Podcasts about maximizers

My guest is Lori Gottlieb, MFT, a psychotherapist and bestselling author who specializes in helping people build strong relationships by first understanding themselves and the stories they've internalized about themselves and others. We explore how our parents, wounds and unique strengths—both consciously and unconsciously—influence our partner choices and how we show up in relationships, as well as how to avoid and break free from destructive patterns. We also discuss the impact of texting, social media and dating apps on partnership. Lori shares which signals to follow to become the best romantic partner possible and how to make choices that lead to greater vitality, happiness and fulfillment in all areas of life. Read the episode show notes at hubermanlab.com. Thank you to our sponsors AG1: https://drinkag1.com/huberman Helix Sleep: https://helixsleep.com/huberman BetterHelp: https://betterhelp.com/huberman David Protein: https://davidprotein.com/huberman LMNT: https://drinklmnt.com/huberman Timestamps 00:00:00 Dr. Lori Gottlieb 00:02:01 Patient & First Question; Talked Out of Feelings 00:06:15 Self-Regulation vs Co-Regulation, Tool: Pause & Perspective 00:10:04 Sponsors: Helix Sleep & BetterHelp 00:12:36 Relationships, Childhood & Unfinished Business 00:17:13 Unconscious Mind, Hurtful Parent & Familiarity, Role of Therapy 00:26:35 Excitement & Chaos, Cherophobia; Storytelling, First Date & Sparks? 00:36:27 Tool: Awareness of Death & Living Fully; Vitality; Fear vs Acceptance 00:47:27 Sponsors: AG1 & David Protein 00:50:35 Activate vs Energize; Tool: Technology, Numbness & Overwhelm 00:54:50 Numb or Calm?, Gender Stereotypes, Tool: Mentalizing 01:00:51 Feelings, Projective Identification, Tool: Owning Your Feelings 01:03:25 React vs Respond; Space, Tool: Face-to-Face Conversation vs Text 01:10:16 Behavioral Change, 5 Steps of Change, Tool: Self-Compassion & Accountability 01:15:38 Sponsor: LMNT 01:16:54 Deadlines & Rules; Idiot vs Wise Compassion, No Drama & Assumptions 01:26:27 Silent Treatment, Crying & Manipulation, Shame vs Guilt, Self-Preservation 01:33:01 Self-Reflection, Individual & Couples Therapy, Transference; Agency 01:38:56 Texting, Conflicts, Breakups, Pain Hierarchy, Tool: Move Forward 01:46:42 Relationship Breakups, Daily World & Loss 01:53:30 Bank of Goodwill; Talking About Partner, Focus, Comparison 02:01:13 Infidelity, What If vs What Is, Attention & Appreciation 02:04:56 Gut Instinct, Change Behavior, Danger, Productive vs Unproductive Anxiety 02:15:27 Knowing Oneself, Relationships, Flexibility, Shared History 02:20:30 Romantic Relationships & Teens, Social Media, Privacy 02:27:09 Online Apps & Choices, Maximizers vs Satisficers, Tool: Identify Your Weakness 02:33:09 Fixing Issues Early, Tool: Self vs Partner Lists & Character Qualities 02:41:51 Feeling Toward Partner, Calm, Content; Tool: Operating Instructions 02:46:48 Help-Rejecting Complainers; Relationships, Love & Core Wounds 02:51:22 Stories & Unreliable Narrators, Editing, Tool: 5 Senses 02:59:04 Young Men, Masculinity, Confusion 03:07:03 Grief, Making Sense of Loss 03:09:54 Maybe You Should Talk to Someone Workbook; Ask The Therapist, Choosing a Bigger Life 03:20:26 Zero-Cost Support, YouTube, Spotify & Apple Follow & Reviews, YouTube Feedback, Protocols Book, Social Media, Neural Network Newsletter Disclaimer & Disclosures

In this thought-provoking clip of Warsaw Confidential, we delve deep into the psychology of narcissism with expert insights. Narcissism often gets a bad rap, but is it all negative? Master the art of storytelling with 7 powerful, actionable tips delivered straight to your inbox over the next 7 days. It's completely FREE

In this episode of SaaS Fuel, we welcome Jon MacDonald, the founder of The Good - a digital experience optimization firm known for driving results for major online brands like Adobe, Nike, Xerox, The Economist and more. Jon shares how brands can better understand their customers by simplifying the user experience and engaging customers at every step. He also dives into the key psychological factors behind online behavior, including the IKEA effect and the difference between Satisfiers and Maximizers. Explore the pitfalls of discounting, the value of gated content, and how brands can balance AI with human insights for long-term success. Learn practical tips for creating customer-centered digital experiences that boost conversions.Tune in to this episode to know more about Jon's expertise in digital optimization that can help enhance customer experiences, boost conversions and stay ahead in the competitive SaaS landscape.Key Takeaways00:00 Decision delays due to budget cycles and scrutiny.08:49 Reduce friction, quick wins, streamline onboarding: success.14:40 Passionate about user interfaces and human-computer interaction.15:42 Combined CS and visual arts, led to Flash.25:24 Understand user questions during each digital journey phase.26:54 Make websites clear; answer customer questions repeatedly.36:18 People research extensively online before purchasing products.41:00 Give away content freely; charge for personalization.46:22 5-factor scorecard for successful optimization programs.52:34 Involve consumers; they make subconscious decisions daily.58:13 Treat consumers as individuals, not just numbers.01:00:39 Humans preferred over AI; optimization still necessary.Tweetable Quotes"I think that every single element of your website is gonna tell the consumer something about why they do or do not wanna work with you or buy from you." — John McDonald 00:20:58"The easiest thing here is to understand as a brand that your consumers coming to your site do not have any context that you possess as somebody who works every day with the brand." — John McDonald 00:27:07 "You wanna show people exactly what their purchasing choice says about them to other people. And that can often be done through social proof. It can be done through, through, you know, reviews." — John McDonald 00:29:07 "And so I'm a firm believer that you should give away as much content as you possibly can. Now if somebody wants that applied to their situation directly and specifically, that's when you charge for it." — John McDonald 00:41:31"Unfortunately, what most brands don't understand is that consumers are making 35,000 decisions a day." — John McDonald 00:52:57"Just because you can't see the consumer on the other side of the screen does not mean that they aren't human." — John McDonald 00:58:26 SaaS Leadership LessonsUnderstand Your Customers' Need: Know that understanding customer pain points is essential. By identifying what users are looking for, you can tailor the experience to guide them efficiently toward a solution.Focus on Post-Launch Optimization: Building a product is only the first step; constant optimization is key to long-term success. Prioritize refining their offerings based on user feedback and performance data.Avoid Over-Reliance on Discounts: Offering discounts may drive short-term gains, but it risks creating a customer base that only values your product at a reduced price. Instead, focus on adding value to maintain product integrity.Leverage Psychological Insights: Understanding...

“They” say we spend over 30% of our life at work. For some of us over-achieving, work-a-holics burning the candle at both ends, that percentage is likely even higher. If we're spending over a third of our lives working, shouldn't we love what we do? We think so. That's why in this episode we talk about another one of the “5 Clues to Talent”: Satisfaction. Come join us! Work With Us! BREA Roper Communication | Woo | Activator | Futuristic | Connectedness Talent development shouldn't be “one size fits all”, because each person is uniquely talented! Unfortunately, most leaders struggle to find and fuel the unique talent in yourself and others. If you're ready to find hidden talent and realize untapped potential – let's talk! I'm ready to customize a solution for any need, any budget. Connect with me at brearoper.com! LISA Cummings Strategic | Maximizer | Positivity | Individualization | Woo   To work with Lisa, check out team workshops and retreats at the Lead Through Strengths site. For 1:1 strengths or life coaching, check out the Get Coached link. For independent coaches, trainers, and speakers, get business tools support with our Tools for Coaches membership.     Takeaways for doing what you love…this week! Identify What You Love What brings you joy and satisfaction in your daily activities is a clue to your innate talent! Maybe it's the opportunity to learn, the sense of accomplishment when completing a task, coming up with creative ideas, collaborating with others…or something else. Whatever it is, understanding what you love to do. and why, can lead to a more fulfilling life – at work and home. Feel better. Do better. When you operate from a place of joy and fulfillment, you feel better yourself, and make more significant contributions to those around you. A win-win! By focusing on doing what you love and leveraging your strengths, you can enhance your overall well-being and positively impact your relationships and work performance. Remember, hard work doesn't have to feel hard. You can actually enjoy what you do. Finding what you don't love to do is not the same as finding what you do enjoy. Sure, making a list of what we didn't like about a task or activity can help us avoid those things in the future. But it won't necessarily lead you to what you do enjoy. And you deserve a life that's more than simply avoiding what you don't like. You deserve to thrive!   Remember, hard work doesn't have to be hard. Align it with your strengths and it actually feels easy.

In today's episode, we explore the fascinating world of communication styles and their roots in our childhood experiences. Join me as I delve into the concepts of "maximizing" and "minimizing" behaviors. We'll embark on a journey up the developmental mountain uncovering how our early interactions with caregivers shape our adult patterns of communication and relationship dynamics.Through understanding the origins of our communication styles, we can gain valuable insight into our own behaviors and those of our partners. We'll discuss how childhood adaptations to either painful lack of contact or painful contact with caregivers can manifest as maximizing or minimizing tendencies in adulthood. By recognizing these patterns, we open the door to growth, healing, and fostering deeper, more conscious connections with our loved ones.So, whether you identify as a maximizer, seeking attention and external validation, or a minimizer, avoiding attention and relying on rigid self-sufficiency, this episode will provide you with a fresh perspective on your communication style. Together, we'll explore how these opposite tendencies often attract in relationships and how couples can work together to break free from unconscious patterns and create a more balanced, loving partnership. Tune in to discover how embracing personal growth and understanding can transform your relationships from the inside out.Key Themes Discussed:- The impact of childhood experiences on adult communication styles- Maximizing and minimizing behaviors in relationships- The "developmental mountain" metaphor in Imago therapy- How opposites attract dynamics stem from childhood adaptations- Opportunities for growth and healing in conscious relationshipsTimestamps:02:15 Maximizing and minimizing communication styles explained06:48 Childhood experiences shape adult relationship patterns11:02 Growth opportunities for minimizers: Opening up and being present15:37 Maximizers' challenges: Self-soothing and decision-making19:50 Understanding unconscious dynamics is key to transforming relationshipsWant to transform your relationship and take it to the next level?Join my online course here.My Socials:Nick Solaczek on InstagramNick Solaczek on YouTubeNick Solaczek on Facebook

In this exciting live episode of Own Your Commerce from SubSummit in Dallas, our host Jay and Matthew Holman from Subscription Prescription share insights on Bold's new features called MAXIMIZERS. These are designed to convert one-time buyers into loyal subscribers, simplify the subscription process, and enhance customer experiences. Whether you're a seasoned Shopify subscription business or just getting started, this episode is packed with valuable information to help you optimize your subscription strategy. Why You Should Listen? Learn practical ways to implement new features and strategies to maximize your subscriptions. Gain insights from industry experts on overcoming common subscription challenges. Enjoy the lively atmosphere of SubSummit with engaging conversations and real-world examples. For more information on how to maximize every subscriber, visit: Bold Commerce. Stay Connected with Bold Commerce: LinkedIn  Facebook  X  Instagram  Want to listen to other episodes? Click here!

Discover the fascinating world of money personalities and how understanding each other's differences is crucial for achieving financial success. This insightful episode promises to change the way you view your relationship with money and your loved ones. Join us, your hosts David and Aden, as we share our personal wins and dive into the eight different mindsets people have about money, with a special focus on the Family Guardian personality.  Learn how various wealth personalities impact our approach to financial planning, particularly for family guardians who prioritise their family's needs above their own. We explore the importance of off-farm assets, the role of independent and objective advice, and the unique characteristics of other money personalities like Builders and Maximizers. Discover how these different money personalities interact with financial advisors and the wealth management process.  Lastly, we examine the potential conflicts that can arise between individuals with different financial personalities, such as Maximizers, Mavericks, and Controllers. We discuss the importance of good stewardship, patience, and love in finding balance and harmony in relationships with differing money mindsets. By understanding our own money personalities and those of our loved ones, we can work together towards true financial prosperity. So, tune in and transform your financial future with the knowledge and understanding of money personalities!MaterialsMoney Personalities GuideKey moments00:04:48 Understand money personalities.00:10:44 Take advice to achieve freedom.00:16:06 Trust your financial adviser.00:17:18 Build wealth methodically.00:27:27 Maximizers strive for wealth.00:34:45 Love conquers financial differences.00:40:00 Social spenders seek reward.00:43:30 Save first, spend later.For more information on Capital Partners visit capital-partners.com.au. Have a question? Email us ask@capital-partners.com.au. This episode provides general advice only. Always refer to your financial adviser for advice about your personal circumstances. Capital Partners Consulting Pty Ltd AFSL 227148 trading as Capital Partners Private Wealth Advisers ABN 27 086 670 788.

For a full transcript of this episode, click here. For a deep dive into the way back backstory here, listen to the show with Dea Belazi, PharmD, MPH. That's episode 293, and it's entitled “Game Theory Gone Wild,” because gone wild is what has happened with pharma manufacturer co-pay assistance programs. Don't forget that the original intent of the first chess move here was by pharma manufacturers to circumvent basically PBM (pharmacy benefit manager) formulary restrictions, because the leverage PBMs have is access and patient out-of-pocket costs—and let's focus on the out-of-pocket costs right now. If a drug is on formulary, patients can get said drug for a lower relative price. Drugs not on formulary are abandoned at the pharmacy counter quite often because patients cannot afford them, and this is by design. This patient abandonment of their prescriptions is what gives the PBM leverage when negotiating with Pharma. If Pharma doesn't play by PBM rules, they get kicked off the formulary; and then patients can no longer afford to get their meds and pharma market share tanks. So, the original intent of co-pay cards was for Pharma to say, “Ha ha, talk to the hand, you PBMs. You can not put us on formulary if you want, but I'm gonna lower the out-of-pocket costs all by meself with me co-pay cards. If you, PBM, force a $300 co-pay or whatever, which is way too high for most patients, I, Pharma, will pay $275 of that (or maybe all $300) a month on the patient's behalf with my co-pay card program. So, patients are now left with a reasonable amount that they should be able to afford, and my pharma drug's market share is unhindered.” I think one thing to keep in mind here as we evaluate the net impact is that not all situations are the same. Let's say there's two main scenarios—and keep both of these in mind during the conversation that follows with Joey Dizenhouse as you consider the impact on plan sponsors and patients vis-à-vis their premiums and also on patients/members in the short term. Scenario #1: Let's say there's one drug out there for a particular condition. One drug. And on some plan, that one drug has a ridiculously expensive out-of-pocket cost, say, $8000 or something like this, whatever their deductible or the max out-of-pocket is for that particular member on that particular plan. And this is $8000 every year if this is a chronic condition, which makes it different than someone hitting their deductible this year because they had a knee replacement or whatever. In this first scenario, we're talking about patients or their kids who in perpetuity need a drug and who effectively just had their salary reduced year over year by $8000 or whatever. If they want the med, they have no other option than this huge out of pocket. That's one situation. Scenario #2: Let's say there's another really expensive drug, but in this scenario, there's a generic equivalent or there's some other brand that costs $70 and works for most patients. So, yeah … now we have patients who get a co-pay card and are thus incented by their low or no out of pocket to get a drug that is effectively a rip-off. So, now the plan is paying something upwards of $8000 instead of $70. And it's not like the patient got a better product. It's upwards of 8000 wasted plan dollars that really don't accrue any better health. And so, this is really where our story begins. A couple of definitions here: Maximizer refers to the entity running a maximizer program. It's a noun. It's a who. Oftentimes the maximizer is the PBM, but not always. Joey talks about two kinds of maximizer programs: One is what Joey calls a spread model, and then there's also the transparent model. We also in the podcast that follows talk about a scheme which is often pitched to plan sponsors that I'm going to call the “the drug's not covered” approach. At the end of the show, we come up with three bits of advice. And here they are, spoiler alert: 1. Buyer beware. If you are a self-insured employer or some other entity who is purchasing these maximizer programs, purchasing due diligence is required. If your vendor makes more money the more a drug costs, yeah, you have misaligned incentives and the chances of you (the plan sponsor) and all of your members getting screwed is on the high side. (Eric Bricker, MD, shows how this could work in this video about the Cigna “transparent” CostVantage offering.) 2. As Lauren Vela said also in episode 406, everybody always thinks that their contracts are amazing. It's everybody else's contracts that suck. You ask a roomful of HR folks if their PBM contracts are above average, and the whole room raises their hands. This ain't Lake Wobegon, folks. Don't kill the messenger. 3. Get on the ground and actually talk to plan members who are taking these drugs or who have kids taking drugs that are covered by these maximizer programs or covered by the “it's not covered” alternative funding programs. I certainly hope no one listening is taking the word of the program sponsor on how satisfied plan members are, especially with all these class action lawsuits afoot. My guest today, as aforementioned, is Joey Dizenhouse, FSA, MAAA. He is an actuary by background. He serves as CEO of SlateRx, which is a pharmacy benefit experience provider, or a PBX, as they call it. He is also head of HealthTrust IHP. Also mentioned in this episode are Dea Belazi, PharmD, MPH; Eric Bricker, MD; Lauren Vela; Andreas Mang; and Kollet Koulianos, MBA. You can learn more at SlateRx.   Joey Dizenhouse, FSA, MAAA, has spent more than 25 years in the healthcare industry, serving in a number of strategic, leadership roles. As president and chief executive officer at SlateRx, Joey is responsible for driving the organization's mission of revolutionizing the pharmacy benefit experience. With a key focus on servant leadership and innovation, he seeks value for SlateRx's clients and their covered lives across the complex pharmacy supply chain. He also provides strategic guidance for partner organization HealthTrust. At HealthTrust, Joey led the Insurance, Human Capital, and Pharmacy (IHP) business segment, managing more than $15 billion in annual drug purchasing. Prior to HealthTrust, Joey spent 15 years at a large professional services consulting firm in a number of health and welfare leadership roles, serving many organizations during his tenure, including several from the Fortune 100. Joey is a frequent public speaker on subject matter related to pharmacy insurance, benefits strategies, and the US healthcare landscape. He is a fellow of the Society of Actuaries, member of the American Academy of Actuaries, and a licensed life and health insurance agent across all 50 states.   06:21 How was the first iteration of maximizers conceived? 10:59 “I'd always encourage you to come back to the underlying incentives.” 11:18 What does maximizer acceleration look like? 12:24 What are the two kinds of maximizers? 12:43 What is the spread model for a maximizer? 13:02 What is the transparent model for a maximizer? 15:26 “Ask the questions: How do you make money? Prove it!” 15:56 EP419 with Andreas Mang. 16:25 How might Pharma be making more money with maximizers? 26:14 What is the “it's not covered” approach? 32:29 “The right kind of program has been properly narrowed.” 33:51 Is there a purpose that some of these programs can serve, issues aside? 35:57 How does a free drug program actually cost money?   You can learn more at SlateRx.   Joey Dizenhouse discusses #pharmacybenefits, #employer #costsavings, and #outofpocket costs on our #healthcarepodcast. #healthcare #podcast #pharma #healthcareleadership #healthcaretransformation #healthcareinnovation   Recent past interviews: Click a guest's name for their latest RHV episode! Benjamin Jolley, Emily Kagan Trenchard (Encore! EP392), Cora Opsahl (Encore! EP372), Jodilyn Owen, Ge Bai, Andreas Mang, Karen Root (Encore! EP381), Mark Cuban and Ferrin Williams, Dan Mendelson (Encore! EP385), Josh Berlin  

