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Rohit Kapoor, An introvert who taught himself to be socially adept

16.5k Views • Upvoted by Veijay Jain

Rohit is a Most Viewed Writer in Communication.

What good is a hack if it’s too hard to apply it. Remember it’s much more useful to have 5 tools that you are really skilled with than 500 tools that you don’t really know how to use.

There are countless books, online articles on our psychological biases and how they impact us. Instead of paraphrasing all that, I will give out a few links for those interested in the end.

I assume that you really want to know what can I start doing easily today which will have demonstrable impact in social interactions.
With that in mind, here are 5 easy things that have worked for me. I give out 5 instead of one since some of you might already be using few of these tools.

1. Eye contact: The eyes are the most expressive parts of our body. Anyone who really learns to master the currency of eye contact will have an upper edge in most interactions.
To illustrate, you can do a number of things with it:

Look people in the eyes to appear confident and honest.
Smile with your eyes to appear charismatic and friendly. (Go to a mirror and notice how your eyes look when you smile. Try to have maintain that look in the eye)
Wink and flirt with eyes to flirt confidently.
Use eye contact as a way to direct the conversation in a group setting. One simple rule is that in a group, the person getting the most eye contact becomes the leader. You can twist it the other way around too. One way to wrestle control back is to refuse to look at the speaker who has an opposing view to yours. When he/she talks, look directly at someone else next to him but not at him. When you talk, look at everyone in the eye with a passing glaze. This can work even in a 2 person situation if you want to dominate. Look at the other person in the eye when you speak but look them in the face when they speak. (It’s a bit subtle and mean but hopefully you are not an ass to use it with your girlfriend).

2. Speech: If you can simply pause for a second before responding to someone’s question, you would automatically come off as more confident and even a better listener.
Notice that we all have a tendency to blurt out a response immediately to everything said. Look at any of the great public figures or just the learned & mature people, they take a pause to consider the real implication of the question and then answer. They assume that what they will say is important and hence you can wait. Similarly, what you asked is important and hence they can take a brief pause to let it absorb before they roll stuff out. This happens automatically among lovers too. All intimate conversations are punctuated by more pauses.
The key when you are hacking this is to not fidget or give other bad body language in that pause. Stay confident, pause and then respond. Try the exercise and see it’s benefits.

3. Posture: There are books written on body language but if you can simply learn to maintain good posture throughout the day it will have obvious impact.
Start by simply keeping your spine erect when you sit or stand. Given our addiction to plush couches and leaning against the walls, if you can master this, it immediately sets you apart in a crowd. For inspiration, consider how would MLK look if he had given the speech with one leg against the wall or on the podium.

4. Mirroring : This is an advanced technique from NLP which involves a lot of subtleties. If done wrong, this is the best way to come across as a total poser or manipulator. Hence, heed it with caution.
You can start by copying people’s most significant body language cue with a lag of about 5-10 seconds. Gradually lower the lag as you see rapport building. Back off & increase the delays if you notice that the other person is changing his posture too frequently – it’s usually a sign that either consciously or unconsciously they know you are trying some trick.
There are a lot more details around words, tonality etc but remember, one trick mastered is better than 100 tricks half developed.

5. Awareness: This comes from a slightly more meditative background and is essentially the fundamental to everything. Life is essentially your awareness of what’s happening through your senses, mental chatter & body sensations. If you can learn to be more aware in any given situation, it has immediate benefits. Unfortunately, it’s not a hack but a principle.
You are already aware of a number of hacks or training wheels such as noticing one’s breath periodically during the day or chanting a mantra and so on.

And if you are curious for a lot more:
List of cognitive biases
23 Psychological Life Hacks You Need To Know. #13 Is Just Evil.
The 12 Psychological Tricks You Can Use to Improve Your Productivity

https://blog.udemy.com/psycholog…

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T. Mahashweta Raina, Learner . Believer

18.3k Views

– Men are more attracted to women who possess a bone structure that resembles that of their mothers. This is known as “sexual imprinting”; which is a term coined by researchers.

– When two people who love each other look into each other’s eyes, then their heart rates synchronize with each other. Studies have shown that couples who are in love are so bonded that after three minutes of looking into each other’s eyes, their heart rates will synch up with each other.

