Mikael Krogerus > Quotes

“WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPY? Over two thousand years ago, Aristotle came to the unsurprising conclusion that what a person wants above all is to be happy. In 1961, the US psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi wrote: ‘While happiness itself is sought for its own sake, every other goal – health, beauty, money or power – is valued only because we expect that it will make us happy.’ Csikszentmihalyi looked for a term that described the state of feeling happy. He called it ‘flow’. But when are we ‘in the flow’? After interviewing over a thousand people about what made them happy, he found that all the responses had five things in common. Happiness, or ‘flow’, occurs when we are: • intensely focused on an activity • of our own choosing, that is • neither under-challenging (boreout) nor over-challenging (burnout), that has • a clear objective, and that receives • immediate feedback. Csikszentmihalyi discovered that people who are ‘in the flow’ not only feel a profound sense of satisfaction, they also lose track of time and forget themselves completely because they are so immersed in what they are doing.”
― Mikael Krogerus, The Decision Book: 50 Models for Strategic Thinking

“The poor wish to be rich, the rich wish to be happy, the single wish to be married, and the married wish to be dead. Ann Landers”
― Mikael Krogerus, The Decision Book: 50 Models for Strategic Thinking

“After learning something, you should ideally refresh your memory of it at the following intervals: one, ten, thirty and sixty days afterwards.”
― Mikael Krogerus, The Decision Book: 50 Models for Strategic Thinking

“I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.”
― Mikael Krogerus, The Decision Book: Fifty Models for Strategic Thinking

“I’d rather regret the things I have done than the things that I haven’t. Lucille Ball”
― Mikael Krogerus, The Decision Book: Fifty Models for Strategic Thinking

“If a project correspond to your vision, but you are learning nothing new, look for somebody else to do it for you”
― Mikael Krogerus, The Decision Book: Fifty Models for Strategic Thinking

“THE SWISS CHEESE MODEL HOW”
― Mikael Krogerus, The Decision Book: 50 Models for Strategic Thinking

“We see only what we want to see, and ignore everything that contradicts our view. We look for arguments that reinforce our position.”
― Mikael Krogerus, The Decision Book: 50 Models for Strategic Thinking

“Connect the nine points using a maximum of four straight lines without lifting your pen from the paper.”
― Mikael Krogerus, The Decision Book: Fifty Models for Strategic Thinking

“THE BLACK BOX MODEL WHY”
― Mikael Krogerus, The Decision Book: 50 Models for Strategic Thinking

“Models do not define what or how we should think; they are the result of an active thought process.”
― Mikael Krogerus, The Decision Book: Fifty Models for Strategic Thinking

“Ask yourself: When will I deal with the things that are important, but not urgent? When will I take the time to deal with important tasks before they become urgent?”
― Mikael Krogerus, The Decision Book: 50 Models for Strategic Thinking

“We all admire people who have good answers.‬
And we admire people who ask good questions even more.”
― Mikael Krogerus, The Question Book: What Makes You Tick?

“Stuart Hall (1932–2014), was of the same opinion. In fact, he took the idea further. He believed not only that we are capable of misunderstanding, but that we play an active role in understanding, per se. We interpret, or “decode,” the same message differently, depending on our social class, our level of knowledge, and our cultural background. But, above all, the way we understand a message also depends on how we want to understand it.”
― Mikael Krogerus, The Communication Book: 44 Ideas for Better Conversations Every Day

“Pay attention to your thoughts, because they become words. Pay attention to your words, because they become actions. Pay attention to your actions, because they become habits. Pay attention to your habits, because they become your character. Pay attention to your character, because it is your fate. From the Talmud”
― Mikael Krogerus, The Decision Book: Fifty Models for Strategic Thinking

“The US President Dwight D. Eisenhower supposedly once said: ‘The most urgent decisions are rarely the most important ones’. Eisenhower was considered a master of time management, i.e. he had the ability to do everything as and when it needed to be done. With the Eisenhower method, you will learn to distinguish between what is important and what is urgent. Whatever the job that lands on your desk, begin by breaking it down according to the Eisenhower method (see model), and then decide how to proceed. We often focus too strongly on the ‘urgent and important’ field, on the things that have to be dealt with immediately. Ask yourself: When will I deal with the things that are important, but not urgent? When will I take the time to deal with important tasks before they become urgent? This is the field for strategic, long-term decisions.”
― Mikael Krogerus, The Decision Book: 50 Models for Strategic Thinking

“But, above all, the way we understand a message also depends on how we want to understand it. An example is the cult 1960s TV series Star Trek. Many fans interpreted the series as a classic science fiction adventure in space. But the gay community saw the close-knit relationships between the men and the rainbow crew (black African, Asian, Russian, Vulcan) as an allusion to the fact that some of the characters were gay. It is irrelevant that Star Trek's creator, Gene Roddenberry, denied this, because, according to Stuart hall, the message can be changed once it has been received.”
― Mikael Krogerus, The Communication Book

“Any fool can criticise. And most fools do. Benjamin Franklin”
― Mikael Krogerus, The Decision Book: 50 Models for Strategic Thinking