Are you always pushing for things to be better, or are you more than happy to keep things up how they've always been? In this episode, Jill discusses the concept of “maximizers” vs. “satisficers” and how it relates to personal and business growth. Right now is the perfect time to reflect on the previous year and identify opportunities for growth in the upcoming year. If growth is what you want in 2024, you have to learn to embrace overwhelm and take action to push past comfort zones—you have to become the type of leader *you* need to be in order to achieve success. If you're looking for some practical advice and prompts for setting goals and making meaningful changes in business and life, make sure to tune in to this episode.   Get on the Interest List for FBA: https://jillfitfree.com/fba-waitlist/   Jill is a fitness professional and business coach who effectively made the transition from training clients in person and having no time to build anything else to training clients online and actually being more successful. Today, Jill helps other coaches to do the same.   Connect with me! Instagram: @jillfit | @fitbizu Facebook: @jillfit Website: jillfit.com

Barry Schwartz is a TED speaker, a professor, a social scientist, and the author of "The Paradox of Choice." During our conversation, Barry talks about decision paralysis, the downsides of having too many options, and the difference between what calls a "maximizer" and a "satisficier." He also talks about his view that modern depression is in part caused people feeling overwhelmed by choice, how social media and modernity have exacerbated the paradox of choice, and the importance of individuals to intentionally limit their choices.Barry writes in his book: “There's no question that some choice is better than none, but it doesn't follow from that that more choice is better than some choice.” "The Paradox of Choice" is nearly 20 years old, and its message, to me, is both counterintuitive and evergreen. It flies in the face of the most American of ideals: the value of freedom, the value of endless optionality.To my mind, Barry's ideas are worth considering. He's right that endless choice can lead to “paralysis rather than liberation" - an observation that our culture, increasingly, would do well to heed.------------Support via VenmoSupport on SubstackSupport on Patreon------------Show notesRate on SpotifyRate on Apple PodcastsSocial media and all episodes------------(00:00) Intro(02:11) The genesis of "The Paradox of Choice"(07:51) The relevance of "The Paradox of Choice" today(12:17) The ideal of freedom of choice in Western Civilization(15:12) "Maximizer" vs "Satisficer"(19:08) Is it ever wise to be a "Maximizer"?(25:56) Depression caused by excess choice(27:40) How can Maximizers be persuaded to change?(31:00) Placing intentional limits on yourself(34:16) What else is causing the negativity of excess choice?(42:02) Insatiability and workaholism in America(49:06) Increasing choice decreases economic activity(53:40) Dating, choice, and how to change

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Often in life, we are challenged to avoid making mistakes, to not own up to our mistakes if we make them, and certainly we lean on our reputation for forgiveness in the unavoidable wake of being mistaken. It seems like the crushing weight of not choosing the right partner, early on, weighs heavy on many of us. On today's show, I suggest letting go of the fear that you are unworthy of the love that you long for.  I believe that everyone is a personal magnet for the love they deserve. Sometimes we get the love that we deserve, and it forces us to become better people. I have been made better by the men who have let me down, rejected me, and lead me astray on my journey. I have been refined to a higher purpose, and I am no longer in fear of my shadow self. Since I am finally able to see my dark side, I can avoid being a maximizer- always looking for the next best option. Share your thoughts with me on IG  @dailydoseofbpod or Brittanie Jay on Facebook 

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Crystal Healing — or the Origins of Expected Utility Maximizers, published by Alexander Gietelink Oldenziel on June 25, 2023 on LessWrong. (Note: John discusses similar ideas here. We drafted this before he published his post, so some of the concepts might jar if you read it with his framing in mind. ) Traditionally, focus in Agent Foundations has been around the characterization of ideal agents, often in terms of coherence theorems that state that, under certain conditions capturing rational decision-making, an agent satisfying these conditions must behave as if it maximizes a utility function. In this post, we are not so much interested in characterizing ideal agents — at least not directly. Rather, we are interested in how true agents and not-so true agents may be classified and taxonomized, how agents and pseudo-agents may be hierarchically aggregated and composed out of subagents and how agents with different preferences may be formed and selected for in different training regimes. First and foremost, we are concerned with how unified goal-directed agents form from a not-quite-agentic substratum. In other words, we are interested in Selection Theorems rather than Coherence Theorems. (We take the point of view that a significant part of the content of the coherence theorems is not so much in the theorems or rationality conditions themselves but in the money-pump arguments that are used to defend the conditions.) This post concerns how expected utility maximizers may form from entities with incomplete preferences. Incomplete preferences on the road to maximizing utility The classical model of a rational agent assumes it has vNM-preferences. We assume, in particular, that the agent is complete — i.e., that for any options x,y, we have x≥y or y≥x. However, in real-life agents, we often see incompleteness — i.e., a preference for default states, or maybe a path-dependent preference, or maybe a sense that a preference between two options is yet to be defined; we will leave the precise meaning of incompleteness somewhat open for the purposes of this post. The aim of this post is to understand the selection pressures that push agents towards completeness. Here are the main reasons we consider this important: Completeness is a prerequisite for applying the money-pump arguments that justify other coherence axioms. It thereby underlies the conception of agents as (rational) goal-directed optimizers. Understanding the pressures towards completeness from a plausibly incomplete state of nature can help us understand what kinds of intelligent optimization processes are likely to arise, and in which kinds of conditions / training regimes. In particular, since something like completeness seems to be an important facet of consequentialism, understanding the pressures towards completeness helps us understand the pressures towards consequentialism. Review of "Why Subagents" Let's review John Wentworth's post "Why subagents?" . John observes that inexploitability (= not taking sure losses) is not sufficient to be a vNM expected utility maximizer. An agent with incomplete preferences can be inexploitable without being an expected utility maximizer. Although these agents are inexploitable, they can have path-dependent preferences. If John had grown up in Manchester he'd be a United fan. If he had grown up in Liverpool he'd be cracking the skulls of Manchester United fans. We could model this as a dynamical change of preferences ("preference formation"). Alternatively, we can model this as John having incomplete preferences: if he grows up in Manchester he loves United and wouldn't take the offer to switch to Liverpool. If he grows up in Liverpool he loves whatever the team in Liverpool is and doesn't switch to United. In other words, incompleteness is a frame to look at preference for...

Michael Cohen is is a DPhil student at the University of Oxford with Mike Osborne. He will be starting a postdoc with Professor Stuart Russell at UC Berkeley, with the Center for Human-Compatible AI. His research considers the expected behaviour of generally intelligent artificial agents, with a view to designing agents that we can expect to behave safely. You can see more links and a full transcript at www.hearthisidea.com/episodes/cohen. We discuss: What is reinforcement learning, and how is it different from supervised and unsupervised learning? Michael's recently co-authored paper titled 'Advanced artificial agents intervene in the provision of reward' Why might it be hard to convey what we really want to RL learners — even when we know exactly what we want? Why might advanced RL systems might tamper with their sources of input, and why could this be very bad? What assumptions need to hold for this "input tampering" outcome? Is reward really the optimisation target? Do models "get reward"? What's wrong with the analogy between RL systems and evolution? Key links: Michael's personal website 'Advanced artificial agents intervene in the provision of reward' by Michael K. Cohen, Marcus Hutter, and Michael A. Osborne 'Pessimism About Unknown Unknowns Inspires Conservatism' by Michael Cohen and Marcus Hutter 'Intelligence and Unambitiousness Using Algorithmic Information Theory' by Michael Cohen, Badri Vallambi, and Marcus Hutter 'Quantilizers: A Safer Alternative to Maximizers for Limited Optimization' by Jessica Taylor 'RAMBO-RL: Robust Adversarial Model-Based Offline Reinforcement Learning' by Marc Rigter, Bruno Lacerda, and Nick Hawes 'Quantilizers: A Safer Alternative to Maximizers for Limited Optimization' by Jessica Taylor Season 40 of Survivor

Link to original articleWelcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Crystal Healing — or the Origins of Expected Utility Maximizers, published by Alexander Gietelink Oldenziel on June 25, 2023 on LessWrong. (Note: John discusses similar ideas here. We drafted this before he published his post, so some of the concepts might jar if you read it with his framing in mind. ) Traditionally, focus in Agent Foundations has been around the characterization of ideal agents, often in terms of coherence theorems that state that, under certain conditions capturing rational decision-making, an agent satisfying these conditions must behave as if it maximizes a utility function. In this post, we are not so much interested in characterizing ideal agents — at least not directly. Rather, we are interested in how true agents and not-so true agents may be classified and taxonomized, how agents and pseudo-agents may be hierarchically aggregated and composed out of subagents and how agents with different preferences may be formed and selected for in different training regimes. First and foremost, we are concerned with how unified goal-directed agents form from a not-quite-agentic substratum. In other words, we are interested in Selection Theorems rather than Coherence Theorems. (We take the point of view that a significant part of the content of the coherence theorems is not so much in the theorems or rationality conditions themselves but in the money-pump arguments that are used to defend the conditions.) This post concerns how expected utility maximizers may form from entities with incomplete preferences. Incomplete preferences on the road to maximizing utility The classical model of a rational agent assumes it has vNM-preferences. We assume, in particular, that the agent is complete — i.e., that for any options x,y, we have x≥y or y≥x. However, in real-life agents, we often see incompleteness — i.e., a preference for default states, or maybe a path-dependent preference, or maybe a sense that a preference between two options is yet to be defined; we will leave the precise meaning of incompleteness somewhat open for the purposes of this post. The aim of this post is to understand the selection pressures that push agents towards completeness. Here are the main reasons we consider this important: Completeness is a prerequisite for applying the money-pump arguments that justify other coherence axioms. It thereby underlies the conception of agents as (rational) goal-directed optimizers. Understanding the pressures towards completeness from a plausibly incomplete state of nature can help us understand what kinds of intelligent optimization processes are likely to arise, and in which kinds of conditions / training regimes. In particular, since something like completeness seems to be an important facet of consequentialism, understanding the pressures towards completeness helps us understand the pressures towards consequentialism. Review of "Why Subagents" Let's review John Wentworth's post "Why subagents?" . John observes that inexploitability (= not taking sure losses) is not sufficient to be a vNM expected utility maximizer. An agent with incomplete preferences can be inexploitable without being an expected utility maximizer. Although these agents are inexploitable, they can have path-dependent preferences. If John had grown up in Manchester he'd be a United fan. If he had grown up in Liverpool he'd be cracking the skulls of Manchester United fans. We could model this as a dynamical change of preferences ("preference formation"). Alternatively, we can model this as John having incomplete preferences: if he grows up in Manchester he loves United and wouldn't take the offer to switch to Liverpool. If he grows up in Liverpool he loves whatever the team in Liverpool is and doesn't switch to United. In other words, incompleteness is a frame to look at preference for...

In this podcast, we interview a consultant and a leading patient advocate to better understand and explore the challenges of copay accumulator and maximizer programs for specialty drugs. We discuss the difference between the two programs and their impact on the various stakeholders including the overwhelming burden placed on patients. We also discuss the legal issues and potential policy changes that could eliminate these programs or minimize their impact on patients. Ultimately, our goal is to shed light on this important issue and identify strategies for improving access to critical medications for patients who need them. Carl Schmid, Executive Director, HIV And Hepatitis Policy Institute Lauren Crawford Shaver, Senior Managing Director, FTI Consulting HIV And Hepatitis Policy Institute FTI Consulting President's Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS National Association of Insurance Commissioners. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) What are co pay maximizers? Like this episode and want to here more? Check out our past episodes here! Do you have a prescription for better access? Share your ideas with us at comments@prescriptionforbetteraccess.com Follow us on social media! We’re on YouTube, LinkedIn and @RX4BetterAccess (X)

Is a happy life one that is abundant with pleasure? Or one without pain? Or one that overcomes struggle? The quest for a good life may go beyond the scope of a psychological study. But bestselling author, Paul Bloom does believe that psychology can help us maximize the circumstances that contribute to our happiness.   In the second part of our interview with psychologist Paul Bloom we delve more into his book  “Psych: The Story of the Human Mind”. Not only do we discuss the factors that lead to a happy life, we talk to Paul about the evolution of selfish versus altruistic behaviors, the ongoing debate between nature versus nurture, how maximizers and satisficers differ and what exactly hypophobia is.   If you'd like to listen to the first part of Paul's interview, tune in to episode 352 and you'll also enjoy our previous discussion with Paul about his book, The Sweet Spot in episode 241.    Become a podcast follower of Behavioral Grooves and you will automatically be notified when our new weekly episodes go live.   Topics  (2:23) Why Paul hasn't written a psychology textbook. (5:03) The evolution of kindness and selfishness.  (11:57) Nature vs. nurture. (15:30) Why do we care more about our differences than our similarities? (18:07) Maximizers vs. satisficers?  (20:28) Is language infinite in principle, but finite in practice? (22:19) What is a good life? (27:34) Do a lot of our politicians have hypophobia (lack of fear)? (30:47) What music would Paul take to a desert island? (34:30) Grooving Session with Kurt and Tim.   © 2023 Behavioral Grooves   Links  Episode 352, Psychology: Should Freud Still Be On The Syllabus? Paul Bloom, Part 1: https://behavioralgrooves.com/episode/psychology-freud-on-the-syllabus/  Paul Bloom's book “Psych: The Story of the Human Mind”: https://amzn.to/3MF6raM  Episode 241 with Paul Bloom, Why Finding Pleasure in Life is a Painful Journey: https://behavioralgrooves.com/episode/pleasure-is-a-painful-journey/  Lila Gleitman: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lila_R._Gleitman  Noam Chomsky: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noam_Chomsky  Randolph Nesse: https://www.randolphnesse.com/    Musical Links  The White Lotus Soundtrack “I Want to Live”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8I9ffEzCPIA  Elton John “The Last Song”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5eEQJZm7ZM  David Bowie “Changes”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BgF7Y3q-as  Tracey Chapman “Fast Car”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIOAlaACuv4  Joan Armatrading “Already There”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChMcN0ke1eA  Suzanne Vega “Walk on The Wild Side”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEXGLRLhWls  Led Zeppelin “Stairway to Heaven”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ly6ZhQVnVow  Pink Floyd “Time”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qr0-7Ds79zo 

We vergeten het nog weleens, maar het is voor ons hoofd behoorlijk belastend om een keuze te maken! En bovendien gaan we als mensen ook allemaal anders om met het maken van keuzes. Daarom hebben we het in deze aflevering over manieren en beweegredenen bij het 'kiezen' en lichten we: de 'maximizers' en de 'satisficers' uit.Voor meer persoonlijkheidsfeitjes volg ons op Instagram of TikTok!Lees, kijk en luistertips