– If time is on your side, then you might be more likely to find love than if it were not. Timing significantly influences love, and individuals are more likely to fall in love when they are in a mindset of looking for adventure, wanting to leave home, lonely, in a foreign country, gravitating into a new stage of life, or financially and psychologically ready to share themselves or start a family.

– Research has shown that if a man meets a woman while in a dangerous situation, or if a woman meets a man in a dangerous situation, they are more likely to fall in love with each other than if they were to meet in a mundane setting.

– If you get dumped, or were a dumper; be careful. Being dumped could lead to “frustration attraction”. Frustration attraction only means that the individual who was dumped will love and lust the person who dumped them even more.

– Be careful who you look at, because if you look into a stranger’s eyes, you can fall in love. Our eyes are the windows to our souls, so it comes as no surprise that by simply looking at someone, even if you do not know them, you can fall for them. By gazing or looking at someone, your body will produce phenylethylamine, a chemical that is associated with the body’s fight-or-flight response.

– If you love cuddling, then you will be happy to know that cuddling is known to release natural painkillers. When two people embrace or cuddle, their brains release oxytocin, which is a cuddle hormone. Oxytocin appears in a person’s brain, and their ovaries and testicles are also involved in this bonding process. Oxytocin helps to decrease headaches and can help pain go away for up to 4 hours. So if you are feeling tired, stressed, or in pain – cuddling is a great alternative to any painkillers.

Written 10 Sep • View Upvotes

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Curtis Blackmore, Entrepreneur, Reader, Traveler, Creator.

2.8k Views

A few effective psychological tricks that I try to apply to my daily life are:

Visualization
I look at myself in the mirror each morning and visualize myself as a confident, successful, attractive, and valuable/helpful individual.

I go over key traits mentally each day, the traits that I wish to improve upon the most.

I’ve tried and tested this trick several times in different form before basketball games as well, and it seems to be quite effective. (I visualize for 15 minutes going through each drill in my head, going over the proper balance, form, and techniques. Shooting, rebounding, passing, ect.. I go over everything.) It definitely seems to have a noticeable impact.

Cold Shower
Starting the day with a cold shower not only gives you a nice boost of energy, It’s a great way to face one uncomfortable situation before the day even starts, and it influences the rest of the day.

Making Your Bed
This one is so simple you might think it’s stupid, but making your bed first thing in the morning gives you a feeling of accomplishment. It sets the tone for the day.

Meditation
I meditate every night before going to bed. I do it to ease mental and/or physical tension, and to get into the right state of mind before falling asleep. Every time I do this I wake up the next morning feeling calm and at peace. The entire day is better because of it.

There you have it. Four simple psychological tricks that you can easily follow and develop into daily habits.

Alex Mombo, Live life, take notes.

336.9k Views • Upvoted by Veijay Jain • Surekha Ravi • 4 others you follow

Alex is a Most Viewed Writer in Social Psychology.

Want to get people to people to listen to you intensely at a moment’s notice?

Snap your fingers before speaking.

It’s been demonstrated that when people experience an unexpected event, their brain momentarily goes into a state of shock that lasts less than a second.

A state in which the brain becomes highly influenciable.

Street hypnotists exploit this loop-hole in the human mind to perform all kinds of crazy stuff, it’s called a pattern interrupt.

A pattern interrupt is an action you do that interupts a person’s normal daily pattern.

It’s like what happens when you hear a sudden loud noise, you instantly turn and face the direction from which it is coming, and pay attention to what is happening there.

It’s a survival instinct, and I suggest you only use it to convey important information, nobody likes false alarms. 🙂

EDIT:

Yes, kind of arrogant unless you have a good reason! 🙂

” (snap snap) Hey guys, I think the building is on fire, we better run! ”

This will work to get their attention. And they will love you for it.

” (snap snap) Hey guys, can I say something? ”

Now you’re just being a jerk.

