A good retail one: don't say "sorry for your wait." Say "thank you for waiting" or "thank you for being so patient".

Something to do with... it makes people feel good about themselves if they think they've done something for you, which in turn makes them more likely to keep being patient.

Another fun trick I learned in sales is that if you're trying to get someone to purchase something, instead of having them focus on whether or not they should get something, change their question to something else.

For example, I used to sell phones. Instead of having people try to figure out if they want the newest Samsung or not, I would take the phone in two different colors and ask if they liked it in blue or black instead. Putting it in their hands let's them imagine having the phone already and the question changes from should I purchase this phone to what color do I want?

I'm quite sure this can translate to other questions and decisions people ask themselves

Be kind and use people's names. Also, just asking for stuff.

You'd be amazed how far it will take you just to ask for something, using a person's name, and being kind about it. Demand something and people will be reluctant to give you a thing.

In an argument, never use "you". No accusations. Keep a calm, relaxed tone of voice. Even if they don't concede, they will eventually apologize and reconsider their position, but it may take a while after the conversation ended.

~~"I told you you shouldn't have bought that."~~

"I didn't think that purchase was necessary."

~~"You upset me."~~

"I was made to feel upset."

I can get people to tell me their life story and trauma within 10 minutes of meeting them.

Someone tell me what psychology trick I'm doing so I can stop doing it!!!!

When in an argument, wait for the other person to stop talking then maintain eye contact and say nothing. They'll feel the need to fill the void and keep talking after a few seconds, but this move throws them off balance and helps calm them down. Also works great with angry customers at retail jobs.

Also, when you suspect someone is lying to you. After the silence, they'll often try to cover up the lie because they suspect you've figured them out.

Taking a walk every day helps improve the mood on my dopamine deprived brain.

Sometimes the person you really need to trick with psychology is yourself.

The power of "yes, and ..."

Basically when you are being accused of something, or need to shift how someone is perceiving you, instead of saying "yes, but ..." You should try 'yes, and..."

Not only does it take the attention away from the negative, but it's helping in building up new ideas.

People just want to be accepted and loved. Use this knowledge to get almost anyone to do what you want.

Observe their body language. Do they cross their arms a lot? How much eye contact do they make? Do they shift around when talking? Do their eyes dart around the room?

All these are clues about their personality and disposition and you can tailor your communication to them depending on how receptive they are. Do they laugh easily? What makes them laugh? Do they talk a lot? Do they talk about themselves?

Finding out to what degree of extrovert/introvert they are can go a long way into successfully manipulating anyone around you to do what you want.

It’s how I’ve made friends and how I’ve dated women with variable rates of success.

Allowing yourself to be wrong. Especially as a male.

Instead of trying to figure out a way to still kind of be correct, you just objectively reconsider the facts.

It made me a better adult. I prefixed a lot of my statements with "I think" or "I believe" to emphasis the possibility for me to be wrong. And I'm more inclined to ask questions. (Which sadly gets a lot of people riled up because they have a hard time believing I'm not doing it sarcastically.)

There are online discussion groups set up on a Bluesky feed, Reddit, and the #AK2025 tag on Mastodon.

Every day I will provide a chapter summary, reading statistics, and discussion prompt(s).

#AK2025 📚💙
/2

AK has 8 parts. I live in Portland, OR. If we get enough local folks participating, we could meet up to 8 times throughout the year in-person. If you are interested, please take this survey: bit.ly/AK2025PDX. As the spreadsheet will contain email addresses, I will delete it at EOY 2025.

/3 📚💙 💃🚂 #AK2025

AK2025 PDX In-person meetup interest

I'm interested if we do an in-person meetup at the end of one or more parts of Anna Karenina, no more than 8 times in 2025. I will use his email address to send you a poll to determine a good day and choose a location.

^{Google Docs}

Finding sports that have significant overlap.

Someone who is good at the 100m will likely also be good at the 4x100m relay.

Other than obvious physical traits:

Power of observation. Accurately seeing the game(s) and your opponents lets you anticipate, which is basically partially seeing the future and it of course is incredibly powerful.

Analytical mind: observing is the first part, then analysis to understand how or why you can take different approaches to win, attack, defend, etc. is part two. There are almost always another level of analysis to be done.

Curiosity: most people plateau physically long before they're mental capacity in a sport is exhausted, but even at the pro level you still see many athletes that once they've made their paycheck or won x, they coast or stop developing. True multi-sport athletes are curious and diversely talented and this drive to understand helps them not just be satisfied with a single focus or sport.