January reads: @almossawi.bsky.social @dergullen.bsky.social

How does a cohesive group react when a dissenting voice speaks up? In this week’s issue: what groupthink is, why we’re susceptible to it, and four things to do when we’re stuck inside one. ✨ Read issue no. 50: ✨ almossawi.substack.com/p/groupthink...

Moral exclusion. ✨ Read issue no. 49: ✨ almossawi.substack.com/p/moral-excl...

As I’m mid-research for an upcoming book project, I’m realizing that no two books are written by the same person.

The spectrum is interesting when crafting villains. Subhuman, inhuman, lesser human, superhuman.

Morning doodles.

Issue no. 47 is out. almossawi.substack.com/p/wishful-th...

Next week's issue will be on the science behind wishful thinking.

How would you draw confirmation bias as a graph? How about the Dunning-Kruger effect or the sunk cost fallacy? In this week’s issue: what if we had shapes of thinking, a la Kurt Vonnegut’s shapes of stories? ✨ Issue no. 46 of The Critical Thinker ✨ almossawi.substack.com/p/shapes-of-...

I got into data visualization in 2011. I always wondered how great it would be if I could one day be on a website and somehow ask my browser to explain the data graphic I was looking at. #chatgptatlas

The top-8 cognitive biases that can derail the unwary investor—summarizing Barry @ritholtz.bsky.social’s conversation with @almossawi.bsky.social : buff.ly/oqQpK5q

This week’s issue (issue no. 44) looks into how ownership clouds our judgment through the endowment effect, the IKEA effect, and the not-invented here (NIH) bias. almossawi.substack.com/p/the-endowm...

This week’s issue (issue no. 44) looks into how ownership clouds our judgment through the endowment effect, the IKEA effect, and the not-invented here (NIH) bias. almossawi.substack.com/p/the-endowm...

How people use ChatGPT, from the paper released earlier today: www.nber.org/system/files...

HarperCollins imprints, under HarperCollins Leadership and Thomas Nelson, updated. Thanks, Josey Hill. almossawi.com/big-five-pub... @harpercollins.bsky.social

In this week’s issue, I summarize two studies that looked into the effects of self-fulfilling prophecies on our intellectual abilities and, more interestingly, on our physiology. ✨ Read issue no. 43 of The Critical Thinker ✨ almossawi.substack.com/p/how-self-f... #criticalthinking

Why do we spot flaws in other people, but miss them in ourselves? (Follow me for more marriage tips.) Read issue no. 42 of The Critical Thinker almossawi.substack.com/p/why-we-spo...

Least delusional AI founder interviewed by Veo 3-generated interviewer.

A couple of updates as I prepare to move Check Yo Shelf (the easy bookshelf scanner) from closed beta to soft launch.

The shortest academic paper? The shortest letter to a king? The shortest ad campaign? The shortest story? This week’s issue is about pithiness. ✨ Read Issue No. 41: Pithiness ✨ almossawi.substack.com/p/pithiness

Everyone on the waitlist should have received an invite by now. Reach out if you didn’t. #checkyoshelf

San Francisco’s tiny libraries: checkyoshelf.com/explore/c/sa... I wasn’t able to visit them all during that one weekend, so I’ll be going back to several spots over the summer when I have a bit more time. #sanfrancisco #littlefreelibraries

Have you seen those matchbox-looking traps, where an insect is lured into a box by an enticing smell, only to realize once they’re inside that their feet are stuck and their fate is sealed? ✨ Read Issue No. 40: Dark Patterns: How Deceptive Design Tricks Us almossawi.substack.com/p/design-dar...

My favorite little free library so far. Eight more to visit today. I’ve lived in San Francisco for 13 years, and there were neighborhood I’d never been to. Thanks for all the recommendations. ❤️📚

Added the option to quickly jump between your shelf, the editor, and covers.

Driving around San Francisco, making stops at all the little free libraries. Planning on getting to most of them over the long weekend. I ran into someone who asked what it was for. I said I was working on a website for them. Let me know if there are any you’d recommend.

Nintendo store SF about to open.

Just added collections, so you can now share individual shelves or a bunch of them. #checkyoshelf

You'd be able to use it on the Little Free Libraries around town. There are 50+ of these in San Francisco. #checkyoshelf

How did Nestle break into Japan by playing on people’s nostalgia? More in this week’s issue on imperfect memories, reminiscence bumps, and our tendency to recall positive memories over negative ones. ✨ Read issue no. 39: ✨ almossawi.substack.com/p/nostalgia-...

Tomorrow’s issue is on nostalgia, and how it affects the decisions we make in life.

Apple's two logos since 1977 are nearly identical, with a perceptual difference of just 5%.* I thought it would be fun to quantify corporate logo changes over time. From the ones I looked at, 3 patterns emerged.  1. Nearly no change. Apple has had two logos—with many variations—since 1977.

Selection bias: how the things we don’t see distort our decisions Read issue no. 38: almossawi.substack.com/p/selection-...

Ever wondered what an average day in book publishing is like? My guest this week is Karen Giangreco. Karen is General Director and Roving Editor at an independent publisher in New York City and has been in the industry for a decade and a half. almossawi.substack.com/p/the-life-o...

Ever wondered what an average day in book publishing is like? My guest this week is Karen Giangreco. Karen is General Director and Roving Editor at an independent publisher in New York City and has been in the industry for a decade and a half. almossawi.substack.com/p/the-life-o...

A study of a group of doctors in training reveals a counterintuitive result. In issue no. 36 of The Critical Thinker, I discuss imposter thoughts with Prof. Basima Tewfik. Watch / read it now. almossawi.substack.com/p/imposter-t... #imposterthoughts #impostersyndrome

Ad hominem is from the Latin for “To the person.” In this week’s issue, I sift through 43 political fliers I got in the mail last October and ask whether personal attacks work. almossawi.substack.com/p/do-persona...

This week’s issue is a special one. www.linkedin.com/posts/almoss...

I’ve open-sourced the project. almossawi.com/silicon-vall...

Why do we sometimes talk funny? Why do we use jargon? And is it always bad? Plus, get a sneak peak at how the card game I teased last Friday works. See for yourself how ... *clears throat* ... how the sausage is made. Read issue no. 33: almossawi.substack.com/p/why-do-we-...

A new card game about the oddness of office jargon is launching soon. Tap the “Notify Me” button and you’ll get an email once the campaign is live. I’ll be partnering with a fantastic manufacturer to bring this project to life. www.kickstarter.com/projects/alm...

Here's a thing some of you might find handy and most of you might find interesting: a chart of the Big Five firms in book publishing, with their divisions and subdivisions branching out. Created by the excellent @almossawi.bsky.social and available here: almossawi.com/big-five-pub...

Issue no. 32 / People: almossawi.substack.com/p/people

A corner rounder #bookbinding

Hello.