As in all things, use your common sense. 🙂

Updated 23 Oct • View Upvotes

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People with Psychopathic Traits Are Less Likely to ‘Catch’ a Contagious Yawn than Empathetic Folks, Study Finds

Mira Zaslove, Quora Top Writer ’14&’15

60.1k Views • Upvoted by Joseph Wong

Mira is a Most Viewed Writer in Communication.

Want to get some insight into whether that crazy someone is, in fact, a psychopath? Try this quick psychological trick: yawn and see if they yawn back.

Brian Rundle, behavioral scientist at Baylor University, makes the case that contagious yawning is an innate form of empathetic communication. It isn’t just coincidence, or lack of caffeine, when you yawn in a morning meeting when you see your co-worker yawning across the room.

Yawning when others yawn, appears to be linked to a person’s degree of empathy — the ability to understand and connect with the emotional states of others. Contagious yawning turns out to be pretty common, it has even been found in other social species, including chimpanzees and dogs.

However, according to Rundle, some people aren’t as likely to catch a yawn. Those least likely to yawn, when you do? People high in psychopathic personality traits. One reason? They aren’t that empathetic. According to Rundle’s Research: “Psychopathy is characterized by an antisocial lifestyle, including being selfish, manipulative, impulsive, fearless, domineering and, in particular, lacking in empathy.”

Properly diagnosing a psychopath is obviously more complicated than just watching to see if they catch your contagious yawn, but next time you are questioning whether your new boss or new date is as psychopathic as they seem, try this quick psychological trick.

Updated 27 Oct • View Upvotes

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Shraiya Malik, Life is a song, sing it

36.9k Views • Upvoted by Joseph Wong

Originally Answered: What are some useful psychological hacks for every day living?

The phone wallpaper hack

Change the wallpaper of your phone according to your goals.
If you want to study all day, without wasting any time getting distracted by anything or anyone, set the picture of your goal as your wallpaper. Studying for CAT? Set IIM A’s edifice as your wallpaper. Studying for JEE? Set a picture depicting the imminent Mood Indigo fest. Or be really creepy and set your wallpaper as the picture of that cousin/friend/senior who has made it to where you want to be.
Now as you look at your phone, all ready to just check Quora for a minute, you’ll be reminded of your goal and you’ll get to working towards it.

Written 6 Nov 2014 • View Upvotes

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Rick Cormier, I’m a semi-retired psychotherapist, now writing a book on the subject.

39.4k Views • Upvoted by Anita Sanz, psychologist • Tejasvita Apte

Originally Answered: What are some psychological tips and tricks I can use in everyday life?

Always do what you’re afraid to do.

With the exception of clearly dangerous or hurtful things of which you SHOULD be afraid, many people tend to avoid situations which make them anxious. The fact is, we only get anxious about things we really care about. The things and situations that make you nervous can be a road map toward your own happiness. Don’t avoid them. Learn to tolerate your anxiety… take a risk… Your best life is always just beyond your comfort zone.

Here’s one more argument: The fears you avoid get stronger. The fears you confront get weaker while YOU get stronger.

Your choice. You can expand your world or shrink it.

Updated 23 Jun • View Upvotes

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Viknesh Manohar, Forex Department,RBI,Chennai

16.1k Views

The type of music you listen to affects the way you perceive the world….

How many times have we felt that the world is suddendly a much better place to live in after listening to our fav song in our headphones….

Music and mood are closely interrelated — listening to a sad or happy song on the radio can make you feel more sad or happy. However, such mood changes not only affect how you feel, they also change your perception. For example, people will recognize happy faces if they are feeling happy themselves.
A new study by researcher Jacob Jolij and student Maaike Meurs of the Psychology Department of the University of Groningen shows that music has an even more dramatic effect on perception: even if there is nothing to see, people sometimes still see happy faces when they are listening to happy music and sad faces when they are listening to sad music.

Smileys

Jolij and Meurs had their test subjects perform a task in which they had to identify happy and sad smileys while listening to happy or sad music. Music turned out to have a great influence on what the subjects saw: smileys that matched the music were identified much more accurately. And even when no smiley at all was shown, the subjects often thought they recognized a happy smiley when listening to happy music and a sad one when listening to sad music.