Well, this episode is suddenly incredibly relevant again just with all the stuff going on with co-pay maximizers. If you're gonna understand maximizers, though, you really have to start here. In a nutshell, this whole thing is a battle royale between co-pay cards and patient assistance programs offered by pharma companies versus co-pay accumulators and co-pay maximizers deployed by health plans and PBMs (pharmacy benefit managers). I just want to start by getting everyone grounded on a few really key points. #1: Drug abandonment is a thing. Patient goes into the pharmacy to pick up their Rx and the out of pocket is too expensive, so they leave without their drug. This can happen on the first fill, like, “Oh, wow, I guess I don't really need that new drug my doctor just told me I should pick up.” Or it can happen downstream, like in January when, all of a sudden, a deductible kicks in. But in all cases, we have a patient getting sticker shock on the out of pocket for a med and then going without the drug … or pill splitting or rationing or doing other things to save money. #2: How PBMs shake rebates out of pharma manufacturers is to use what I just said (that whole abandonment possibility) as a leverage point. Pharma goes into a PBM that controls access for drugs for, I don't know, 100 million lives. The PBM says, “Hey, you, Pharma! If you want to be on our formulary, you gotta kick out this much in rebates.” Pharma says, “No, that is too much rebate. I cannot pay it.” PBM says, “Well, then … OK, you're not on formulary or you are poorly positioned on formulary. And let me translate what that means. Now the out of pocket for your drug will be so expensive that patients are gonna walk out of the pharmacy without your drug because I, the PBM, have control over patient out of pocket and I will make it very expensive.” From a pharma's standpoint, all those patients that aren't picking up the drug … that means a loss of market share. And that market share can translate into a lot of lost revenue for the pharma company. And thus begins the whole war of the co-pays/out of pockets. So now, let's fast-forward through the past, say, 10-plus years. It'll be like one of those movie montages with the action sped up so fast you don't need words to see what's going on … except this is an audio podcast, so I guess you do need words. Alright, so this is what happens next: Pharma starts raising its prices combined with there's more super expensive specialty pharmacy drugs. Reaction by the PBMs to this was to try to get more aggressive with Pharma demanding increasingly high rebates and other concessions, keeping in mind the prize and leverage point that the PBMs offered Pharma to secure those PBM rebates was lower co-pays or out of pockets for patients. Again, it's a well-known fact that the higher the patient out of pocket, the lower the market share of the drug because the higher the patient cost, the more patients abandon at the pharmacy counter. It's the old supply and demand curve at work. At a certain point here in all of this, the pharma companies start to get really pissed about their dwindling net prices as rebates start going up and up and their market share kind of doesn't because the PBMs are keeping the money and maybe not passing it along to plan sponsors or patients. It's a zero-sum game fight over the money, and Pharma feels like the PBMs are getting more than their share. And they're pretty smart, these pharma manufacturers. So, Pharma comes up with a Houdini move to escape PBMs holding Pharma hostage for rebates by using their control over how much patients pay or don't pay at the pharmacy counter. Fasten your seatbelts and let the games begin. Pharma decided to hand out co-pay discount cards. Then Pharma doesn't have to pay PBM rebates to get lower patient out-of-pocket costs. They can finesse lower patient out-of-pocket costs all by themselves. Take that, PBMs! Except now, the PBMs see this—and they raise. Enter co-pay accumulators and also co-pay maximizers. For this part of the extravaganza of game theory at its finest, I'm gonna let Dea Belazi, PharmD, MPH, my guest in this episode, explain further. However, one more thing to point out before we begin. In the olden days, this whole war of who has leverage over who transpired in the context of small molecule drugs in competitive markets a lot of times. So, like Lipitor versus Crestor and the brands all cost, like, $100 a month and, maybe, there was a generic equivalent. If the health plan made it too expensive for a patient to get one of those drugs, they usually made another one in the same class attractive financially. So, the patient had (theoretically, at least) options; and the stakes were also a lot lower. The dollar volumes that we're talking about here were a lot lower. Now this same war is being fought on the specialty side of the house, where drugs cost thousands or tens of thousands a month and the patient may have but one option. So, if it's made to be financially toxic for a patient to get that one drug, the patient has to choose between their family's health and dipping into their 401k in order to afford their out-of-pocket costs. Or going bankrupt. Or dying. And when I say “or dying,” that is not hyperbole. There are studies that clearly show the mortality rates for patients who have trouble affording their meds are worse. In these cases, Pharma can be, sort of authentically, a hero who steps in and helps patients who are functionally uninsured because they can't afford the co-pays and deductibles that their plan sponsors have put in place to actually use the insurance that they are paying handsome premiums to have. Pharma can step in and help via these co-pay discount cards or coinsurance programs or through patient assistance programs helping those with lower incomes. So, there's no question in the short term that when a patient desperately needs a drug and their insurance is insufficient, a pharma manufacturer can be a knight in shining armor financially. But only if this were so simple, like this is some kind of spaghetti western with the good guys and the bad guys. Now let's think about this co-pay/out-of-pocket assistance offered by Pharma with a longer timeframe or a more systemic timeframe in mind. How is it that Pharma can have prices that are as high as we all know they are? Right?! It's because enough patients don't abandon the med at the pharmacy counter or, these days, in the infusion clinic. So, the lower Pharma can drive the patient out of pocket for a really expensive drug, the more they have a certain amount of impunity to raise the drug prices. This is a lot of the argument against price caps on out of pockets just in general, by the way. They matter for patients. They save lives. But they also have the consequence of kind of getting rid of what is often seen as a big control point checking pharma prices from zinging even higher than they already are. Bottom line, we have a catch-22 on our hands—and the patient is stuck in the middle. If you're a patient and you need your miracle drug (and a lot of patients call these drugs their miracle drugs), Pharma is your hero … at least right now. However, Pharma is also now able to raise their prices even more next year; and now you really need their out-of-pocket support because the price of the drug is so high your employer/taxpayers can't afford the rising drug spend and even more cost gets shifted onto patients. It becomes like Stockholm syndrome. But again, no white hats and black hats here. This whole thing is one of those incomprehensible art house films with lots of plot twists and in every other scene, you start to feel for the character you just hated 10 minutes ago … because while Pharma is getting busy raising prices, you have PBMs and nothing-for-nothing plan sponsors also up to their own machinations. Like, hey, here's one that's quite a marvel: PBM double-dipping. If the PBM can get Pharma to pay the patient deductible and then also get the patient to pay the patient deductible … Hmmm … By the way, that was a backdoor introduction to accumulators. And then later on, maximizers showed up on the scene. I just want to say that with maximizers, not all are created equal. I can certainly see their value for patients when they are deployed by companies and plan sponsors as part of their benefit designs with an explicit goal of helping members and the plan itself (nothing for nothing) afford expensive drugs it's clear that the patients need. But … I have to say, and I'm not well versed enough yet in how this maximizer business has evolved to comment on whether some of what is going on is still a net positive for some members and patients. Some of these PBMs have opened up entirely separate maximizer companies, which, for sure, they are upcharging employer plan sponsors to use. And the whole point of these separate entities is to get as much cash out of Pharma as possible while they, I don't know, may or may not pass that cash on as savings to patients and members. I need to do a show on this coming up. There's a new bill in the House, by the way. It's called the HELP Copays Act, which I don't think is just aimed at accumulators. If you didn't understand what I just said, you will after you listen to this episode. With that, here's Dea Belazi. Dea is president and CEO over at AscellaHealth. He is a pharmacist by training who has worked for Pharma, and then he worked at a health plan, spending a lot of time in the PBM space. In other words, he's seen this tangled web from pretty much every angle. We kick right into the conversation talking about accumulators.   You can learn more at ascellahealth.com.   Dea Belazi, PharmD, MPH, has led the development and management of AscellaHealth's global specialty pharmacy benefit and healthcare services for nearly a decade. As a visionary and architect of change, leading the AscellaHealth shift from pharmacy benefit management to specialty pharmacy solutions, he has played a key role in the company, achieving a staggering four-year growth of more than 1556%. Previously, he served as a senior executive and played a key role in the growth and expansion of PerformRx, a PBM owned by Keystone First Health Plan. Additionally, Dea held a leadership position at FutureScripts, an Independence Blue Cross company that was sold to Catamaran. A respected industry professional and thought leader, Dea is often invited as a reviewer for multiple medical journals and holds a seat on the board of directors for numerous healthcare-related companies. Based on his impressive career and growing reputation, he was chosen to serve on FierceHealthcare's Editorial Advisory Council. Dea was most recently recognized as an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2022 Greater Philadelphia Award Finalist; he is also a 2022 Philadelphia Titan and a 2021 Philadelphia Business Journal Most Admired CEO honoree. Dea holds a PharmD from the University of Rhode Island. He completed his dissertation at Brown University, earned a Master of Public Health from Johns Hopkins University, and served as a post-doc health outcomes research Fellow at Thomas Jefferson University.   11:06 “The concept of co-pay accumulators wasn't just a … PBM thought, but it also came from their customers, whether it was health plans or employer groups.” 15:50 “[This is] literally a math problem based on, ‘Do I spend it now? Do I spend it later?'” 17:20 What reason do employers and payers have for doing this? 21:13 “This is another mechanism for payers to push down additional cost to both the patient and now the pharma company.” 22:24 EP241 with Vinay Patel. 22:59 “I don't think accumulators are really forcing Pharma to be more competitive.” 25:06 How co-pay maximizers are different from co-pay accumulators. 28:09 Who doesn't like co-pay accumulators and maximizers? 30:01 How patient advocacy groups are a different model. 32:10 What is the biggest challenge facing employers right now?   You can learn more at ascellahealth.com.   Dea Belazi of @AscellaHealth discusses #copayaccumulators and #copaymaximizers on our #healthcarepodcast. #healthcare #podcast #digitalhealth #healthtech #copay   Recent past interviews: Click a guest's name for their latest RHV episode! Brennan Bilberry, Dr Vikas Saini and Judith Garber, David Muhlestein, Nikhil Krishnan (Encore! EP355), Emily Kagan Trenchard, Dr Scott Conard, Gloria Sachdev and Chris Skisak, Mike Thompson, Dr Rishi Wadhera (Encore! EP326), Ge Bai (Encore! EP356)

Jenni and Suze share what they gained from Season Two. Both were pleased that they used new skills from the Maxer Methods to handle complex life events over the past few months.   They also outlined what you can expect from Season 3. It's time to bring thinking into the equation with our triggers, emotions, and feelings!   Maxers Community Facebook group continues to grow! Consider joining this private group for fellow insight seekers to give and receive insights. Join us in changing how we do events. We're shifting our focus from external things to preparing ourselves from within for handling whatever comes our way.   Join us at https://www.facebook.com/groups/524983982549427.    Suze Gadol Anderson lives in Eugene, Oregon. She is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker practicing in Texas and Oregon. Jenni Hubby is a Certified Professional Coach living in Burnet, Texas, who can work with anyone in the United States. Find previous episodes and more about Suze and Jenni at http://www.insightmaximizers.com. Contact Jenni and Suze at Maxers@InsightMaximizers.com Join Insight Maximizers' Community: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/InsightMaximizers Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/insightmaximizers/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/insightmaximizers  

It's time to leave guilt spirals, perfectionism, and hedging behind. Today's guest, Lia Garvin, is sharing her favorite tools for reframing frustrating situations through powerful questions and helpful feedback. More About Lia: Lia Garvin is the bestselling author of UNSTUCK: Reframe Your Thinking to Free Yourself From the Patterns and People that Hold You Back, leaning into nearly ten years of experience working in some of the most influential companies in tech, including Microsoft, Apple, and Google to explore the power of reframing to overcome common challenges found in the modern workplace. In her popular TEDx talk, “Your decisions aren't wrong, your inner critic is“, Lia shares the secret to reframing the stress we feel around making decisions. As the Founder & CEO of The Workplace Reframe organizational strategy firm, speaker, and coach, Lia is on a mission to humanize the workplace, one conversation at a time.

If you are taking one of Vertex's medications, you may be aware that the GPS program at Vertex recently made changes to its co-pay assistance program. In September of 2022, a patient advocate at Vertex reached out to The Bonnell Foundation. The reason for the Zoom meeting was to explain how the co-pay assistance program would change in 2023. It's my understanding (Laura Bonnell) that Vertex reached out to many CF nonprofits so that in addition to communicating directly with enrolled patients, foundations like mine would also help spread the word and know where to direct people if they had any questions. Vertex has communicated that they oppose any programs or initiatives that increase costs for patients. This means for example, an insurance company taking funds that were provided to patients as part of the GPS program. Co-pay accumulators and maximizers work this way. Let me explain: You take your assistance or coupon from your pharma and give it your pharmacy. The insurance company gets those funds, but they don't go toward your out-of-pocket responsibility. So, the insurance company actually gets paid twice. In Michigan, advocates like myself are trying to change this law so that co-pay assistance gives credit to the consumer. You may have seen press releases or posts on social media from other foundations or patients regarding these changes, some of which express concern that people taking Vertex medicines will literally pay the price. Vertex has assured their enrolled patients that no one will go without their medication. I'm here with Jenna Harrington- who is the Head of Vertex's Guidance and Patient Support Program - to help us understand more about these changes, who is impacted, and why these changes were made.  I also have another guest with us- Amit Sachdev- who is the Chief Patient Officer at Vertex. These changes are being made due to restrictive insurance practices and ultimately, we need a systemic solution for people living with chronic diseases. He will be talking about the policy aspect and what we can do to get more involved to support policies that are beneficial to the CF community.   To be transparent, Vertex is a sponsor of this podcast and our Night of Hope Event. My foundation remains objective in getting out information and will call out any person or partner if we believe they are harming or not addressing our CF community properly. To reach GPS with any questions: 1-877-752-5933, press option 2 when calling. Vertex GPS™: Guidance and Patient Support is committed to helping all enrolled patients maintain access to their Vertex medicine through the January 2023 Co-pay Assistance Program changes. To help in the fight to make healthcare fair get in the fight with The Bonnell Foundation.  Help us fix what is wrong with the co-pay accumulator in Michigan.  To help in Michigan or elsewhere go to: Allcopayscount.org   A Federal solution is also needed read up on H.R 5801 The HELP Copays Act bill.The Bonnell Foundation website: https://thebonnellfoundation.orgEmail us at:  thebonnellfoundation@gmail.com Thanks to our sponsors:Vertex:  https://www.vrtx.comGenentech: https://www.gene.com/Viatris:  https://www.viatris.com/en 

There's people that struggle with the decision they make and theirs others that choose and please. One wants more even if it's the best the next one knows it has good enough so they don't care about the rest

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Humans aren't fitness maximizers, published by Nate Soares on October 4, 2022 on The AI Alignment Forum. Recently I've gotten a bunch of pushback when I claim that humans are not maximizers of inclusive genetic fitness (IGF). I think that part of what's going on here is a conflation of a few claims. One claim that is hopefully uncontroversial (but that I'll expand upon below anyway) is: Humans are not literally optimizing for IGF, and regularly trade other values off against IGF. Separately, we have a stronger and more controversial claim: If an AI's objectives included goodness in the same way that our values include IGF, then the future would not be particularly good. I think there's more room for argument here, and will provide some arguments. A semi-related third claim that seems to come up when I have discussed this in person is: Niceness is not particularly canonical; AIs will not by default give humanity any significant fraction of the universe in the spirit of cooperation. I endorse that point as well. It takes us somewhat further afield, and I don't plan to argue it here, but I might argue it later. On the subject of whether humans are literally IGF optimizers, I observe the following: We profess to enjoy many other things, such as art and fine foods. Suppose someone came to you and said: "I see that you've got a whole complex sensorium centered around visual stimuli. That sure is an inefficient way to optimize for fitness! Please sit still while I remove your enjoyment of beautiful scenery and moving art pieces, and replace it with a module that does all the same work your enjoyment was originally intended to do (such as causing you to settle down in safe locations with abundant food), but using mechanical reasoning that can see farther than your evolved heuristics." Would you sit still? I sure wouldn't. And if you're like "maybe mates would be less likely to sleep with me if I didn't enjoy fine art", suppose that we tune your desirability-to-mates upwards exactly as much as needed to cancel out this second-order effect. Would you give up your enjoyment of visual stimuli then, like an actual IGF optimizer would? And when you search in yourself for protests, are you actually weighing the proposal based on how many more offspring and kin's-offspring you'll have in the next generation? Or do you have some other sort of attachment to your enjoyment of visual stimuli, some unease about giving it up, that you're trying to defend? Now, there's a reasonable counterargument to this point, which is that there's no psychologically-small tweak to human psychology that dramatically increases that human's IGF. (We'd expect evolution to have gathered that low-hanging fruit.) But there's still a very basic and naive sense in which living as a human is not what it feels like to live as a genetic fitness optimizer. Like: it's pretty likely that you care about having kids! And that you care about your kids very much! But, do you really fundamentally care that your kids have genomes? If they were going to transition to silicon, would you protest that that destroys almost all the value at stake? Or, an even sharper proposal: how would you like to be killed right now, and in exchange you'll be replaced by an entity that uses the same atoms to optimize as hard as those atoms can optimize, for the inclusive genetic fitness of your particular genes. Does this sound like practically the best offer that anyone could ever make you? Or does it sound abhorrent? For the record, I personally would be leaping all over the opportunity to be killed and replaced by something that uses my atoms to optimize my CEV as best as those atoms can be arranged to do so, not least because I'd expect to be reconstituted before too long. But there's not a lot of things you can put in the "what my atoms ar...

