All tagged Focus on the facts
The Signal-to-noise ratio measures the level of a desired signal to the level of background noise. It’s commonly used in science and engineering applications but, of course, it has as much application in our professional and personal worlds, metaphorically speaking anyway.
When someone close to us emotionally recounts a personal situation and demands that we get involved and do something about it - and we do.
More often than not, we tend to judge how a particular situation will turn out based on how easily that outcome comes to mind, which is influenced by what we’ve seen, experienced or heard most recently.
This is called the Availability heuristic or Availability bias, which suggests we weigh our judgements towards the most recent news.
Earlier this year, I got rid of my landline. It was a decision that, frankly, much harder than it should have been.
The fact of the matter is that I’ve had a cell phone since the late 90’s and I’ve been using my cell for all personal calls, almost exclusively, for the last half decade at least. In addition, the only calls that I (or any of my family) have been getting on our landline the last few years have been from telemarketers, and we pretty much never answer those calls.