Expectation

The latter finding is particularly interesting according to the researchers. Jolij: ‘Seeing things that are not there is the result of top-down processes in the brain. Conscious perception is largely based on these top-down processes: your brain continuously compares the information that comes in through your eyes with what it expects on the basis of what you know about the world. The final result of this comparison process is what we eventually experience as reality. The research results suggest that the brain builds up expectations not just on the basis of experience but on your mood as well.’

Music does something to our perception of the words that are being said as part of the music. Song lyrics have a subjective profundity, meaningfulness and importance. They can seem deeply meaningful. We rarely have these kinds of feelings about other spoken words that we hear (i.e. words unaccompanied by music). What is going on?
What seems to distinguish musical rhythm and melody from normal speech “rhythm” and “melody” are the properties of regularity and discreteness. Musical melody is discrete in that pitch values only have certain values, whereas speech “melody” is largely continuous (with occasional jumps). Musical rhythm is also discrete if we consider which time periods occur between regular beats, which consist of parts of a single note, single notes, parts of a bar and full bars. If we attempt to identify a similar frequency spectrum in speech rhythm, we will find that it is a more continuous spectrum.
The simplest possible explanation of why music has these features is that the criteria for “musicality” (i.e. “perceived significance”) are functions of the degree of discreteness in these and other perceived features of speech. The effect of subjective significance on the speaker’s brain is to “discretize” various aspects of their speech output by a small but detectable amount, and this is what the music perception system in the listener’s brain is responding to. Music exaggerates this discreteness to the maximum extent possible (and to a much greater extent than would ever happen in normal speech) resulting in the maximised perception of “significance” by the listener.

Credits: @Music Alters Visual Perception ,
Why do Song Lyrics Sound Significant and Profound When We Hear Them in Songs?

Written 6 Sep • View Upvotes

Rahul Khanvilkar, Opposite of a party animal

14.9k Views • Upvoted by Joseph Wong

Originally Answered: What are some useful psychological hacks for every day living?

Persuasion techniques you can use everyday:

Door-in-the-face technique (For small favors) : The persuader attempts to convince the respondent to comply by making a large request that the respondent will most likely turn down, much like a metaphorical slamming of a door in the persuader’s face. The respondent is then more likely to agree to a second, more reasonable request, compared to the same reasonable request made in isolation.

Foot-in-the-door technique (For big favors) : The persuader begins with a small request and gradually increases the demands of each request and ends with the initial big favor he wanted. This increases the chances that the respondent will cater to your big favor.

While the FITD technique differs from DITF, it is also a persuasion technique that increases the likelihood a respondent will agree to the second request.

Taken from the wiki page: Door-in-the-face technique.

Please check the wiki page for social experiments conducted for the above techniques.

Written 9 Nov 2014 • View Upvotes

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Nathan Thomas, Edits ExisleEmpowerment.com, writes for Intrepid Times

9.3k Views

Originally Answered: What are some psychological tips and tricks I can use in everyday life?

1: You Don’t Have to Be Happy All the Time

We live in a culture which promotes the idea that happiness is the default state and if you’re not happen for even one instant then something is wrong with you. The fact is where are more complicated than that, and life is more complex too. It’s ok to have other emotions, even to be a bit down sometimes; worrying about it or thinking it’s somehow wrong just makes it worse.

2: Let Fear Motivate you to Take Action;

Learn to see fear as a reason to start, not a reason to stop. Use fear as an indicator of an area in which you can learn and grow. As Rick Cormier said in his earlier answer “The fears you confront get weaker while YOU get stronger.” Couldn’t agree more!

3: Accept Your Problems Before Changing Them

“Accept that this problem exists, even though you don’t want it to. Yes, it shouldn’t be there, yes it’s a problem, yes it’s frustrating, but its reality is not in question. Once you say yes to a problem, then you can be free to deal with it, to treat it, and ultimately to let it go. But while you continue to say no to it, then it continues to have a grip on you. Everything you believe (the ‘is’ of your existence) is ultimately just what you have become attached to.”

From: Self Acceptance – How to Be OK with Being You

4: Realise that Everyone Else Is Just as Confused as You Are.

