DrContrarian

  There is meme floating around social media that goes something like this: Think of how dumb the average guy is. Then realise that half the population is dumber than that. Whilst there is a level of smug superiority in that, there is also an element of truth. An IQ of 100 isn’t much intellectual horsepower. Not that great thinking is a prerequisite to all that matters, but by the same token the invention of mathematics, technological advancement and great art was probably not produced by the bottom half of the bell curve. Averages being what they are; gets us cultural norms that are, well, mediocre. And such is life. The people who created Facebook as a technological platform undoubtedly had well above average IQs. The platform has the potential to be and do amazing things, some of which we have experienced. But consider the average (normal) Facebook post and social experience. It’s about screaming goats on the one hand or people gloating about their breakfast o...

Google is dying. Right now it seems invincible. But like all good things, it too must end. Competitors can't see the weakness in their their game plan (just yet) - but it is there; trust me. And sooner or later, it will fail to see the NBT - and then the next Google arrives. Such is the cycle of life - and business.

It would be disingenuous of me to state that I am (want to) debunk this as a myth, because I am not going to completely go the opposite way and say that you should NOT believe in yourself. But I would like to put it into perspective. Self-doubt is a good thing. Roger Federer continues to play tournament after tournament and cherishes every win exactly because he has a little of doubt as to whether he will succeed. If he had no doubt, he would stop playing because there was no joy in winning and no challenge to conquer. It is exactly because there is a risk of losing that people go out and play. No sane adult will go to Little Athletics meetings and race against the toddlers. If it was only about the importance of winning, that is what we could do. But winning is made desirable and special exactly because it is about overcoming the fear of losing and conquering the self-doubt. If you find yourself in a state of complete and utter confidence (and you are being truthful) then you are n...

It would be disingenuous of me to state that I am (want to) debunk this as a myth, because I am not going to completely go the opposite way and say that you should NOT believe in yourself. But I would like to put it into perspective. Self-doubt is a good thing. Roger Federer continues to play tournament after tournament and cherishes every win exactly because he has a little of doubt as to whether he will succeed. If he had no doubt, he would stop playing because there was no joy in winning and no challenge to conquer. It is exactly because there is a risk of losing that people go out and play. No sane adult will go to Little Athletics meetings and race against the toddlers. If it was only about the importance of winning, that is what we could do. But winning is made desirable and special exactly because it is about overcoming the fear of losing and conquering the self-doubt. If you find yourself in a state of complete and utter confidence (and you are being truthful) then you are n...

Read today... for the gazillionth time (MyBusiness , Mar 07, Australia) that apparently the key to success and the one thing all high achievers do without fail, is to "write down your goals" and then to keep reading them for 30 days and it will happen. I reckon somebody said it once, and every person who wrote a self-help book or article subsequently, quoted it or repeated it and somehow it has become this irrefutable, magical, meta-truth that only losers will dare refute. Question to those gurus : Can someone, anyone, actually quote some research that proves that this is so? The act of writing the goal down has nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with the achievement of that goal. You can wear your lucky underpants all you like, but it ain't gonna make your footy team win. There is a psychological phenomenon (e.g. post-purchase cognitive dissonance) that plays a role. Have you noticed how, once you have bought a new car, you suddenly notice how many of them are on the roa...