we so afraid of error? Can make mistakes, in certain circumstances, have advantages? How can we transform error into a learning opportunity? In this […]