Many people assume that other people are naturally blessed with more confidence and assurance than they are. We look at others and presume that they were somehow given the roadmap to success at birth, whilst we ourselves have to guess and blunder through. The fact is everyone has moments when they feel like an imposter or doubt themselves. Don’t make it worse by thinking it’s only you. Accept it and move on.

5: Surround Yourself with Evidence of Positivity

To some extent this is wilful delusion, but used carefully it can be very powerful. Our environment feeds into our beliefs, and our beliefs feed into our environment. So if you want to be happier, surround yourself with happy people who will reinforce this perception. If you want to be rich, surround yourself with people who have positive beliefs about wealth and abundance.

6: Focus on Purpose, Not Just Goals

Goals are all very well, but what’s more powerful is the purpose or motivation behind your goals. Look at any particular goal you have, and ask yourself ‘what will that give you.’ Dig deeper and find the core belief / value that is responsible for the goal. Use this purpose to drive and motivate you whenever you need an extra push.

7. New Beliefs, Habits and Attitudes Take Time

Building confidence and self esteem, for example, may not happen overnight. If you want to make psychological changes and improvements, allow it to take time and give it constant work and attention. Just like with physical fitness, treat mental and psychological fitness like growing a muscle.

There are some more resources here:

All the best,
Nathan
Should point out: articles linked to above include links to Exisle Empowerment, which is a blog I edit.

Written 26 Jun • View Upvotes

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Jagdish Sathyadeep, preoccupied.

10k Views

Originally Answered: What are some useful psychological hacks for every day living?

Lucid dreaming

A lucid dream is any dream in which one is aware that one is dreaming. In relation to this phenomenon, Greek philosopher Aristotle observed: “often when one is asleep, there is something in consciousness which declares that what then presents itself is but a dream”. One of the earliest references to personal experiences with lucid dreaming was byMarie-Jean-Léon, Marquis d’Hervey de Saint Denys.

The person most widely acknowledged as having coined the term is Dutch psychiatrist and writer Frederik (Willem) van Eeden (1860–1932).

] In a lucid dream, the dreamer has greater chances to exert some degree of control over their participation within the dream or be able to manipulate their imaginary experiences in the dream environment. Lucid dreams can be realistic and vivid. It is shown that there are higher amounts of beta-1 frequency band (13–19 Hz) experienced by lucid dreamers, hence there is an increased amount of activity in the parietal lobes making lucid dreaming a conscious process.

Written 27 Apr 2014 • View Upvotes

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Rochak Khandelwal, Power of belief !

22.5k Views

Sharing my answer of “What are some clever uses of the placebo effect?”

In 1944, during world war II American forces were trapped in the caves of Pozzoli for over a week and such was the scale of casualties that Doctor Henry Beecher ran out of anaesthetic. Confronted with a wounded soldier needing to operate quickly, he therefore instructed his nurse to administer a saltwater injection instead of morphine. And surprisingly what happened next shook the medical world.
It was found that the soldier was not only comforted by the injection of saltwater; he was able to tolerate the agonies of surgery as well as if he had been injected with ‘real’ anaesthetic. Over the next few week Beecher replicated the result with dozens of wounded soldiers and each of them was able to bear the trauma of surgery with nothing more than saltwater running through their veins.
He later wrote a paper “The Powerful Placebo”.

References:
1. http://jgh.ca/uploads/Psychiatry…
2. “Bounce” by Matthew Syed

Updated 16 Sep • View Upvotes

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Pranjul Gupta, potpourri of thoughts, NITian

17.4k Views

The following hacks will take your threshold of pain to another level:

Take a crocodile pin and do this

Next grab a pair of binoculars and see the mark

Stopped hurting,right? It can also be done with a glass.

It works because your brain thinks that your hand is detached as the image is formed far away. Thus the blood flow to the part stays the same and your brain is tricked.
This is one of the best hacks because it deals with

next time you get an injection,cough at the same time the injection is administered.

This happens because different sensations take different time to reach the brain.

Yellow is cough
Red is syringe
The brain gets involved in the cough and does not feel the pain of the syringe.
3. When you wish to get rid of anxiety, hypertension, elevated heartbeat do this

Plunge your head into ice cold water for 20 secs and voila you are relaxed.
This has to do with vargus nerve in mammals, causing a reflex action on plunging it in cold water which helps use the oxygen you have ,in a more efficient way. The colder the water the lesser it takes for your heart to get relaxed.

