Posts tagged #behaviour-change

Field Notes

2nd Oct 2025

You are not the average of the five people you spend the most time with

The Jim Rohn quote, the Christakis findings, and what social-influence research actually says

A well-loved aphorism with the rhetorical force of a research finding. The actual research on social influence is real, more modest in its claims than the popular framing, and tangled with a confound the slogan does not acknowledge.

#contested #evidence #social #mental-models #behaviour-change #learning

By Mick

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Mind & Method

11th Sep 2025

The rapid skill acquisition claim, examined

Ericsson, Kaufman, and what "twenty hours" does and doesn't get you

Josh Kaufman's argument that any skill can be acquired in 20 hours pushed back usefully against the popular misreading of Anders Ericsson's expertise research. It also overcorrected. What 20 hours actually buys, and where the "creativity over facts" framing breaks down.

#learning #evidence #deep-work #contested #focus #behaviour-change

By Mick

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Mind & Method

10th Jul 2025

The goal-setting research, briefly summarised

What Locke and Latham actually found, and the implementation intention research that followed

Goal-setting theory is one of the most-replicated findings in industrial psychology. The popular literature has built itself around the surface features while sometimes missing the conditions that make the underlying mechanism actually work.

#habits #mental-models #evidence #behaviour-change

By Mick

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