#ai #interview #research Jacob Steinhardt believes that future AI systems will be qualitatively different than the ones we know currently. We talk about how emergence happens when scaling up, what implications that has on AI Safety, and why thought experiments like the Paperclip Maximizer might be more useful than most people think. OUTLINE: 0:00 Introduction 1:10 Start of Interview 2:10 Blog posts series 3:56 More Is Different for AI (Blog Post) 7:40 Do you think this emergence is mainly a property from the interaction of things? 9:17 How does phase transition or scaling-up play into AI and Machine Learning? 12:10 GPT-3 as an example of qualitative difference in scaling up 14:08 GPT-3 as an emergent phenomenon in context learning 15:58 Brief introduction of different viewpoints on the future of AI and its alignment 18:51 How does the phenomenon of emergence play into this game between the Engineering and the Philosophy viewpoint? 22:41 Paperclip Maximizer on AI safety and alignment 31:37 Thought Experiments 37:34 Imitative Deception 39:30 TruthfulQA: Measuring How Models Mimic Human Falsehoods (Paper) 42:24 ML Systems Will Have Weird Failure Models (Blog Post) 51:10 Is there any work to get a system to be deceptive? 54:37 Empirical Findings Generalize Surprisingly Far (Blog Post) 1:00:18 What would you recommend to guarantee better AI alignment or safety? 1:05:13 Remarks References: https://bounded-regret.ghost.io/more-is-different-for-ai/ https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FbTuRvC4TFWzGYerTKpBU7FJlyvjeOvVYF2uYNFSlOc/edit#heading=h.n1wk9bxo847o Links: TabNine Code Completion (Referral): http://bit.ly/tabnine-yannick YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/yannickilcher Twitter: https://twitter.com/ykilcher Discord: https://ykilcher.com/discord BitChute: https://www.bitchute.com/channel/yannic-kilcher LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ykilcher BiliBili: https://space.bilibili.com/2017636191 If you want to support me, the best thing to do is to share out the content :) If you want to support me financially (completely optional and voluntary, but a lot of people have asked for this): SubscribeStar: https://www.subscribestar.com/yannickilcher Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/yannickilcher Bitcoin (BTC): bc1q49lsw3q325tr58ygf8sudx2dqfguclvngvy2cq Ethereum (ETH): 0x7ad3513E3B8f66799f507Aa7874b1B0eBC7F85e2 Litecoin (LTC): LQW2TRyKYetVC8WjFkhpPhtpbDM4Vw7r9m Monero (XMR): 4ACL8AGrEo5hAir8A9CeVrW8pEauWvnp1WnSDZxW7tziCDLhZAGsgzhRQABDnFy8yuM9fWJDviJPHKRjV4FWt19CJZN9D4n

Ellie Hain and Joe Edelman are itinerant thinkers designing a new kind of social movement. We discuss what they've learned from Charles Taylor and Amartya Sen, why Effective Altruism can be so cringe, Joe's role building Couchsurfing.com, and much more.Ellie HainJoe EdelmanOther Life✦ Subscribe to the coolest newsletter in the world OtherLife.co✦ Get a free Urbit ship at imperceptible.computer✦ We're building a new country at imperceptible.country

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Quantilizers and Generative Models, published by Adam Jermyn on July 18, 2022 on The AI Alignment Forum. Thanks to Evan Hubinger for discussions about quantilizers, and to James Lucassen for discussions about conditioned generative models. Many of these ideas are discussed in Jessica Taylor's Quantilizers: A Safer Alternative to Maximizers for Limited Optimization: this post just expands on a particular thread of ideas in that paper. Throughout I'll refer to sections of the paper. I have some remaining confusion about the “targeted impact” section, and would appreciate clarifications/corrections! Abstract This post explores the relationship between quantilizers and generative models. My main takeaways are: A natural way to build a quantilizer is by sampling from an appropriately-conditioned generative model. Unfortunately quantilizing doesn't seem to confer much advantage over the underlying generative model: to the extent that a quantilizer is more powerful than a generative model, it's more dangerous, and vice versa. Quantilizing is pretty computationally expensive relative to the advantage it brings, making it unclear if this is a competitive approach even if it conferred a net safety advantage at fixed power. Definitions I'll follow the setup in “Quantilizers: A Safer Alternative to Maximizers for Limited Optimization” (Section 1, Definition 1) and say that a quantilizer is a model with: A base distribution γ, which describes a set of outputs we think are “normal” or “unlikely to lead to doom”. A quantile q∈[0,1]. An ordering over outputs (e.g. a utility or loss function). A quantilizer returns a random output from the top q fraction of outputs from γ according to the ordering. So for instance a 0-quantilizer is a utility maximizer, a 0.1-quantilizer returns outputs in the best 10%, etc. Where does the base distribution come from? One challenge with quantilizers is that they require a base distribution γ that we trust. That is, we want to be able to sample from γ many times and never hit bad outputs. Unfortunately, we don't know how to explicitly write this distribution down. A natural alternative to explicit construction is to train a generative model on the distribution of actions a humans takes (Section 3.1). Then for any given task γ can be written as This seems quite doable. Train GPT-N on text written by humans, then prompt it with the task: Prompt: You are a good person who wants to accomplish . What follows is your description of how you intend to do this. The output will probably be text describing how a good person would accomplish that task! Unfortunately we might get unlucky and sample a person who isn't so good (but thinks of themselves as good). That still satisfies the prompt. Robustly getting the agent we want seems hard, but might be possible in the limit where we ask for agents that are generally plausible in the training distribution of the generative model. Power vs Safety Armed with our base distribution, we can start quantilizing. Naively we can do this by sampling q−1 times from γtask, then returning the top output. This produces a tradeoff between capabilities and safety. Single Sampler In the limit q→1 we're just returning actions a good human would take. That is, our quantilizer just samples once and returns that sample as output, so it's no more powerful than a random good person. Such a model is really unlikely to take over the world, but it's also really unlikely to solve quantum chemistry problems. This is because both of these outcomes unlikely according to the base distribution. We can improve things a bit by conditioning on being an unusually capable person, e.g. Prompt: You are a good and extremely capable person who wants to accomplish . What follows is your description of how you intend to do this. Now we can get top-end human ...

Today, Pastors Beth Bramstedt & Steve Boul brings the message titled "Priscilla & Aquila: Intentional Maximizers," which is week 1 in our summer series "Better Together." You can find the full sermon notes and other resources at our website. We hope this message encourages you and helps you know Jesus in a more real way. Subscribe to us at our YouTube channel, on Apple Podcasts or on Spotify. You can also visit us at Facebook or Instagram.

When I was shopping for engagement rings I spent many hours looking for exactly the right diamond. I was plagued by the question, What if I miss the best one? According to economic psychologist Barry Schwartz, my chronic indecision indicates that I am what Schwartz calls a "maximizer," in contrast to a "satisficer." A satisficer makes choices based on whether something is adequate for their needs. Maximizers? We (guilty!) have a need to always make the best choice. The potential outcome of our indecision in the face of many choices? Anxiety, depression, and discontent. In fact, sociologists have coined another phrase for this phenomenon: fear of missing out. We won’t find the words maximizer or satisficer in Scripture, of course. But we do find a similar idea. In 1 Timothy, Paul challenged Timothy to find value in God rather than the things of this world. The world’s promises of fulfillment can never fully deliver. Paul wanted Timothy to instead root his identity in God: “Godliness with contentment is great gain” (1 Timothy 6:6), Paul writes. He sounds like a satisficer when he adds, “But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that” (v. 8). When I fixate on the myriad ways the world promises fulfillment, I usually end up restless and unsatisfied. But when I focus on God and relinquish my compulsive urge to maximize, my soul moves toward genuine contentment and rest.

90 - Maximize Your Choices and Be Satisfied https://smallstepspod.com/?p=3208 Maximizers and Satisficers – Maximizers want the best purchases and restaurants. They act in a way to produce the best results. The Satisficers look to find “good enough.” It is beneficial to act and get things done or find appropriate items. But often, better options are possible and should be pursued. Traits and Outcomes – Deciding which action level is appropriate is the key. Determine what traits a project, lunch, or purchase needs to have depending on the audience and the expectations. For example, are you working on an essential task for your boss or picking lunch? Overcoming the impact – Each side has its pros and cons. For a Maximizer, they need to make quicker decisions or get things done. Projects need to be completed. Lunches need to get picked. Meanwhile, Satisficers need to find appropriate quality and not get things done for the sake of getting it done. Figure out the right level of detail that is required. Perhaps you can let others make decisions or help you find the right level of determination. Satisficers can spend more research and see what other criteria matter to other people. The Eisenhower Matrix – To help sort your projects, use the Eisenhower Matrix, which was talked about in the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. You decide between important and not important and urgent or not urgent. Important and urgent things need quick action and decisions. Important but not urgent can take time, or perhaps someone else could do it. Not essential, but urgent can be delegated. Not critical and not significant should be maybe it shouldn’t be done at all FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) – Maximizers can feel like they made a wrong choice if they do not pick the best or find out later that there was a better object, restaurant, or meal they missed. They struggle to choose if they feel something better is out there or think they can do better or if there are too many choices. By restricting choices or letting others choose, decisions are made faster. Challenge Figure out if you're a Maximizer or Satisficer for the most part or take note of when you change into a different personality type based on situations, then try to determine how being in this camp has benefited you. For example, maybe you make fantastic decisions as a Maximizer, and you should pat yourself on the back for that. But sometimes it takes too long. Or, if you're a Satisficer, you make quick decisions, and you're on the go, and you get things done quickly. But maybe you picked something that wasn't the right thing because you were trying to be okay. Write down a few things that you could do, like taking more time doing a little more research or making a quicker decision and counteracting the negatives that go along with this personality type. Links https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210329-do-maximisers-or-satisficers-make-better-decisions https://medium.com/growth-habits-lab/how-to-make-better-decisions-are-you-a-satisficer-or-a-maximizer-5c789693b941 https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/science-choice/201506/satisficing-vs-maximizing https://freakonomics.com/podcast/are-you-a-maximizer-or-a-satisficer-nsq-ep-14/ https://gretchenrubin.com/2006/06/are_you_a_satis/

We've spent a lot of time on the podcast exploring how we can improve our skills in romantic relationships, but for many people one of the most difficult parts of a relationship is getting into one in the first place. On this episode, Forrest talks with Logan Ury, Director of Relationship Science at the dating app Hinge, about the psychology of dating. They explore chemistry, romance, apps, and how to reframe our self-limiting tendencies so we can find love that is fulfilling and brings out the best in us.About our Guest: Logan Ury is a behavioral scientist turned dating coach, and the author of  How to Not Die Alone: The Surprising Science That Will Help You Find Love. She is the Director of Relationship Science at the dating app Hinge, and former head of Google's behavioral science team the Irrational Lab.Watch the Episode: Prefer watching video? You can watch this episode on YouTube.Key Topics:0:00: Introduction  1:40: Why is modern dating so hard?4:15: Romanticism6:20: Being in a relationship for self-actualization8:25: Romanticizers, Maximizers, and Hesitators11:15: Reframes for the Romanticizer14:20: What kind of shared qualities actually matter?19:25: Reframes for the Maximizer26:35: The tendency to externalize problems and avoid vulnerability32:25: Reframes for the Hesitator36:50: Information vs. emotion - appreciation for romance41:05: Bids, and turning towards43:05: What other things do people tend to underestimate in relationships?47:20: The aspect of you that is brought out by your partner48:45: How to use apps in more effective ways51:00: RecapSupport the Podcast: We're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link.Have a question for us? Email: contact@beingwellpodcast.com to submit questions or potential topics you'd like us to explore in future episodes.Sponsors:Visit Pendulumlife.com and use code BEINGWELL for 20% off your first month of membership.Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world's largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month!Want to sleep better? Try the Calm app! Visit calm.com/beingwell for 40% off a premium subscription.Connect with the show:Subscribe on iTunesFollow Forrest on YouTubeFollow us on InstagramFollow Forrest on InstagramFollow Rick on FacebookFollow Forrest on FacebookVisit Forrest's website

Are you the kind of person who tries to optimize your decisions, but then often ends up regretting your choice because you might have missed something better? This means you are probably a maximizer. Or are you the kind of person who decides quickly and confidently, and then seldom looks back on decisions with regret? You are probably a satisficer. In this episode of Management Muse, we're joined by Spencer Fraseur, Cindi and Geoff's nephew, and a doctoral candidate in management at the University of Texas at Arlington. In this episode, the Muse dives into the difference between maximizers and satisficers, and explores the work implications of each decision-making style. Episode Highlights: In organizations, maximizers may be most beneficial in the early stages of decision-making because they are thorough researchers. In organizations, satisficers may be most beneficial in the later stages of decision-making because they are excellent at putting the research down and selecting an option. While maximizers and satisficers can drive each other nuts, understanding the styles can help coworkers work more effectively together and better appreciate what each brings to the table. When selecting decision-makers on a particular topic, weigh the importance of the decision because the time spent researcher may be overkill for most decisions, where good enough would have, in fact, been good enough. Timestamps: [5:13] The three main factors that distinguish Maximizers and Satisficers. [8:36] An example of how a Satisficer and how a Maximizer view opportunities. [12:46] How a Maximizer's extensive research and negotiation ability helps them optimize their decisions. [14:42] A Satisficer's ability to speed up the decision-making process and stick with a choice. [22:44] How to speed up your decision-making process as a Maximizer. [23:26] How to make better decisions as a Satisficer. [26:19] How Maximizers and Satisficers can collectively make better decisions at work. [36:25] How a Maximizer might accidentally send a Satisficer the message that they don't trust them. About Spencer Fraseur: Spencer James Fraseur is a doctoral candidate in management at the University of Texas at Arlington. His first book, The Irrational Mind, won the Royal Dragonfly Book Award in 2020. Episode Resources: Maximizing Versus Satisficing: Happiness Is a Matter of Choice The Irrational Mind – Book by Spencer Fraseur available on Goodreads and Amazon https://culsure.com/product/organizational-benchmark/ https://ondemandleadership.com/executive-team-building/ https://spencerfraseur.com/ Watch this podcast on YouTube https://managementmuse.com/ Reference: Schwartz, B., Ward, A., Monterosso, J., Lyubomirsky, S., White, K., & Lehman, D. R. (2002). Maximizing versus satisficing: happiness is a matter of choice. Journal of personality and social psychology, 83(5), 1178.

In today's show we cover the love triangle in Season 2 of the Netflix show Love is Blind, the differences between Maximizers vs Satisficers, and we end it with some Charles Bukowski ;) Are you a Maximizers or Satisficers? --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/whosmindingthestore/support

Eén van de meest voorkomende struggles die we naar boven zien komen tijdens onze coaching calls gaat over het niet kunnen nemen van beslissingen...Het lijkt vaak erger om een verkeerde beslissing te nemen, dan helemaal niet te beslissen.Voelt dit soms herkenbaar voor jou?Je neemt veel beslissingen door elkaar, waardoor het soms een giga warboel wordt voor jezelf.Je probeert vaak een grote beslissing te vermijden?.Je doet er lang over, voor het nemen van kleine beslissingen.Wel…Dan ben je je zelf gewoon klein aan het houden.Je houdt jezelf en je bedrijf op deze manier tegen in groei.Er is namelijk maar 1 inzicht hier voor nodig en dat is dat niet beslissen vaak veel erger is dan de foute beslissing te nemen.Maar hoe beslis je dan? Hoe weet je dat je een goede beslissing maakt op basis van je intuïtie?Dat leggen we je graag uit in deze nieuwe aflevering van de 100% Possible Podcast.En als je na het beluisteren van deze aflevering denkt, dat je wil leren hoe dat je jezelf kan verkopen, hoe je intuïtief beslissingen kan leren nemen, en zo het verschil leert kennen tussen strategie en intuïtie, zodat echt fantastische klanten kan gaan aantrekken en jij meer kan doen wat je graag doet? Dan MOET je je gewoon inschrijven voor onze driedaagse workshop “Verbinden Verkopen” die van start gaat op 2 februari.Wacht niet langer en schrijf je nú in via: https://youtopia.coach/3daagse/Quotes:"Er is maar 1 inzicht nodig: Niet beslissen is vaak veel erger dan de foute beslissing maken.” ~ Elke Gunst"Alle beslissingen zijn onomkeerbaar, behalve eentje en dat is kinderen krijgen.” ~ Elke GunstLinks & resources:Schrijf je in voor de driedaagse workshop “Verbinden Verkopen” via onderstaande link: https://youtopia.coach/3daagse/Op 14 februari openen we de deuren van de 100% Possible Kickstart. Zet je vrijblijvend op de wachtlijst via https://youtopia.coach/kickstart/Lees de blogpost van Gretchen Rubin over Maximizers en SatisficersBeluister deze podcast op onze website https://youtopia.coach/128-de-impact-van-intuitief-beslissen/

There are little decisions to make in life like what to wear to work and what to eat for lunch. Then there are potentially life-changing decisions like whether to move, take a new job, break up with someone, or get married. With these big decisions, you may never have faced that choice before, have to sacrifice one path to choose another, and have a hard time figuring out the right way to go. As a result of the high stakes and high uncertainty, we often flounder in this kind of decision-making, sometimes failing to make any decision at all.My guests have studied those who have to make these kinds of critical choices more often — first responders and members of the military — to figure out how civilians can make better decisions in their everyday lives. Their names are Laurence Alison and Neil Shortland, and they're the authors of Decision Time: How to Make the Choices Your Life Depends On. Today on the show, Laurence and Neil explain the mistakes people commonly fall into when making big decisions, including getting stuck in a cycle of redundant deliberation, where you forever circle around your options without ever pulling the trigger on one. They then unpack their model for more effective decision-making, including why it should follow a foxtrot pattern, and how to know when it's time to stop ruminating and finally make a choice. Along the way, we discuss the importance of self-awareness in this process, and what it is you need to know about yourself to make better decisions.Resources Related to the PodcastConflict — How Soldiers Make Impossible Decisions by Neil and LaurenceAoM Podcast #648 with Laurence on building rapportAoM Podcast #744 with Laurence on life lessons from the labors of HerculesAoM Podcast #486: How to Get Better at Making Life-Changing DecisionsAoM Podcast #740: Life's 10 Biggest DecisionsAoM Podcast #685: How to DecideAoM #644: How to Develop Greater Self-AwarenessAoM Article: How to Wrestle with a Difficult Decision: Advice from Sergeant Alvin C. YorkStudy on “inappropropriate persistence”Maximizers vs. Satisficers/MinimizersConnect With Laurence and NeilGround Truth Website