“What is thought is not always said; what is said is not always heard; what is heard is not always understood; what is understood is not always agreed; what is agreed is not always done; what is done is not always done again.” Konrad Lorenz”
― Mikael Krogerus, The Communication Book: 44 Ideas for Better Conversations Every Day

“THE SUPERMEMO MODEL HOW TO REMEMBER EVERYTHING YOU HAVE EVER LEARNED Long-term memory has two components: retrievability and stability. Retrievability determines how easily we remember something, and depends on how near the surface of our consciousness the information is ‘swimming’. Stability, on the other hand, is to do with how deeply information is anchored in our brains. Some memories have a high level of stability but a low level of retrievability. Try to recall one of your old phone numbers – you probably won’t be able to. But if you see the number in front of you, you will recognise it immediately. Imagine that you are learning Chinese. You have learned a word and memorised it. Without practice, over time it will become increasingly difficult to remember. The amount of time it takes for you to forget it completely can be calculated, and ideally you should be reminded of the word precisely when you are in the process of forgetting it. The more often you are reminded of the word, the longer you will remember it for. This learning programme is called Super-Memo and was developed by the Polish researcher Piotr Woźniak. It’s not what you know, it’s what you remember. Jan Cox After learning something, you should ideally refresh your memory of it at the following intervals: one, ten, thirty and sixty days afterwards.”
― Mikael Krogerus, The Decision Book: Fifty Models for Strategic Thinking

“The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.”
― Mikael Krogerus, The Decision Book: 50 Models for Strategic Thinking

“Euphemisms are the mother tongue of manipulation. As a rule of thumb, if someone doesn’t use straight language, don’t act right away – pause before acting.”
― Mikael Krogerus, The Communication Book: 44 Ideas for Better Conversations Every Day

“The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it. Michelangelo”
― Mikael Krogerus, The Decision Book: 50 Models for Strategic Thinking

“The most dangerous words in investing are ‘this time it’s different’. Sir John Templeton”
― Mikael Krogerus, The Decision Book: 50 Models for Strategic Thinking

“•​Good reasoning aims to convince, but it also lets itself be convinced. Simply put, it is the search for truth. •​Bad reasoning has no interest in the truth; it is simply about wanting to be right.”
― Mikael Krogerus, The Communication Book: 44 Ideas for Better Conversations Every Day

“She contradicted the Freudians and development psychologists by suggesting that we modify our behaviour depending on the environment we are in. Her conclusion: children are shaped not by their parents but by the peer group in which they are socialised.”
― Mikael Krogerus, The Change Book: Fifty models to explain how things happen

“THE CHASM – THE DIFFUSION MODEL WHY EVERYBODY HAS AN IPOD Why is it that some ideas – including stupid ones – take hold and become trends, while others bloom briefly before withering and disappearing from the public eye? Sociologists describe the way in which a catchy idea or product becomes popular as ‘diffusion’. One of the most famous diffusion studies is an analysis by Bruce Ryan and Neal Gross of the diffusion of hybrid corn in the 1930s in Greene County, Iowa. The new type of corn was better than the old sort in every way, yet it took twenty-two years for it to become widely accepted. The diffusion researchers called the farmers who switched to the new corn as early as 1928 ‘innovators’, and the somewhat bigger group that was infected by them ‘early adaptors’. They were the opinion leaders in the communities, respected people who observed the experiments of the innovators and then joined them. They were followed at the end of the 1930s by the ‘sceptical masses’, those who would never change anything before it had been tried out by the successful farmers. But at some point even they were infected by the ‘hybrid corn virus’, and eventually transmitted it to the die-hard conservatives, the ‘stragglers’. Translated into a graph, this development takes the form of a curve typical of the progress of an epidemic. It rises, gradually at first, then reaches the critical point of any newly launched product, when many products fail. The critical point for any innovation is the transition from the early adaptors to the sceptics, for at this point there is a ‘chasm’. According to the US sociologist Morton Grodzins, if the early adaptors succeed in getting the innovation across the chasm to the sceptical masses, the epidemic cycle reaches the tipping point. From there, the curve rises sharply when the masses accept the product, and sinks again when only the stragglers remain. With technological innovations like the iPod or the iPhone, the cycle described above is very short. Interestingly, the early adaptors turn away from the product as soon as the critical masses have accepted it, in search of the next new thing. The chasm model was introduced by the American consultant and author Geoffrey Moore. First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. Mahatma Gandhi”
― Mikael Krogerus, The Decision Book: 50 Models for Strategic Thinking

“HOW TO INTERPRET THE RESULTS • Reject projects if there is nothing you can learn from them and if they do not correspond to your overriding vision. • Projects that you can learn from but do not correspond to your vision are interesting but will not help you achieve your objective. Try to change the project so that it serves your vision. • If a project corresponds to your vision, but you are learning nothing new, look for somebody else to do it for you.”
― Mikael Krogerus, The Decision Book: Fifty Models for Strategic Thinking

“One of the most frequently cited communication theories is George Gerbner’s Cultivation Theory from 1976, which claims that people who watch a lot of television are more likely to “cultivate” the belief that reality corresponds with what they are seeing on TV. He argued that watching a lot of television changes our perception of reality and causes anxiety.”
― Mikael Krogerus, The Communication Book: 44 Ideas for Better Conversations Every Day