This Is Strategy: Make Better Plans (Create a Strategy to Elevate Your Career, Community & Life)

by Seth Godin

And while we’re culturally primed to seek out something new (reruns are not part of must-see TV), there’s a lot of social, commercial, and internal pressure to stick with what’s safe. Some examples: Loss aversion: Losing feels worse than winning feels good, and it’s easier to stand pat and protect what we have. Confirmation bias: It’s nice to feel like we made a good choice. The group encourages its members to look for external signs that existing choices were appropriate, and thus diminishes a desire to look for substitutes. Tribalism: The strong loyalty to one’s own tribe or social group (often leading to hostility or discrimination against those perceived as outsiders) can reinforce social adhesion within groups and make it harder for new ideas or practices to spread across group boundaries. But most of all, in the last century, we took our instincts for social adherence and substitution aversion and built them into our culture.