Read my new book, The Pursuit of Excellence https://bit.ly/excellencehawk Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com Twitter/IG: @RyanHawk12  https://twitter.com/RyanHawk12 Text Hawk to 66866 for "Mindful Monday" Daniel H. Pink is the author of seven books, including the forthcoming The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward (Riverhead, 2022).  His other books include the New York Times bestsellers When and A Whole New Mind — as well as the #1 New York Times bestsellers Drive and To Sell is Human. Dan's books have won multiple awards, have been translated into 42 languages, and have sold millions of copies around the world. Notes: The truth: We regret inactions much more than actions.The lesson: Be bold. Take that chance. In a world full of talkers, be a doer. Have a bias for action. The 3 keys to a productive achiever: empathy/compassion, curiosity, doggedness (consistency). We overvalue intensity and undervalue consistency and doggedness. Continue to show up and do the work. The four core regrets: Foundation regrets - People want stability. (save money, plan for the future) Boldness regrets - "If only I'd taken that chance." People regret not taking the chance. Moral regrets Connection regrets The truth: We deeply regret not asserting ourselves. The lesson: Speak up. Optimizing Regret: Our goal should not be to always minimize regret. Our goal should be to optimize it. By combining the science of anticipated regret with the new deep structure of regret, we can refine our mental model.  “Regret makes me human. Regret makes me better. Regret gives me hope.” This is a great exercise. Instead of a New Year's resolution, choose a single word to guide your 2022. After 2 years of upheaval, it can help you focus on the goals & changes most important to you. Dan's choice? Restore. The Dan Pink family acronym: HAHU - Hustle. Anticipate. Heads up. Big life decisions: Maximizers and satisficers Know when to maximize and when to satisfy. For low stakes decisions (the color of your car), you don't have to maximize Regret is part of the human condition. We all have regrets. Disclose it. Lift the burden. Someone that says they have "No Regrets" is either lying or they are a sociopath. Disclose lessons from your regrets. Ask yourself, "What did I learn from it?" Does everything happen for a reason? The lesson to be learned from it is understanding what we have control over and what we don't. Regret depends on storytelling. And that raises a question: In these stories, are we the creator or the character, the playwright or the performer? The answer is... YES. We are both. We are both the authors and the actors. We can shape the plot but not fully. We can toss aside the script but not always. We live at the intersection of free will and circumstance. "Our everyday lives consist of hundreds of decisions—some of them crucial to our well-being, many of them inconsequential. Understanding the difference can make all the difference. If we know what we truly regret, we know what we truly value. Regret— that maddening, perplexing, and undeniably real emotion—points the way to a life well-lived." Career/Life advice: Doggedness is important. Be a person of action. Be willing to try stuff. "We learn who we are in practice, not in theory." Doing something helps you figure it out.

On this episode of Loan Officer Freedom, the #1 podcast for loan officers in the world, I sit down and talk to one of my partners in the Freedom Club, my good buddy Kevin Gillespie. Kevin runs a unique group within the Freedom Club known as Branch Manager Academy. This group is comprised of high-level branch managers, some doing up to 3.5 billion in operations, that share their advice and ideas with one another. Kevin and I discuss the detailed versions of each of these maximizers for the most effective profitability of your mortgage business. Listen in to hear the 7+ valuable profit maximizers to run a successful branch.  Want to learn more about the Freedom Club? Click this link and pick a day that works best for you. My team will map it all out for you. Schedule Here.

John and Nineveh talk about the different personality characteristics between minimizers, maintainers, and maximizers. Listen in!

I'm currently caught in the middle of a fairly common decision: what fun thing do I want to do this weekend? If you have FOMO, you know you can spend some serious energy debating all the options: outdoor music, road trip, camping with friends, and outside of a pandemic, which party/band/event to go to. Lots of times, when we have a decision to make, we sit and debate because we want to make the “best” choice. But really, sometimes we never know what the “best” choice is until we've made the decision and start living it. And lots of times, making that decision is straight-up exhausting because we really really really want to get it right. Then there are moments where you're less caught between options and given fewer choices. And these – interestingly - are usually easier. Barry Schwartz, psychologist and author of The Paradox of Choice, talked about living in a culture that assumes more choices is better. What his research shows is that having lots of choices is actually a sort of curse on our happiness! He divides people into 2 categories: those who, when faced with many choices, try to maximize their gain, and those who satisfice (satisfy + suffice) by accepting the first available option to meet their criteria. Now, satisficing isn't a new idea… but it basically means that when presented with a decision to make, someone will first consider what they want to gain/preserve, then evaluate their options to find the solution that meets those needs. Between the two, maximizing is a form of perfection… and we all know how stressful that can be. There's even a Maximization Scale that assesses the degree to which people engage in behaviors to try to get the BEST result with the BEST possible option. Research with this scale shows that there are also positive correlations between maximization and depression and regret, too. Then, after all that stressful work of trying to make the “best” decisions, maximizers are usually less satisfied with purchasing decisions AND are more likely to engage in social comparison. The root of this seems to lie in experiencing regret. This is true whether maximizers have to make everyday decisions or big decision. Maximizers may be able to narrow down options, but if there are multiple choices that could be great, they freeze and can't make a decision because... what if it's wrong? Enter: Analysis paralysis. The problem with wanting to know it was the “right” decision in advance is that in addition to the fact that we don't know until we DO the thing, most of us can't predict the future. So we will never know. After the fact, we still don't know what all the other options could have brought – even though we like to think our imagination is always right  ;) In contrast to maximizers, we find the satisficers. They aren't “settling” for less than what they want. They also don't just pull a choice out of a hat and say LET'S GO! They just approach the decision-making differently. Why bother with finding out if you maximize or satisfice? Because they relate to your happiness – and happy people tend to satisfice! Us perfectionists may find this hard to believe, because we think our high-standard obsession will make better decisions, which SHOULD equal happiness. But really, we may miss out on a good opportunity when we keep waiting for a better one. And we usually are not ultimately happier… we just end up more stressd and regretful. The thing is, regret is a decision! WE get to decide whether we made the right choice. WE get to decide to stop comparing options and wondering, “What if?” So what's a maximizer to do? I got into lots of things in the podcast, but some starting points are:  // Outline your key criteria for success FIRST. What is it you want? Get really clear about this and make sure your criteria are objective so you know if something meets it or not.// Choose the first option that satisfies that criteria. (gasp! I know, right?!)// Then once you've decided, don't look back. Don't waffle. Focus on the positive aspects of the choice, not what “might” have been. Remember that we all have a limited capacity for decision making on any given day. Don't overdraw on that decision-making account baalnce, because that diminishes the quality of the decisions you make too. The bottom line is this: it's important to change our thinking that when we don't explore all the options, we will end up settling. Choosing something that meets your key criteria and the key things you want is not settling. When you practice satisficing, you can be happier in the long run. You will have more energy and clarity for those big decision-making moments too. And if you need to, practice satisficing this week with little things then work your way up to bigger decisions. Remember - regret is a choice. Don't let it rule your life. Get out there and satisfice! In this episode you'll learn:// The key differences between maximizing and satisficing// Why too many choices can be a bad thing// How to make decisions and avoid regret// Why satisficing ultimately makes you happier than maximizing// Tips to get started satisficing today Resources:// Check out Episode 69 on Defining what is “enough” for you// If you're new to the squad, grab the starter kit I created at RebelBuddhist.com. It has all you need to start creating a life of more freedom, adventure, and purpose. You'll get access to the private Facebook group where you can ask me questions! Once you join, there's also a weekly FB live called Wake the F*ck Up Wednesday, where you can ask questions that come up as you do this work – in all parts of your life.// If you're interested in finding out more about how to free your mind and free your life, join Freedom School. Enrollment is open, and we are diving DEEP into ways to cultivate clarity and courage so you can create your best life. There are also some sweet bonus courses for you there. It will set you up to live the best version of you in the year to come. Learn more at JoinFreedomSchool.com.

Are you a satisficer like Sammie or a maximizer like Michelle? Sammie and Michelle take a look at Satisficers and Maximizers from Barry Schwartz  book, "The Paradox of Choice – Why More Is Less". They talk about different ways this concept can appear in our lives and how maximizers can become satisficers over time.  Show Notes:The Paradox of Choice – Why More Is Less by Barry Schwartz Michelle's Sunscreen SpreadsheetMo' Money Mo' Problems Previous Episodes Mentioned: #32: Andrew Johnson on Meditation, Hypnotherapy and Building Apps#31: How To Invest In Index Funds#25: Opportunity CostContact Us:Status Post Adulting Instagram: @statuspostadultingStatus Post Adulting Email: statuspostadulting@gmail.com Find all show notes at statuspostadulting.com 

How do you make decisions about purchases and other things? Do you make lists, do the research and struggle to choose or do you get the first thing that checks all of your boxes? Alan discusses "The Paradox of Choice" and how it's influenced the way he makes choices. Some links from the show: "The Paradox of Choice" by Barry Schwartz Salsa Cutthroat Would you like to support the podcast? Then you should take a look at our sponsors! When you choose to buy from our sponsors you're helping support the podcasts that you love! The Very Dental Podcast network is brought to you by our friends at Microcopy Dental. Single patient use carbide burs, diamond burs, polishers and a variety of single use products that make your office more efficient, make your infection control simpler and your dentistry better! Find more information at verydentalpodcast.com/microcopy Dentures get a bad reputation in dentistry. Quite a few dentists even brag about how long it has been since they have done a denture. Dr. Russell Schafer wants to reverse this trend. So if you want to learn to hate dentures less, you need to take Russell's course on November 12-13th 2021 in New Orleans! Learn techniques to streamline your denture workflow and help you deliver a more predictable product for your patients! You'll even learn how you can incorporate digital dentures in your practice! Find out more information on this thorough and cost effective class at verydentalpodcast.com/denturece The Very Dental Podcast network is brought to you by Cosmedent! Cosmedent is the premiere source for education and materials for cosmetic dentistry! Find out more at verydentalpodcast.com/cosmedent The Very Dental Podcast network is also brought to you by our friends at Zirc! Zirc has clincial and organizational products to make your office and clinical systems more efficient and make infection control a breeze. Zirc would love to work with you to optimize the efficiency of your practice! Find out more at verydentalpodcast.com/Zirc The Very Dental Podcast network is also supported by Crazy Dental!  Go check out some of the best selection of dental supplies powered by an amazing website! Crazy has become my office's "go to" for dental supplies because of its ease of use and the lowest prices anywhere. Even better...you'll save 10% by using the coupon code "VDP10" on their website and it helps support the podcast! Go check them out at verydentalpodcast.com/Crazy The Very Dental Podcast network is also supported by Enova Illumination! Enova makes custom made loupes and the very best headlamps in all of dentistry. They also sell the amazing Zumax line of dental microscopes (I've got one in my office...it's amazing!) Go take advantage of the discount that they offer Very Dental people at verydentalpodcast/Enova The Very Dental Podcast network is brought to you by the Wonderist agency. The best marketing agency to build your website, logo, SEO, design, Google Ads, social media and on. And on. Marketing your dental office...the Wonderist Agency can help! Find out more at verydentalpodcast.com/Wonderist

Everyone gets triggered. It's a natural part of life. Something can evoke a strong reaction when it reminds us of something from the past. This is why Suze and Jenni suggest having a plan. They hash it out; sharing how to create your own plan to use when you're triggered. They share crazy funny stories and real-life examples of what they've learned and how they created a new process for gaining insight when we're triggered. They're betting it will be helpful for you too! You'll learn how you can benefit from triggers. Suze and Jenni show you how to empower yourself by shifting your mindset about triggers. They invite you to join them in letting go of the old ideas and old narratives about triggers. They've even renamed “triggers”. Listen for it! The new name is empowering! Be sure to come back for their next episode when they talk about what to do if you've triggered someone else. Suze Gadol Anderson lives in Eugene, Oregon. She is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, licensed in Texas and in Oregon. Jenni Hubby is a Professional Certified Coach living in Flower Mound, Texas. Find out more about Suze and Jenni at http://www.insightmaximizers.com Contact Suze and Jenni at Maxers@InsightMaximizers.com Join Insight Maximizers' Community: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/InsightMaximizers Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/insightmaximizers/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/insightmaximizers  

Michael Krogerus - The Secrets of Great Decision Making: Information, Intuition and How to Keep MovingHow do you approach decisions in your life? Are you the cut and thrust type or do you agonize over every decision? We make decisions every day but do we have a good strategy for making those decisions? Even fast decision-makers can struggle with a weighty decision from time to time. Today's guest, journalist Mikael Krogerus, struggled with decision making. Sometimes he made his best decisions with preparation but other times gut decisions led to better outcomes. So like any good journalist, he decided to do the research to find the answers. This search became the basis of his best-selling guide “The Decision Book”. In this book, he and co-author Roman Tschäppele walk the reader through proven strategies for decision making, sharing secrets like how to make decisions under pressure and why too much information is just as debilitating as not enough. Today's Guest Mikael KrogerusMikael is a Finnish citizen who grew up in Sweden and Germany.He is currently the editor of Das Magazin, the weekend magazine for leading Swiss newspapers.He has over 20 years experience in journalism, writing for newspapers such as NZZ (Zurich) and Der Freitag (Berlin) and even started his own sports news portal. He has won seven journalism awards.He has co-written five books with long-term friend Roman Tschäppele including the Decision Book and The Communication Book.He has a Bachelor's degree in Political Science and Government from Freie Universität Berlin and is an Enterprising Leadership graduate from Kasopilot.Website: https://rtmk.ch/Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=644436972Twitter: https://twitter.com/mikaelkrogerusLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mikael-krogerus-0406906 “The problem with decision making is not only the fact that we can make a mistake but that we can spend too much time and energy to avoid making that mistake”.“People agonize too much over things that don't play a big part in their lives”.You'll learnHow humans differ from animals in terms of decision making i.e. we think long-term and worry about the past and future decisions.What decision fatigue is and how to avoid it.The importance of setting limits on your information gathering.The TMI paradox is: why having too much information is similar to having not enough.Why we are often happier when we limit our options and set a deadline for decisions.The importance of recognising the unknowns. Taking the time to think about things you might not have considered, preferably before you need to make a big decision.Why the pressure of making a “perfect decision” can be paralyzing - and how to avoid it.The role of gut decisions in helping us make complex decisions - and the need to be sceptical: as gut decisions can be based on experience and prejudice. How to make decisions better under time pressure - you often have more time than you think so step back, breathe, and focus on the goal of your decision.Why not making a decision IS a decision.Expectation vs satisfaction: the more we expect from a decision's outcome, the harder it is to be satisfied with the outcome. Maximizers vs. Satisficers: How maximisers make the best decisions - but satisficers are faster and happier with the decisions that they make. The three phases of good decision making: the preparation phase (do I have enough information), the timing phase (is this the right time for a decision) and the reflection phase (how do I feel about the decision in hindsight). Why we waste a lot of our decision making time - and momentum - looking for the Loch Ness monster. That being the illusive ‘perfect' choice or option.The truth that we become the decisions we make. When faced with two good but hard choices, choose the one that speaks to who you are or who you want to be.References and links mentionedDanish-Icelandic artist Olaf Eliasson's 2020 exhibition was called: “Sometimes the river is the bridge”The supermarket- jam experiment can be found in the paper: Iyengar, Sheena S. and Lepper, Mark R.,(2000), ”When Choice is Demotivating: Can one desire too much of a good thing?”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2000, Vol. 79, No.6, p995 - 1006.Dutch explorer Willem de Vlamingh: first European to discover black swans.Daniel Kahneman quote: “intuition is thinking that you know without knowing why you do”.Simon Yates cut the rope on climbing partner Joe Simpson who wrote the book, “Touching the void”.Alan Watts quote, “muddy water is cleared by leaving it alone” comes from his book “The Way of Zen”.Previous podcast with Brandon Webb: “Get off the X”Loch Ness monsterPhilosopher Ruth Chang's Ted Talk “How to make hard choices”My new ebook The Influencer Code Subscribe to and Review the Inside Influence PodcastThanks for tuning into this week's episode of the Inside Influence Podcast! If the information in my conversations and interviews have helped you in your business journey, please head over to iTunes, subscribe to the show, and leave an honest review. Your reviews and feedback will not only help us continue to deliver great, helpful content, but it will also help us reach even more amazing people just like you!Also, don't forget to hop on my website juliemasters.com and download my new ebook The Influencer Code See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this episode, Nikki and Laura talk about the impact of overthinking on your business and your life. From analysis paralysis to fear of making the wrong choice, you'll hear what they tend to overthink and recommendations for getting out of the overthinking cycle! TOPICS DISCUSSED: Analysis paralysis (1:36) Maximizers vs. satisficers (2:00) Nikki and Laura share what they overthink and their shared love of research and learning (2:53) Pros and cons of overthinking (5:14) Taking action (6:07) What’s the worst that could happen if you make the wrong choice? (9:30) Making decisions (11:31) Trusting your gut (12:04) Read more and find links to all mentioned resources in the Startist Society show notes at startistsociety.com/overthinking/ JOIN THE STARTIST SOCIETY FB GROUP: facebook.com/groups/startistsociety/ FOLLOW STARTIST SOCIETY ON INSTAGRAM: instagram.com/startistsociety/