4. Obscenities help you. Next time you are in a painful situation vent away your anger and frustration with obscenities it will help you tolerate more pain as was with these people who were tested in ice cold water and stayed longer when they spoke their mind freely for the experimenters who had put them there.
%#^&*$@ your way through pain.

5. This is last but not the least.

next time you have brain freeze stick your tongue to the roof of your mouth it will bring it down quickly.

This provides warmth to your brain and turns down the effect of brain freeze.

P.S. This answer is a total ripoff of the amazing natgeo pain and gain episode of the series you cant lick your elbow. Its awesome; watch it, to learn more tricks and hacks.

Written 17 Jul • View Upvotes • Asked to answer by Shridhar Kurani

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Surendra Sharma, Lawyer

44.2k Views

Originally Answered: What are some psychological tricks that everyone should know?

Arguing and convincing – Arguing with your loved ones and friends never achieves anything. Our emotions often cloud our reasoning when an argument starts. If you really want to convince someone, the best way is first to listen and then show him that you understand his position. After that, rather than saying you are wrong, begin your sentences with gentler words. Instead of showing your intellectual prowess and “your” opinion or view try to show them the “alternative” view. This way the mind forgets the confrontation with the other mind and is back on line of reason.

Bargaining- If you are ever held up in any bargaining, rather than quoting a middle price directly, always start from the extreme and then work towards the middle/agreeable price. The reason behind is that mind is receptive to reciprocity. For example- suppose the price of a jeans you are willing to pay is Rs. 2000 and the tag shows Rs. 5000. If you tell the shopkeeper that you won’t pay more than Rs. 2000 then probably he won’t reply and may even think you are rude. So you should say like “Hey, would you take around Rs. 1500 for this jeans?”. He’ll respond by making a counteroffer against which you can again make a counteroffer and settle for a price near to the price you initially wished for.

Giving words of wisdom- Never try to enlighten a person who is in distress! If your friend has a problem and shares it with you and you think that it is his fault or the correct way needs to be shown to him then do not show his faults immediately. When mind is filled with deep emotions or fears, it fails to grasp reason. Listen to him initially, comfort him, let his sadness fade a little and then after a day or two tell your honest opinion.

Being Late- Firstly, you should never be late. However, if you happen to be late for something like being in office, always tell the truth and give a larger period of delay in arrival. Like, hey boss, i overslept and will be late by two hours. Reach office within one hour. Your boss will probably take notice that although you were late, you tried your best to minimize the delay.

Favors- This can brand you as a manipulative person. This trick ought not to be used and I know it hinges on being immoral. If you have done a favor to someone and you are a kind of person who believes in mutual benefits in favors then if possible do not delay in asking the favor from the other person. Most of people forget the favors we do to them. I am of course not talking about friends and family.
If you are looking to take a favor from other person, then do a thing that you were obliged to do in a manner that the other person thinks you did a favor to him. Then ask for favor soon thereafter. Use with extreme caution!

Written 3 Oct 2014 • View Upvotes

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James Altucher, Blogger, author, social media, investor, wall street investor

427.2k Views • Upvoted by Praveen Dwivedi • Anjali Maniar • 6 others you follow

James is a Most Viewed Writer in Life Advice.

10 LIFE-HACKS, 10 LIFE-HABITS, 10 META-HABITSImagine a piece of meat. Put some bones underneath it, cover the bones with muscles and nerves and skin.

Put on two pairs of eyes and a mouth (but not too big a mouth, those are annoying). Take a huge needle and inject life into it.

It’s going to hurt at first. But that’s what needles are for.

This is what our robot masters did when they began what they call “The Great Experiment” and created us.

“What if they find out,” they said to each other.

“Don’t worry,” said the chief scientist who then laughed to himself. “They are so deluded, that each one of them thinks they are important and have a purpose in life.

“They are just a bunch of skin jobs”.

Much later, one of the robot masters, Ridley Scott, used that same phrase in the movie “Bladerunner”.

