Quotes About Behavior

You can change only what people know, not what they do.

I]t isn't the considered judgments of hindsight, but actions actually taken that show the true character of a person.

we are always performing. Any time you open your mouth and expect someone to listen, you are behaving differently than you would if you were alone. Admitting this doesn't make you a phony — it makes you honest. We are social creatures and behave differently to fit into different social situations.

Either we don't read the things we claim we do, or we read them with incompetence, preventing ideas in the book from changing our behavior.

No matter how many golden lectures a leader gives imploring people to "Be collaborative" or "Work as a team," if the people hired have destructive habits, the lecture will lose.

Technology does have an impact on behavior, but culture comes first.

self-knowledge. You can't be productive as a creator if you're not paying attention to your own behavior and cultivating the unique wonder in this universe that is you.

forcing function is anything that — when put in place — naturally forces a change in perspective, attitude, or behavior. So, schedules are important forcing functions for projects.

safeguards don't make you safe; they make you lazy. People drive faster, not more slowly, in cars with antilock brakes. American football players take more risks, not fewer, because of their padding.

In an optimization-based model, preferences or payoffs are fundamental. In a rule-based model, the behavior is fundamental. Behavioral rules can be fixed or adapt.

When behavior is socially influenced, extreme actions can create spillovers. This occurs when political activists energize voters. We will encounter this effect of diversity when we model riots.

Actions may be outside our control. Few people choose to be addicted to opioids or to be poor. Yet people take actions that produce those outcomes.

We do not get to choose all of the opportunities that come our way. We do not get to choose our entire path. But we do get to choose what to do with setbacks and opportunities that come our way. We do get to choose how we behave as we wait to know what is coming next. We do get to decide that no matter what happens, we will be ready. Are you willing to have a good attitude even when things aren't going your way? This is the attitude of a winner.

Ha! Yes. When anyone tells you habits die hard, Locke, they're lying—it seems they never die at all.

Manners that would keep you starving are no manners worth respecting.

I can be very loud, when I'm being stupid.

Sorcery's impressive enough, but it's their fucking attitude that makes them such a pain.

I assure you that in all matters of discretion not involving food, we make etiquette tutors look like slobbering barbarians.

I've still got my hands full training those giggling idiots out of every bad habit they picked up from you and replacing them with the bad habits I need.

For example, if the two of you tend to escalate when you try to talk about issues, you need to master some form of Time Out. Likewise, if you want to communicate more effectively, you need to practice using the Speaker-Listener Technique until the underlying principles become second nature. You cannot wish the negative patterns away. You have to drive them away by replacing them with new behaviors and attitudes.

Psychopaths are immune to contagious yawning and are less likely to be startled.

In a study conducted by the Bay State Medical Center in Springfield, approximately 68% of people experience phantom vibrations syndrome, a sensory hallucination where you mistakenly think your phone is buzzing in your pocket.

I remember my mom saying to me that what your friends do is one thing, but what you do could be on the front page of the paper.

Today, evolutionary psychologists say Watson misinterpreted his Little Albert experiment: the real reason Albert developed such a profound phobia of rats was not because behavioral conditioning is so intrinsically potent but because the human brain has a natural—and evolutionarily adaptive—predisposition to fear small furry things on the basis of the diseases they carry. (I explore this at greater length in chapter 9.)