Suze Gadol Anderson and Jenni Hubby introduce who they are to the podcast world. They share how they met, how they both work in the helping field, and how they began their Insight Maximizers project. Suze is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker based in Eugene, Oregon. She received her Bachelor's Degree in Communications from the University of Texas at Austin. Her college experiences and challenges in relationships around that time motivated her to seek her own personal growth. This journey eventually led her to pursue a Master's Degree in Social Work at the University of Texas at Arlington. Over the years, Suze has established a very successful counseling practice, with licenses in Texas and in Oregon.  Jenni is a Professional Certified Coach based in Flower Mound, Texas. She received her Bachelor's Degree in Psychology from John Brown University in Siloam Springs, Arkansas and married her college sweetheart at twenty-one, fresh out of college. When her marriage came crashing down in her late thirties, Jenni found that alcohol helped her escape her overwhelming reality. In 2005 she sought treatment for alcoholism at Richardson Regional Medical Center in Richardson, Texas. Which leads to how she connected with Suze.  Suze and Jenni met in 2010 in Dallas, Texas through a professional networking association. They figured out that their paths had crossed five years earlier at Richardson Regional when Suze worked in addiction treatment and Jenni was a patient receiving treatment. A serendipitous moment, that is still cherished today.  Both Jenni and Suze lived in the Dallas area with their families most of their lives until 2015 when Suze and her family decided to relocate to the beautiful state of Oregon. But distance couldn't stop their friendship. They actually became closer friends by sharing life's ups and downs and major transitions with each other. And this is how their project, Insight Maximizers started. Meet Suze at www.yourauthenticinsights.com Meet Jenni at www.jhubconsulting.com Send a message to Suze and Jenni at Maxers@InsightMaximizers.com

Let’s cut to the chase here for our conversation about co-pay cards offered by pharma companies versus co-pay accumulators and co-pay maximizers deployed by health plans. This whole war of the co-pays started back in the day when PBMs (pharmacy benefit managers) began to shake down Pharma for higher discounts. The prize that PBMs offered Pharma was lower co-pays for patients. It’s a well-known fact that the higher the patient out of pocket, the lower the market share of the drug—the old supply-and-demand curve at work. So, the PBMs and health plans kind of had an ace up their sleeve because they control how much the patient pays out of pocket. And so, they use that ace to pull in higher discounts from Pharma. “You’ll make it up in volume,” they told Pharma. “We’ll make sure you get lots of patients by putting your drug on a lower formulary tier and giving patients who take your drug the lowest possible co-pays.” At a certain point, pharma companies started to get mad about their dwindling net prices. And they’re pretty smart. So, Pharma came up with a workaround to PBMs holding them hostage for lower net prices. Pharma decided to hand out co-pay discount cards. Then, they don’t have to pay the PBM. They can finesse lower patient co-pays all by themselves. Except now, the PBM sees this and they raise. Enter co-pay accumulators and co-pay maximizers. For this part of the extravaganza of game theory at its finest, I’ll let Dea Belazi, PharmD, MPH, explain. Dea is the president and CEO over at AscellaHealth. He’s a pharmacist by training who has worked for Pharma, then at a health plan, then spent lots of time in the PBM space. Now he’s working to create a different kind of pharmacy benefit at AscellaHealth. He has seen this tangled web from pretty much every angle. One thing to point out here before we begin: In the olden days, this whole war of who has leverage over who transpired in the context of small molecule drugs in competitive markets. So, like, Lipitor versus Crestor versus simvastatin—and they all cost, like, $100 a month. If the health plan made it untenable to get one of those drugs, they usually made another one in the same class financially attractive. So, the patient had options, and the stakes were a lot lower. Now this same war is being fought on the specialty side of the house, where drugs cost thousands or tens of thousands of dollars a month and the patient may have but one option. So, if it’s made financially toxic for a patient to get that one drug, then the patient has to choose between their family’s health and dipping into their 401(k). In these cases, Pharma can be, sort of authentically (and the “sort of” is an important qualifier), a hero who steps in and helps patients who are basically functionally uninsured because they can’t afford the co-pays and deductibles to actually use the insurance they’re paying handsome premiums to have. Pharma can step in and help via co-pay discount cards or through patient assistance programs to help those with lower incomes. But let me point out an obvious but rarely-mentioned-in-the-same-sentence connection. If the patient cost share is really high, there are at a minimum two parties responsible for that: the insurance company, who set the patient cost share and may have created functionally uninsured members in the process, and the pharma company, who may have set the price of the drug untenably high, maybe way over what the value of the product was. Neither is an innocent bystander, and the patient, sadly, is caught in the middle of this war. You can learn more at ascellahealth.com.   Dea Belazi, PharmD, MPH, has more than 20 years of experience in the health care industry, mostly developing and managing pharmacy benefit management companies. He is currently the president and CEO of AscellaHealth, a national specialty pharmacy benefit manager (SPBM™) serving commercial, Medicare, and Medicaid segments. He was part of the development of PerformRx, a PBM owned by Keystone First Health Plan, as well as another, FutureScripts, an Independence Blue Cross company that was sold to Catamaran a few years ago. Dea holds a PharmD from the University of Rhode Island and completed his dissertational work at Brown University. He later completed a Master of Public Health from Johns Hopkins University and a post-doc health outcomes research fellowship at Thomas Jefferson University. He is a reviewer for multiple medical journals and sits on multiple boards. 05:03 “The concept of co-pay accumulators wasn’t just a … PBM thought, but it also came from their customers, whether it was health plans or employer groups.” 10:00 “[This is] literally a math problem based on, ‘Do I spend it now? Do I spend it later?’” 11:31 What reason do employers and payers have for doing this? 15:26 “This is another mechanism for payers to push down additional cost to both the patient and now the pharma company.” 19:57 EP241 with Vinay Patel. 20:33 “I don’t think accumulators are really forcing Pharma to be more competitive.” 22:49 How co-pay maximizers are different from co-pay accumulators. 25:57 Who doesn’t like co-pay accumulators and maximizers? 28:03 How patient advocacy groups are a different model. 30:14 What is the biggest challenge facing employers right now? You can learn more at ascellahealth.com.   Check out our newest #healthcarepodcast with Dea Belazi of @AscellaHealth as he discusses #copayaccumulators and #copaymaximizers. #healthcare #podcast #digitalhealth #healthtech #copay “The concept of co-pay accumulators wasn’t just a … PBM thought, but it also came from their customers, whether it was health plans or employer groups.” Dea Belazi of @AscellaHealth discusses #copayaccumulators and #copaymaximizers. #healthcare #podcast #digitalhealth #healthtech #copay #healthcarepodcast “[This is] literally a math problem based on, ‘Do I spend it now? Do I spend it later?’” Dea Belazi of @AscellaHealth discusses #copayaccumulators and #copaymaximizers. #healthcare #podcast #digitalhealth #healthtech #copay #healthcarepodcast “This is another mechanism for payers to push down additional cost to both the patient and now the pharma company.” Dea Belazi of @AscellaHealth discusses #copayaccumulators and #copaymaximizers. #healthcare #podcast #digitalhealth #healthtech #copay #healthcarepodcast “I don’t think accumulators are really forcing Pharma to be more competitive.” Dea Belazi of @AscellaHealth discusses #copayaccumulators and #copaymaximizers. #healthcare #podcast #digitalhealth #healthtech #copay #healthcarepodcast What reason do employers and payers have for doing this? Dea Belazi of @AscellaHealth discusses #copayaccumulators and #copaymaximizers. #healthcare #podcast #digitalhealth #healthtech #copay #healthcarepodcast What is the biggest challenge facing employers right now? Dea Belazi of @AscellaHealth discusses #copayaccumulators and #copaymaximizers. #healthcare #podcast #digitalhealth #healthtech #copay #healthcarepodcast

So many individuals and organisations hope to be able to make a far greater impact but remain stuck, plateauing at a level they struggle to break through. In this podcast episode we address 4 fundamental areas which both individuals and organisations can address to propel them on a path to break through to a whole new level of making a difference in the world.

In this episode of Academia Lite, Sean and Zak get into two thought-provoking papers: - The relationship between residential yard management and neighborhood crime: An analysis from Baltimore City and County by Troy, A., Nunery, A., & Grove, J. M. - Time flies when you maximize—Maximizers and satisficers perceive time differently when making decisions by Misuraca, R., & Teuscher, U. Examining the irregular, the surprising and the downright funny of each paper, there is something for the academic in all of us. Website: academialite.com Twitter: @academialite Facebook: Academia Lite Instagram: academialite Email: Hello@academialite.com Music by Softly Softly - https://open.spotify.com/artist/7x5ZnnlIGAtbRrlj2La2Yl?si=iuNAXt7c

William von Hippel, Ph.D., grew up in Alaska, got his B.A. at Yale and his PhD at the University of Michigan, and then taught for a dozen years at Ohio State University before finding his way to Australia, where he is a professor of psychology at the University of Queensland. He has published more than a hundred articles, chapters, and edited books in social psychology, and his research has been featured in The New York Times, USA Today, The Economist, the BBC, Le Monde, El Mundo, Der Spiegel, and The Australian. Topics Discussed In This Episode: William’s start in social evolutionary science The fear we experience being attributed to evolution Technology affecting our evolution Social vs. technological innovations The difference and similarities between hunter and gatherers and us now living in the modern world Great ideas being found Sexual selection within evolution and how it has shifted with the influence of dating apps and the internet Maximizers vs. satisficers Finding the fundamental purpose of your life The meaning of life Coronavirus and self-isolation The evolution of collaboration Being present-minded The fallibility of memories Sociopathic tendencies within humans  The cost of empathy Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and self-actualization “Killing the Mastadon” How art and science fit within evolution.  Objectivity The acceptance of the truth The end result of science and art being incredibly similar The concept of the “starving artist” www.artistdecoded.com

This episode is about the many new pet-peeves and fights that are arising with couples during the coronavirus quarantine. There is a difference between a Minimizer and Maximizer.  Minimizers tend to diminish difficulties during stress and to downplay things.  They don't like to focus on the stressful event and may even refuse to discuss it. Maximizers can turn hardships into catastrophes in their minds.  They can really plan and focus on it. So, you can imagine what conflict can ensue when one partner sees the Coronavirus as a life and death issue that needs to immediately to be addressed in various ways and the other one thinks that they are nuts and are overreacting and being controlling.  We explore specific Couples Coronavirus Pet Peeves like: -Should Our Kids Stay In? -Should You Buy a Quarantine Supply of Things? -Should You Take Public Transportation? -Should You Change Clothes and Shower After Coming Home from Work? Should You cleanse the groceries? Should you wear a mask and gloves while in the laundry room? And more. We explore how to calmly discuss your different views on these issues and how they can highlight your differing core values but also give you the opportunity to compromise and be a team. If you want relationship coaching from Paulette, check out www.DrPaulettteSherman.com If you like what you hear, please subscribe to this podcast and leave a comment:)  

From the S.E.T and “Aspirational You” concepts in the previous episode, we now move towards a seemingly favorite topic for discussion: troublemaker talents! When talking about strengths, curiosity about the other side -- the so-called “shadow side” or “blind spots” -- tends to surface. And that’s exactly why our next core concept is worth discussing. Troublemaker talents are natural talents that have the potential to make you great yet may be causing pain or trouble to you, or to others within the team, due to misapplication, talent overuse, or squashing down of talent.  Note that you may be squashing down a talent or not developing it because you don’t see the necessity. But when it does come out inevitably, it doesn’t come out looking good. Join us explore these “T” talents, and towards the end you will get these takeaways: Some workplace scenarios where troublemaker talents can show up How these scenarios may affect teams and team projects  What you can do as a team in order to address the possible impact on timelines and results caused by the misapplication, overuse, or squashing down of talent Are These 'Troublemaker' Scenarios Familiar To You? Scenario 1: Love For Learning Let’s say a member of your team leads through Learner and Input. Coming out of such strength is her love for learning, such as data gathering. As she’s bent on really getting to know the stakeholders and the end-users before beginning a project, she spends time on the front end of the projects not only collecting stakeholder specifications, the end-user information, and the end-user preferences but really digging into these items.  What makes it a troublemaker talent? This is showing up as a troublemaker talent for her because in the process of thorough and in-depth learning, you would see her as being too slow-paced or a “deadline-misser.” This is rooted in the following: 1) Her non-communication of how her workflow looks (70% of the time on front end then hastened towards completion) 2) Her lack of awareness that would make someone else nervous What can you do as a team? As you are following a more sensible timeline, and it’s clear that the troublemaker talent is going to make her miss the deadline, you have no choice but to step in. In this scenario, she’ll keep getting her projects pulled as she’s getting them started because you think she’s not going to complete them on time. Scenario 2: Digging In Or Intruding? For this same person who loves gathering information, it also comes out as a talent overuse when she spends most of a meeting with a colleague, asking too many questions -- to the point that she causes skepticism and guardedness on her colleague.  What makes it a troublemaker talent? While the main point of the meeting is to explore and learn as much as she can, “too much curiosity kills a cat” as they say, and may spell trouble by way of perceived intrusion.  “Why the 20 questions?” “Why are you digging into my business?” “What’s the deal here?” In the end, when the colleague senses that she’s prying into their business, she might not obtain the information she was driving for. What can you do as a team? Self-awareness - It’s important that this particular “troublemaker” be made aware of where she is not being well-received by others, and where her supposed talent seems to be getting in the way of her desired results. The ability to reflect on this starts the active process of addressing the “trouble” or pain.  Maximizers also want to think about things longer and improve on them through constant reworks. However, they tend to get stuck on that phase rather than just jumping in and executing it. Naturally they go for the highest quality output, which requires that everything must be thought through. In effect, it keeps them from getting ahead along the timeline. But if high stakes are involved, Maximizers must not let themselves be okay with a B+ work.  The Yin-Yang Complex Another concept to watch out for in troublemaker talents is the “yin-yang complex’ where within a team, we often find talents that look the opposite of someone else's.  Consider the previous example of the leader through Learner and Input. As her boss, you happen to lead through Activator. That means you want to get things moving, and in contrast to her Learner-Input themes, you are really fast on the front end of projects.  Now due to self-awareness or team awareness about each other’s talent themes, you will know in advance how to handle and address potential “trouble” brought about by varying cadence and preferences in approach. Action steps may look like the following: The Learner-Input team member effectively communicates and aligns with you where she’s at in the milestone 1-10 through regular updates, providing  explanation where there may be gaps  assurances of how she will strategize to meet the deadline You determine the types of projects you can (or cannot) assign to her, depending on where her thoroughness may be best utilized.  Your Team Challenge: Identify A Troublemaker Talent And Develop It This challenge may take a little thinking through or maybe backtracking.  Think of someone right now that you know, or someone that you've worked with in the past whom you think you’ve often butted heads or clashed with because you were always coming from totally opposite directions. Recognize that these people are a great case study for troublemaker talents. Assume both their positive intent and your positive intent. See how they're both trying to achieve results for which you may have a very different approach.  Develop a troublemaker talent into a value-adding talent. Suppose you're a visionary, and while you're passionately presenting about the vision of a project, you feel that your team or a team member is dragging it down into something that's irrelevant at present. It can be quite maddening.  If you recognize the troublemaker talents in your team, you can avoid the frustrations of being derailed in your vision presentation by talking to that person in advance. Example: “Hey, I'm going to give you the high level in the meeting, and then let's book an hour after because I know you're gonna have a lot of detailed questions." This short and direct approach will most likely provide the win-win situation where you can cast an inspirational vision for the team. At the same time, these “troublemakers” are given the opportunity to raise questions, be heard, and add value to company-wide results. So rather than merely point out to them what’s wrong that needs fixing, it’s far more constructive to focus on the team member’s potential, to inspire them to further develop their strength and express confidence that they can be among your top talents in the world. As you both commit support towards this person’s development, imagine the fulfillment for you both if they transform from a “troublemaker” to a superstar! Bottomline: It's so much more inspirational to craft and develop something that is already strong in you or others than to feel like you need to squash something and stamp it out. Ready For The Next Concept? Up next: Learn how to regulate by situation. Stay tuned!

Having more money in the future can be as easy as taking a handful of simple steps today that can be done in only a few minutes. We’re also going to find out what tools Fools use to stay on track with their spending and investing goals and look back on the wellness trends of the last decade.

