Cognitive Bias: Deep Dive

Twenty learning modules that map the shortcuts, distortions, and blind spots baked into human cognition. Understand the biases before they understand you.

Foundations5 modules
01Available
What Are Cognitive Biases?
Systematic patterns of deviation from rational judgment. Your brain uses mental shortcuts to process information quickly, but these shortcuts sometimes lead to predictable errors.
02Available
The Heuristics Framework
Three key heuristics identified by Kahneman and Tversky: availability, representativeness, and anchoring. The foundational shortcuts behind most biases.
03Available
System 1 vs System 2
Daniel Kahneman's dual-process theory: System 1 is fast, automatic, and intuitive; System 2 is slow, deliberate, and analytical.
04Available
Why Biases Exist
Evolutionary perspective: biases are not bugs, they are features. In ancestral environments, fast but imperfect decisions were better than slow but perfect ones.
05Available
The Bias Blind Spot
We see biases in others far more easily than in ourselves. Even learning about biases does not make you immune. This is the meta-bias.
Judgment & Probability5 modules
06Available
Anchoring Effect
The first number you encounter disproportionately influences your estimate. Judges give different sentences depending on a random number they saw beforehand.
07Available
Availability Heuristic
We judge the probability of events by how easily examples come to mind. Plane crashes feel more likely than car accidents because they are more memorable.
08Available
Confirmation Bias
We seek, interpret, and remember information that confirms our existing beliefs. Once you have a theory, everything looks like evidence for it.
09Available
Dunning-Kruger Effect
Low-skilled individuals overestimate their competence, while high-skilled individuals underestimate theirs. The less you know, the less you know about what you do not know.
10Available
Framing Effect
The same information presented differently leads to different decisions. '90% survival rate' feels very different from '10% mortality rate.'
Social & Self5 modules
11Available
Bandwagon Effect
We adopt beliefs and behaviors because others do. Social proof is powerful: if everyone else is doing it, it must be right.
12Available
Halo Effect
Our overall impression of a person influences how we evaluate their specific traits. Attractive people are assumed to be smarter and more competent.
13Available
Self-Serving Bias
We attribute successes to our character and failures to external factors. Won the game? Skill. Lost? Bad luck, unfair referee.
14Available
Fundamental Attribution Error
We overemphasize personality and underemphasize situational factors when explaining others' behavior.
15Available
Sunk Cost Fallacy
We continue investing in something because of previously invested resources, even when it is no longer rational.
Resistance & Repair5 modules
16Available
Hindsight Bias
After an event occurs, we feel we 'knew it all along.' This makes it hard to learn from mistakes because we rewrite history.
17Available
Optimism Bias
We systematically overestimate the probability of positive events and underestimate negative ones. Every startup founder thinks they will beat the odds.
18Available
Status Quo Bias
We prefer the current state of affairs. Change feels risky even when the current situation is objectively worse.
19Available
Debiasing Strategies
Consider the opposite, use base rates, seek disconfirming evidence, slow down, use checklists, and get outside perspectives.
20Available
Building a Bias-Aware Practice
Creating habits and systems that catch biases before they affect important decisions. Decision journals, pre-mortems, and red teams.