Last year, one of the most checked out shows….and good feedback on some of the recommendations. And it wasn’t planned.This year, I thought it would be good to do it again. So….with some planning and tracking over the year, I kept the list.Now here they are. In 2 parts. Many of these influenced podcasts and in some cases, the authors became guests of the show. How cool is that.So, I’ll read a little piece from each, like last year, a piece that I heavily underlined at the time so it must have been good!Go out and buy these. Most of them are linked on the website – the books page – if these are you things…Here are the first five. Enjoy! 1.Mindful Walking – Hugh O’Donovan (link to it HERE)•One of the first I read in 2019 and interviewed Hugh shortly after reading it•Liked the writing style•A Great introduction to mindfulness and how you can practice it•For me, it’s always useful to keep reading deeper into this subject and reinforce it’s value•Example of a mindfulness practice you can do from the book2.Recreate Your Career Story – Mary Butler•An ex-work colleague and friend shared her work with me•Was delighted to read this and found it full of useful tips and a solid approach to take when thinking about changing career•Well written – a great sense of Mary’s personality coming through too •Here’s a piece from it3.21 Lessons for the 21st Century – Yuval Noah Harrari•Discovered Yuval last year and was hugely impressed with Sapiens where he talks about the history of humankind – well worth a read•This one as the title suggests dives into 21 different areas that are important for us to understand •Liberalism, Globalization, Nationalism….•But the piece I’m going to read is, to further espouse the value of mindfulness, from his experiences with the practice and how it’s impacted him! 4.Awareness – Anthony De Mello •This is one I actually re-read and dip into on occasion in 2019•It’s a guide to spiritual life •It’s very different view on many of the every day subjects we look at or in many cases don’t examine •There is one piece from it on ‘negative feelings towards others’5.The Paradox of Choice – Barry Schwartz•Had this on my shelf for a while and only got around to reading it in Sep this year•I was instantly hooked on it – one of those reads that gives you so much to think about and makes so much sense – I love the idea of Maximizers v Satisficers•Highly recommend this one – •I was honoured to talk with Barry for the podcast a month or so back too and get a deeper dive into his mind and work•You can listen to that here – https://robofthegreen.ie/episodes/barryschwartz-ep138/•You can buy the book - https://amzn.to/2qeNS5p•Here’s a piece from it

Last year, one of the most checked out shows….and good feedback on some of the recommendations. And it wasn’t planned.This year, I thought it would be good to do it again. So….with some planning and tracking over the year, I kept the list.Now here they are. In 2 parts. Many of these influenced podcasts and in some cases, the authors became guests of the show. How cool is that.So, I’ll read a little piece from each, like last year, a piece that I heavily underlined at the time so it must have been good!Go out and buy these. Most of them are linked on the website – the books page – if these are you things…Here are the first five. Enjoy! 1.Mindful Walking – Hugh O’Donovan (link to it HERE)•One of the first I read in 2019 and interviewed Hugh shortly after reading it•Liked the writing style•A Great introduction to mindfulness and how you can practice it•For me, it’s always useful to keep reading deeper into this subject and reinforce it’s value•Example of a mindfulness practice you can do from the book2.Recreate Your Career Story – Mary Butler•An ex-work colleague and friend shared her work with me•Was delighted to read this and found it full of useful tips and a solid approach to take when thinking about changing career•Well written – a great sense of Mary’s personality coming through too •Here’s a piece from it3.21 Lessons for the 21st Century – Yuval Noah Harrari•Discovered Yuval last year and was hugely impressed with Sapiens where he talks about the history of humankind – well worth a read•This one as the title suggests dives into 21 different areas that are important for us to understand •Liberalism, Globalization, Nationalism….•But the piece I’m going to read is, to further espouse the value of mindfulness, from his experiences with the practice and how it’s impacted him! 4.Awareness – Anthony De Mello •This is one I actually re-read and dip into on occasion in 2019•It’s a guide to spiritual life •It’s very different view on many of the every day subjects we look at or in many cases don’t examine •There is one piece from it on ‘negative feelings towards others’5.The Paradox of Choice – Barry Schwartz•Had this on my shelf for a while and only got around to reading it in Sep this year•I was instantly hooked on it – one of those reads that gives you so much to think about and makes so much sense – I love the idea of Maximizers v Satisficers•Highly recommend this one – •I was honoured to talk with Barry for the podcast a month or so back too and get a deeper dive into his mind and work•You can listen to that here – https://robofthegreen.ie/episodes/barryschwartz-ep138/•You can buy the book - https://amzn.to/2qeNS5p•Here’s a piece from it

Having so many choices in our privileged lives can create anxiety. Although this is a totally first world problem, it's still real. I'll suggest a way to help navigate through.And the Barry Schwartz (2004) book I reference is The paradox of choice: Why more is less. New York: HarperCollins.

Dean DiSibio is the Founder of the Colonel’s Leadership Council and the Co-Author of Reel Lessons in Leadership. In Dean’s book, he breaks down iconic movie characters and the leadership qualities (and flaws) that they possess. Traits and skills like self-control, negotiation, and empathy are all part of a leader’s repertoire for success.   Key Takeaways  [4:25] Dean co-wrote the book, Reel Lessons in Leadership, with his father.   [6:15] Movies are a very common connection point that all generations can relate to, which is why Dean decided to breakdown leadership lessons from important movies in our era. [7:50] Dean shares why the movie, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, has some important leadership lessons in it. [12:10] In The Godfather, it all boils down to self-control.   [15:05] Leaders need coaches in their corner to help guide them through troubling situations.   [18:55] When it comes to leadership traits, Dean outlines in his book the traits that need to be developed vs. need to be practiced.   [25:55] The military understands they have to train people. The business world… not so much.  [32:35] Dean mentioned in his book that negotiation is a skill leaders must develop. This is something very few people are talking about in a leadership context. Dean believes good negotiators have the same traits as good leaders. They tend to have self-control, confidence, credibility, and good communication and are often well-prepared and forward-thinking. [38:35] Dean puts leaders into three categories, Maximizers, Overachievers, and Underachievers.   [41:25] Dean presents a challenge: Pay attention to the fictional characters you love and have a curiosity as to what leadership traits they possess. Have discussions about them with your friends and family.   Strategic Partner   Beyond the Uniform offers over 300 free episodes to help military Veterans succeed in their civilian career. This includes overviews of potential career paths, deep dives on necessary skills to succeed, and reviews of other free services that support the military Veteran community. You can find more info at BeyondTheUniform.org.   Quotable Quotes “Good leaders have to have self-control.” “I believe folks have a high empathy muscle that they’re born with.  “Self-awareness is half the battle.” “I believe the best leaders are inquisitive.”    ~~~~~ ~~~~~ The Leadership Podcast is proud to announce a new initiative with thoughtLEADERS to provide very short podcasts called “chalk talks.” They’re “bitesize” hacks on common (but challenging) leadership issues.   Interested in learning more?  You can only access the Chalk Talks by subscribing to our mailing list at The Leadership Podcast.   ~~~~~ ~~~~~   Colonel’s Leadership Council Reel Lessons in Leadership, by Ralph R. DiSibio with Dean A. DiSibio One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest The Godfather TED Talk — “The Surprising Science of Alpha Males”   Instagram: @WeStudyLeaders LinkedIn: @TheLeadershipPodcast Facebook: @westudyleaders Twitter: @westudyleaders Website: The Leadership Podcast info@theleadershippodcast.com  

The Postcard Academy has gone bi-weekly this season as I prepare to launch The Podcast Launch Academy, the ultimate online podcasting course that has been my dream for awhile. But setting this up took a lot longer than I thought it would! I realize now this is mostly because I have been approaching starting this business with a ‘maximizer mindset.’   I’m reading 168 Hours by Laura Vanderkam in it she talks about the difference between maximizers and satisficers.   Maximizers want the best of everything. Satisficers make decisions. They give themselves a few minutes to make a choice and then they go with it. While maximizers will spend weeks trying to decide things like, “What’s the best email service provider? What’s the best website host?” And even when we know our stuff, we’ll go research it again for hours because we want everything to be perfect.   But striving for perfection is never satisfying because it doesn’t lead us anywhere. We just spin our wheels instead of moving. So, in life I aim to get better at making quick decisions instead of over-analyzing things.   Another realization I’ve had is that we’ll never be 100% ready to start something big. Anything worth doing is going to make you nervous, and you just need to jump in and start when you’re scared.   I kept setting launch dates for my course — and then I’d let them slip. I didn’t feel ready. There was so much more to do. I almost did it this time, too, but I stopped myself and made a public announcement that I was launching Podcast Launch Academy on November 19, 2019. I said it out loud to other people and that accountability has made this my most productive week of the year.   Having a hard deadline means certain things need to get done everyday to make it happen. And they’re happening.   When we don’t give ourselves real time limits for projects — big or small — we let time expand and add in all these extra tasks and research that we don’t actually need. Maximizers are so guilty of this. That’s what leads to those gross feelings at the end of a Saturday when we feel like we’ve spent all day working hard on a personal project, but we’ve got nothing to show for it. Because we fell into Maximizer perfectionist spin, and instead of taking action, we go back into research mode.   I did the same thing when I started podcasting, and that’s the primary reason I created a podcasting course — to give others the roadmap I didn’t have to make easy decisions that will help them create a show that listeners love.   To kick off Podcast Launch Academy, I’m hosting a free podcast masterclass. Sign up at sarahmikutel.com/masterclass.

On this episode of Unleash your Strengths, we talk about the attribute of people with Maximizer. Eddie breaks down this strength, how to take it to the next level, how to develop it in your way, and what happens when we are not grateful for our strengths. - Episode Overview 2:28- Description of Maximizer 4:08- Shortcomings of Maximizers 9:09- Those without Maximizer High 11:26- See the strength 15:25“We see the value for everyone. Especially the ones that make us crazy. You learn about their strengths and you find what’s great about them, and you figure out how can I help them be them at a higher level so that I can get everything I want in a way that is authentic to me.” Saturday Show: https://www.facebook.com/growwitheddieEddie's Services: https://www.eddiepvilla.com/servicesInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/unleash_your_strengths/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eddie.p.villahttps://www.gallupstrengthscenter.com/

From anchoring to mental accounting, host Steve Bleiberg does a deep dive into some of the behavioral biases investors should be aware of. (October 03, 2019)

Darren Virassammy is the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of 34 Strong, comprised of a team that believes everyone deserves a great place to work and that any workplace can be great. A leading expert in the global employee engagement community, the 34 Strong team leverages the Strengths-Based approach to human development to create massive shifts within organizations, both culturally and on the bottom line. He and his team have created sustainable change in small microbusinesses, all the way up to large organizational teams at the FDA, Bank of America, and The California Department of Public Health. Recently, Darren has keynoted for Hitachi Global Women's Conference, The Rotary World Peace Conference, The Professional Grounds Management Society, and Author Mike Michalowicz' Profit Con. Darren's 34 Strong Business partner, Brandon Miller is the co-Author (with his wife Analyn Miller) of a Strengths-Based Parenting book titled: Play to Their Strengths released in June of 2019. What you will learn in this episode: How 34 Strong was started and what inspired it 34 Strong's approach to creating a great place to work The influence of strengthsfinder Virassammy's approach to developing talents Maximizers vs. Developers 34 Strong's process for assessment and design of a company culture of employee engagement How Virassammy get's buy-in from his clients' leadership teams The results of 34 Strong's culture development Resources: Website: www.34strong.com Book: Grind, Greatness, Genius Exercise [FREE DOWNLOAD] Twitter: @dvirassammy Additional Resources: Website: sharonspano.com Book: thetimemoneybook.com Events: sharonspano.com/workshops Contact: sharon@sharonspano.com Twitter: @SharonSpano

What are Opportunity Maximizers?

In this episode of PBM: We Talk Unique Selling Proposition Do You Know Your Product Profit Maximizers? How To Throw A (Free) Facebook Event To Showcase Your Business Have something to say? Email us at PracticallyBrilliantMarketing@gmail.com Twitter: @MikeNaus Instagram: @Nausbot

Justice & Drew discuss the differences between satisficers and maximizers as well as ethnic groups being split over student data collection. Later, they chat with Pete Hegseth.

Brad Wolff, author of the bestseller, People Problems? How to Create People Solutions for a Competitive Edge, joins Dolph to deliver an important lesson: all problems are people problems. Walking us through his origin story, Brad shares the experiences and lessons that have helped him understand that solving any organizational problem starts with taking an honest look at your people – especially yourself! Links: To learn about Habit Technologies, email Brad: bwolff@peoplemaximizers.com Free ebook Maximize Your People, Productivity, and Profit: https://peoplemaximizers.com/maximize-profits PeopleMax: https://peoplemaximizers.com/ Brad’s book People Problems? How to Create People Solutions for a Competitive Advantage   *****Timestamped Highlights***** (4:18) Somewhere between birth and walking… (6:40) Doing it wrong > Doing it right: What Brad learned as a recruiter (9:05) Guess what? The most successful leaders are open to getting better! (10:53) Low turnover rates may not be a bragging point (13:28) The notable difference between a producer and a manager (14:34) Beware the Halo Effect and Horn Effect! (16:18) The dark period when Brad’s business failed (18:20) The cognitive dissonance bus runs right into Brad (22:35) Dolph finally accepts the properties of velocity and mass (25:22) Brad and Dolph share the process of being human (31:22) Debunking the talent myth (32:50) Creating a safe and open work culture (34:19) From definition to application, Brad talks habits  

I get a whole lot of questions about how to amplify your CliftonStrengths talent theme of Maximizer with your career. In this series, I break down one strength per post — so that you can add to the insights from your StrengthsFinder report and make a better alignment between your job and your strengths. - If you’re exploring this concept as a manager, use this series for career development ideas and even new clues about responsibilities you could give a person with this talent theme so that they can show up at their best. - If you’re exploring this concept for yourself, use this as a chance to build a reputation for your strengths so that you’re more likely to be given assignments that live in your strengths zone. You’ll get three layers to chew on: 1. Career Branding 2. Red Flag Situations At Work 3. Fresh Application Ideas   Career Branding When Maximizer Is Your Strength You probably already have a reputation for what you know. Think about your personal resume, CV, or your LinkedIn profile, I bet it's full of “the what,” which are things like job titles, skills, knowledge, expertise, or the degree you earned. What’s missing is usually "the how,” and this is where your StrengthsFinder talent themes live. Chances are good that you are a lot like my StrengthsFinder training clients, where you don’t physically see your teammates and customers every day. That’s why LinkedIn has become so important for career branding. It’s how your teammates, customers, and vendors go look you up before a meeting - to see who they’re about to talk to. And rather than only telling them what you know, you should also give them a peek at how it is to work with you. So here are a bunch of Maximizer-related adjectives to consider using in your career branding efforts and your LinkedIn profile: Efficient Sorters Selective Persuaders Strengths-Oriented Choosy Challengers Always Refining Never Done Transformers Excellence-Seekers Tinkerers Iterators Quality Boosters Red Flag Situations For Maximizer These are the cultures, interactions, or situations that feel like soul-sucking drudgery to someone with the talent theme of Maximizer. They might even make you want to quit the team. So I’ll give you a couple of these to be on watch for — because if they fester, you might get the urge to quit the job or become detached and disengaged at work. Here are two Red flags for Maximizer: Premature Launch. If you lead through Maximizer, you naturally focus on quality. You have high expectations, and it hurts to hand over a work product before it meets your quality standard. So if you’re on a team that values quantity over quality, you’ll likely get frustrated. Also, if you find that a work product has huge potential…if only you could do this to it…(only to find out there’s no time or budget to allow it to live up to its potential), it will make your Maximizer sad. Weakness-Focused Culture. Maximizer is a talent theme that is naturally aligned with a strengths-focused culture. If you find yourself part of a team that obsesses over weaknesses and problems and what’s wrong, you’ll be yearning to flip things around. Sometimes your strengths point of view will be refreshing and welcomed, but if you find that it’s dismissed, you’ll feel drained by only working on what’s broken rather than getting the high leverage out of strengths. 3 Fresh Application Ideas for Maximizer These are ways to apply the talent theme of Maximizer at work, even when the job duties on the team feel pretty locked in. If you’re exploring this concept as a team manager, be sure to have a conversation around these ideas. You’ll both be able to come up with places to apply them. For someone who leads through Maximizer, put this talent to good use with one of these options: When the rest of the team can’t see potential in a project or person. The Maximizer talent sees potential all over. So you could apply this to a change that people are resisting, or a future vision that needs to be created. You can even turn on the Maximizer talent to bring an inspirational message to help other people see “what can be." When you need incremental improvement over time. People with the Maximizer talent don’t need to constantly work on exponential change. They get a charge out of incremental improvements that compound over time. If you need someone who can help you realize potential over the long-haul, tap into the powers of the Maximizer who loves to test and experiment and iterate to continually improve something. When you want to go from good to great. People who lead through Maximizer rarely rest on their laurels. Good isn’t good enough. They like to make things better and better and better. They’re constantly asking “what if we did this” or “I wonder what it could be like if we tried this” - they’re looking to get the most out of things, so they’re chasing efficiencies and mastery all the time. If you want someone who doesn’t get bored with continuous iteration, tap your Maximizers. So there you have it. It’s a quick tour for building your career through the talent theme of Maximizer. So, here’s your homework: Go take action on your LinkedIn profile with the career branding section. Challenge yourself to write one sentence in the Summary section of LinkedIn that captures how you collaborate as a teammate at work. Then think over the red flags to see if there’s anything you need to get in front of before it brings you down. And finally, volunteer your talents through the application ideas. And if you’re a manager, have a conversation with your team members about which of these things sound like something they’d love to have more of. Rock Your Talents As A Team If you’re thinking about doing a virtual or in-person event to kick off your strengths-based culture, head on over to our training page to see if our current offerings are a good fit for you. Until next time, thank you for being part of this powerful strengths movement that helps people unleash the awesomeness already inside them. Enjoyed The Podcast? To subscribe and review, here are your links for listening in iTunes and Stitcher Radio. You can also stream any episode right from this website. Subscribing is a great way to never miss an episode. Let the app notify you each week when the latest episode gets published.

To learn more about Gallup's additional strengths resources, visit the Gallup Strengths Center: http://on.gallup.com/1l04XVZ. Gallup's Theme Thursday is a live Webcast that targets strengths coaches and enthusiasts to provide a deeper context behind the language of strengths by talking in-depth about each of the 34 Clifton StrengthsFinder themes.On this Theme Thursday Season Four webcast, Jim Collison, Gallup's Director of Talent Sourcing, and Maika Leibbrandt, Senior Workplace Consultant, talk about Maximizer. People exceptionally talented in the Maximizer theme focus on strengths as a way to stimulate personal and group excellence. They seek to transform something strong into something superb. Maximizers see talents and strengths in others, usually before anyone else does. Strengths — whether their own or someone else’s — fascinate them. Maximizers love to help others become excited about their potential. They have the capacity to see what people do best and which jobs they will be good at. They can see how people’s talents match the tasks that must be completed. Excellence, not average, is their measure and pursuit. They have a quality orientation that leads them to focus on areas of strength for themselves and others and to manage around weakness.

To learn more about Gallup's additional strengths resources, visit the Gallup Strengths Center: http://on.gallup.com/1l04XVZ. Gallup's Theme Thursday is a live Webcast that targets strengths coaches and enthusiasts to provide a deeper context behind the language of strengths by talking in-depth about each of the 34 Clifton StrengthsFinder themes. On this Theme Thursday Season Four webcast, Jim Collison, Gallup's Director of Talent Sourcing, and Maika Leibbrandt, Senior Workplace Consultant, talk about Maximizer. People exceptionally talented in the Maximizer theme focus on strengths as a way to stimulate personal and group excellence. They seek to transform something strong into something superb. Maximizers see talents and strengths in others, usually before anyone else does. Strengths — whether their own or someone else's — fascinate them. Maximizers love to help others become excited about their potential. They have the capacity to see what people do best and which jobs they will be good at. They can see how people's talents match the tasks that must be completed. Excellence, not average, is their measure and pursuit. They have a quality orientation that leads them to focus on areas of strength for themselves and others and to manage around weakness.

To learn more about Gallup's additional strengths resources, visit the Gallup Strengths Center: http://on.gallup.com/1l04XVZ. Gallup's Theme Thursday is a live Webcast that targets strengths coaches and enthusiasts to provide a deeper context behind the language of strengths by talking in-depth about each of the 34 Clifton StrengthsFinder themes. On this Theme Thursday Season Four webcast, Jim Collison, Gallup's Director of Talent Sourcing, and Maika Leibbrandt, Senior Workplace Consultant, talk about Maximizer. People exceptionally talented in the Maximizer theme focus on strengths as a way to stimulate personal and group excellence. They seek to transform something strong into something superb. Maximizers see talents and strengths in others, usually before anyone else does. Strengths — whether their own or someone else’s — fascinate them. Maximizers love to help others become excited about their potential. They have the capacity to see what people do best and which jobs they will be good at. They can see how people’s talents match the tasks that must be completed. Excellence, not average, is their measure and pursuit. They have a quality orientation that leads them to focus on areas of strength for themselves and others and to manage around weakness.

To learn more about Gallup's additional strengths resources, visit the Gallup Strengths Center: http://on.gallup.com/1l04XVZ. Gallup's Theme Thursday is a live Webcast that targets strengths coaches and enthusiasts to provide a deeper context behind the language of strengths by talking in-depth about each of the 34 Clifton StrengthsFinder themes.On this Theme Thursday Season Four webcast, Jim Collison, Gallup's Director of Talent Sourcing, and Maika Leibbrandt, Senior Workplace Consultant, talk about Maximizer. People exceptionally talented in the Maximizer theme focus on strengths as a way to stimulate personal and group excellence. They seek to transform something strong into something superb. Maximizers see talents and strengths in others, usually before anyone else does. Strengths — whether their own or someone else’s — fascinate them. Maximizers love to help others become excited about their potential. They have the capacity to see what people do best and which jobs they will be good at. They can see how people’s talents match the tasks that must be completed. Excellence, not average, is their measure and pursuit. They have a quality orientation that leads them to focus on areas of strength for themselves and others and to manage around weakness.

On today’s show, Julie talks about how you will know if you found the ONE, the perfect dress, the dress you’ll want to get married in. Brides today are having a harder time than ever before deciding on their wedding dress. There are more options out there than ever before and you are exposed to a constant stream of gorgeous photos on social media. Plus you know what dress your friends wore, and what their friends’, friends wore, and you want to be different, making it pretty overwhelming. Today, Julie will talk about how to make a decision in a never ending world of options. Show Highlights: Knowledge is power All brides react in many different ways when finding the one Understand how you make decisions Decisions will help you navigate dress shopping Psychology behind decision making Difference between Cognitive style maximizer Maximization – Seeking the best option through an exhausting search Differences between Cognitive style satisfiers Satisficing – Satisfy and suffice, evaluate options til you find the one How each of the styles play out when searching for a dress Maximizers need time to make a decision Using the collage App called Pic Stitch to help compare dresses side by side in photos Satisfiers typically have no regrets, and do cry when they put on the dress Falling between maximizer and Satisfier happens In-between still should go to a few appointments Remember the 50% deposit is non-refundable Julie really wants to hear from you, so if you have questions or comments, please reach out to her so you can be sure you are dressed, styled and down the aisle! Links Mentioned in the Show: The Stylish Bride on Instagram The Stylish Bride website Subscribe to The Stylish Bride Podcast.

On today's show, Julie talks about how you will know if you found the ONE, the perfect dress, the dress you'll want to get married in. Brides today are having a harder time than ever before deciding on their wedding dress. There are more options out there than ever before and you are exposed to a constant stream of gorgeous photos on social media. Plus you know what dress your friends wore, and what their friends', friends wore, and you want to be different, making it pretty overwhelming. Today, Julie will talk about how to make a decision in a never ending world of options.    Show Highlights: Knowledge is power All brides react in many different ways when finding the one Understand how you make decisions  Decisions will help you navigate dress shopping Psychology behind decision making Difference between Cognitive style maximizer Maximization – Seeking the best option through an exhausting search Differences between Cognitive style satisfiers Satisficing – Satisfy and suffice, evaluate options til you find the one How each of the styles play out when searching for a dress Maximizers need time to make a decision Using the collage App called Pic Stitch to help compare dresses side by side in photos Satisfiers typically have no regrets, and do cry when they put on the dress Falling between maximizer and Satisfier happens In-between still should go to a few appointments Remember the 50% deposit is non-refundable   Julie really wants to hear from you, so if you have questions or comments, please reach out to her so you can be sure you are dressed, styled and down the aisle!   Links Mentioned in the Show:   The Stylish Bride on Instagram The Stylish Bride website Subscribe to The Stylish Bride Podcast.

In this episode, I take you on a tour through my toolbox and share my top time-saving tools I can’t live without. I discuss the key functions of each program, their unique features, ways to customize them to meet your unique needs, and discuss why I absolutely love using these particular tools in my business. I also talk about the solution to wanting to read more, the problem with Frankensteining your processes and tools, and the must-have program that can turn any small business owner into a self-sufficient graphic designer. I hope you enjoy my episode on time-saving tools and encourage you to pursue finding tools that could level up your business. Now let’s jump right in and get to the straight talk! What You’ll Discover In This Episode: My Toolbox Favorites My Business Can’t Function Without Handy Tips For Utilizing These Powerful Tools Solutions To Your Social Media Scheduling And File-Sharing Woes How I Successfully Manage Over 200 Tasks At Any Given Time Without Feeling Overwhelmed So Much More! Important Resources & Links From This Episode: Amber’s Toolbox Outlook Training Interest List Trello Training Interest List

In this episode, I introduce my top 12 time management strategies that can help you improve your productivity, increase your profits, and provide you with more time for the people and things you cherish most.  I discuss ways to best tackle incorporating these Time Maximizers into your work, how creating boundaries can help you improve your productivity, and what you absolutely must do every day to help you refresh and rest.  I hope you’ll enjoy my episode on Time Maximizers and encourage you to make the effort to incorporate them into your routines. Now let’s get to the straight talk!  What You’ll Discover In This Episode:  My 12 Time Maximizers To Increase Your Productivity  What You’re Doing That Could Be Sabotaging Your Productivity  How To Best Deal With Interruptions And Distractions  Quick Tips To Keep Your Productivity On Point  So Much More!  Important Resources & Links From This Episode: Conquer Your Task List Today  How to Conquer Your Day Using The 5 Daily Planning Pavers  How To Get Sh!t Done: Time Blocking Strategies That Work  The Art of Multitasking: Friend or Foe?  Gimme A Break! Who Has The Time? 

In this episode, I introduce a strategy I use every week like clockwork to clear my task list so I can have more focused time to invest in my highest value activities. I dive deep into how you can keep low-value tasks from inundating you and running your week, discuss the immediate, positive effects of completing your weekly Rapid Fire Power Hour, and walk through the three questions to ask to determine which tasks should be completed during your Power Hour. I hope you enjoy my episode on Power Hours and encourage you to start scheduling your own on a weekly basis. Now let’s get to the straight talk! What You’ll Discover In This Episode: The Best Way To Knock Off Tiny Tasks And Gain Momentum In Your Work How Repurposing Just One Hour A Week Can Diminish The Monday Blues A Sure Fire Strategy To Minimize Distractions So You Can Be Ready To Tackle Anything So Much More! Important Resources & Links From This Episode: Get Back On Track With A Rapid Fire Power Hour

Maximization vs satisficing: This is both a decision-making rule *and* a personality spectrum. People who are Maximizers will dig themselves deep into details and make sure what they’re doing is done properly; they are perfectionists by nature. People who are Satisficers will just make do; they’ll do the minimum for moving the project forward, and want to move forward fast. A team should consist of both types. In this episode we cover: -The differences between the two -Examples of both types in the many of the big industries -And how you should manage your time as an Maximizer *Subscribe to Future Skills on: iTunes | Android

My friend and colleague Amy Wease is here to talk about how to use the book The Paradox of Choice to help your buyers make better decisions faster. I started a book club with the agents that I work with because every day I reference certain books. The concepts in the books we talk about can be applied to our lives, our businesses, and with our clients. If you want to help your mindset and grow your business, you may want to join us in the book club!  You can join here. It's free and it's fun and it will help your business grow! Every month, I choose a book that has profoundly changed the way I think and do business. Then a month later, I have a conversation about the book. Join and you will get your first book club pick right away and then the discussion will be four weeks later. You can find Amy here: Amy Wease Show Notes [03:59] How this book helped me to become a better decision maker, and it helped me to help my clients become better decision makers. [04:21] We must first narrow our options then we can make a decision. [05:19] How having more options makes decision making more difficult. When I see clients struggle with decision making, I actually send them the book. [06:06] You don't have to look at every house and every neighborhood. We can start by casting a wide net, but buying a house is a process in decision making. It is my job to help clients narrow their choices right away. [07:19] Applying the principles in the book has helped people make decisions better and faster. [08:08] How having too many choices make people shut down and stop. [08:22] If you see clients struggling, it is time to start narrowing the choices. [08:40] How to create a framework to help people make decisions. [08:57] Budget, location, and criteria such as bedrooms etc. Organizing decision points in these categories makes it easier to make a decision. [10:04] Picking one thing that doesn't change and then narrow from there. [12:30] The danger of having too many decisions points and using the framework to narrow things down. Ask the client how long they want to live in the property? [13:29] Why Amy decided to join the book club.  The book choice seemed unexpected because it wasn't real estate specific. This sparked her curiosity. [15:14] How to help clients feel confident and happy about the home buying process. [17:02] Amy's mom didn't understand the connection of reading this book for real estate purposes. How the book helps us understand how people make decisions and the pitfalls they run into and how to apply it to home buying. [19:38] How looking outside the real estate industry to be better at our jobs. We are here to help clients for life and show that we are different. [20:44] Maximizers versus the satisfiers. There are two types of people. Satisfiers make decisions fairly quickly. Maximizers have to have the best of the best. They may focus on status and what other people are doing. [22:23] No one is exclusively one or the other, but understanding the concepts helps us understand what the client is going through and what their wants and needs are. This helps agents to not waste time when all of the boxes need to be checked. [24:48] If you keep hitting a dead end, you may be dealing with a maximizer. It helps you to recognize it and know what you are dealing with. [25:30] The way people make decisions in other aspects of their lives also affects how they will make decisions about buying a house. [26:19] How the idea of more is better is constantly promoted. Even though, more choices can be overwhelming. [27:12] Constantly wondering if you can do better and how that can hurt home buyers. [28:39] Getting what you want when you become crystal clear about what you want. [29:23] The importance of being upfront and honest when there are trade offs. [30:04] The concept of the imagined alternative. It is an agents job to cut this off by adding clarity to the home search. Jennifer sends them a list of houses that have sold which can eliminate the imagined alternative or let them know that it exists through waiting. [33:23] How clients always ask the what if question. Giving evidence and using the resources you have at hand helps give clients a sense of peace [35:01] Jennifer wants every real estate agent to read this book and understand how more choices leads to bad decision making. [35:35] Amy found that taking the client through the process and being more than just a house hunter has had a positive impact on her clients lives. These people start making decisions better and faster. This new way of thinking even helps people become happier. Links and Resources: The Paradox of Choice Join the Entrepreneurial Real Estate Agent Book Club Jennifer@AgentGradSchool.com

In this episode, I take you on a tour through my toolbox and share my top time-saving tools I can’t live without. I discuss the key functions of each program, their unique features, ways to customize them to meet your unique needs, and discuss why I absolutely love using these particular tools in my business. I also talk about the solution to wanting to read more, the problem with Frankensteining your processes and tools, and the must-have program that can turn any small business owner into a self-sufficient graphic designer. I hope you enjoy my episode on time-saving tools and encourage you to pursue finding tools that could level up your business. Now let’s jump right in and get to the straight talk! What You’ll Discover In This Episode: My Toolbox Favorites My Business Can’t Function Without Handy Tips For Utilizing These Powerful Tools Solutions To Your Social Media Scheduling And File-Sharing Woes How I Successfully Manage Over 200 Tasks At Any Given Time Without Feeling Overwhelmed So Much More! Important Resources & Links From This Episode: Amber’s Toolbox Outlook Training Interest List Trello Training Interest List

In this episode, I introduce my top 12 time management strategies that can help you improve your productivity, increase your profits, and provide you with more time for the people and things you cherish most.  I discuss ways to best tackle incorporating these Time Maximizers into your work, how creating boundaries can help you improve your productivity, and what you absolutely must do every day to help you refresh and rest.  I hope you’ll enjoy my episode on Time Maximizers and encourage you to make the effort to incorporate them into your routines. Now let’s get to the straight talk!  What You’ll Discover In This Episode:  My 12 Time Maximizers To Increase Your Productivity  What You’re Doing That Could Be Sabotaging Your Productivity  How To Best Deal With Interruptions And Distractions  Quick Tips To Keep Your Productivity On Point  So Much More!  Important Resources & Links From This Episode: Conquer Your Task List Today  How to Conquer Your Day Using The 5 Daily Planning Pavers  How To Get Sh!t Done: Time Blocking Strategies That Work  The Art of Multitasking: Friend or Foe?  Gimme A Break! Who Has The Time? 

In this episode, I introduce a strategy I use every week like clockwork to clear my task list so I can have more focused time to invest in my highest value activities. I dive deep into how you can keep low-value tasks from inundating you and running your week, discuss the immediate, positive effects of completing your weekly Rapid Fire Power Hour, and walk through the three questions to ask to determine which tasks should be completed during your Power Hour. I hope you enjoy my episode on Power Hours and encourage you to start scheduling your own on a weekly basis. Now let’s get to the straight talk! What You’ll Discover In This Episode: The Best Way To Knock Off Tiny Tasks And Gain Momentum In Your Work How Repurposing Just One Hour A Week Can Diminish The Monday Blues A Sure Fire Strategy To Minimize Distractions So You Can Be Ready To Tackle Anything So Much More! Important Resources & Links From This Episode: Get Back On Track With A Rapid Fire Power Hour

Book 3, Part L, Chapter 138: Adaptation-Executers, Not Fitness-Maximizers "Rationality: From AI to Zombies" by Eliezer Yudkowsky Independent audio book project by Walter and James http://from-ai-to-zombies.eu Original source entry: http://lesswrong.com/lw/l0/adaptationexecuters_not_fitnessmaximizers/ The complete book is available at MIRI for pay-what-you-want: https://intelligence.org/rationality-ai-zombies/ Source and podcast licensed CC-BY-NC-SA, full text here: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ Intro/Outro Music by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com, licensed CC-BY: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100708

Maximizers have and bring to others a focus on quality. They naturally prefer working with and for the best. They create strengths within groups by enabling each person to do what he or she naturally does best. Their drive toward excellence can lead to a new standard of success. Those who have high Maximizer have a strong orientation toward and commitment to excellence that leads to quality outcomes. The inner compass of these individuals continually points to quality and a desire for quality in all areas of life.Maximizer falls under the Influencing domain and inhabits roughly 17% of all individuals’ top five strengths. The Strategic and Achiever themes are most likely to be paired with Maximizer, while Restorative is the least likely theme to be found in the same top five as Maximizer. Those with Restorative fix things that are broken, but Maximizers tend to take things that are good and make them great.Theme Thursday is a Gallup Webcast series that dives deep into the CliftonStrengths Themes, one at a time. https://www.gallupstrengthscenter.com/home/en-us?utm_source=youtube

Maximizers have and bring to others a focus on quality. They naturally prefer working with and for the best. They create strengths within groups by enabling each person to do what he or she naturally does best. Their drive toward excellence can lead to a new standard of success. Those who have high Maximizer have a strong orientation toward and commitment to excellence that leads to quality outcomes. The inner compass of these individuals continually points to quality and a desire for quality in all areas of life.Maximizer falls under the Influencing domain and inhabits roughly 17% of all individuals’ top five strengths. The Strategic and Achiever themes are most likely to be paired with Maximizer, while Restorative is the least likely theme to be found in the same top five as Maximizer. Those with Restorative fix things that are broken, but Maximizers tend to take things that are good and make them great.Theme Thursday is a Gallup Webcast series that dives deep into the CliftonStrengths Themes, one at a time. https://www.gallupstrengthscenter.com/home/en-us?utm_source=youtube

Book III: The Machine in the Ghost - Part L: The Simple Math of Evolution - Adaptation-Executers, Not Fitness-Maximizers

When to use intuition to your advantage...and how a magic 8-ball can help! Listen to the show and hear the summary.