—
Then they give us the ability to make other little “tubbies”. I like calling little things “tubbies”.

When I first had a new little tubby around I thought she was very annoying.
She was like a new roommate that would cry and not speak English and want food all the time and vomit on me.

If she really were a roommate, I would have asked her to not even worry about next month’s rent. “You just threw up on me and tried to suck my wife’s breasts. Please get the hell out of here.”

But that’s wishful thinking. She can’t even understand English.

Kids are not life hacks. They are life attacks. But we can’t avoid them. I don’t know why. They happen.

—
As soon as we hit the ground, we want tricks. We want money and sex as quickly as possible. And maybe fame.

There are “life-hacks” – things that you can do today to improve your life tomorrow. These work for awhile but then you get tired of them.

Then there are “habits” – things you can start today that will improve your life 10 years from now.

Habits are difficult though. Because if you are only improving a tiny bit each day you won’t notice them. You’ll think nothing is happening. So you’ll stop.
I hate habits. It’s so hard to remember to do them.

So you need “meta-habits” to keep reminding yourself to do the habits.

Advice is autobiography. And even though I mostly fail in life, here are 10 life-hacks I try. 10 habits. 10 meta-habits.

I’ve written about some of these before. Who can resist writing about life-hacks involving $2 bills. But I will be more concise and not always explain the reasoning. Just trust me that they work.

If you’ve seen these before, please skip. I don’t want to bore you. If you haven’t seen them before, you can figure out why these life-hacks work. Put them in the comments and I’ll respond.

LIFEHACKS

1. Carry $2 bills with you everywhere. Tip with them. Nobody forgets a person who tips with $2 bills. You can order $2 bills at your bank.

… (more)

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Angie Neik, using life hacks in my life for longer than 2 decades now

58.7k Views • Upvoted by Ashok Banga • Suyash Manjul • 1 other you follow

No tricks but a lot of hacks useful to know

develop good vocabulary, it’s sexy to be able to communicate well
humble yourself when you smell a chance to boast and leave others in the dust. The temptation is not worth it
dress the best you can, that doesn’t mean an Italian Suit, it means ironed slacks, shined shoes. People will remember you.
If you wear wrinkled shirt and muddy shoes people will remember that too. Be careful
learn basics of body language
develop your own style in all you do. Plagiarism is so last century!
help those in need, the young and the elderly. You never know who sees you being benevolent
do good out of your heart. If that’s not the leading source then you are faking it. 1.Who needs that? 2. People can see right through you, save yourself the embarrassment.
As Yoda said “Do or do not”. Hell is wallpapered with good intentions.
be true to your word, it’s your brand. Don’t destroy with one lie/broken promise what took you all life to build.
regaining trust is way more difficult than gaining it in the first place
study some Martial arts, it will teach you respect, responsibility, honor, and how to save your own behind in case you need it

Written 29 Oct • View Upvotes • Asked to answer by Vijesh Nair

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Priy Vrat, Learner, Thinker, Debater and kind of Philosopher

4.4k Views

A long kept secret of mine, sharing which might startle some people 😛, but reading through some other answers, made me thought that I should share it. People who know me well, will understand anyway.

Popular saying is – “Give respect, Gain respect”
Mine is –
” Give respect – make people proud of themselves – Gain respect.”

I try it often and has always worked for me. Read through.

You will be successful in almost all of your interpersonal communications if people/audience/the other person/ students/ clients/ dealers – respect you.

So how to earn that respect, when you are meeting them for the first time – Praise them.
For example-
— After shaking hands you can say – I liked the way you shake hands.
or
— I like the way you dress.
or
— You have a great voice/ speaking skills
or
— This is the best class i ever had (in case of students) or I like the way you conduct yourself
or
— I feel you are doing the right thing
or
— I really like the way you work
or
— I admire your knowledge/skills/ work culture
or
— You are just amazing.
or
— Be awesome as always.

Just praise them whenever and wherever you find a reason to do that –
Even if its not true – you will see – It will eventually become true.

Not only in front of them, but in front of other connected people also.

You have to keep only one thing in mind, that you are praising convincingly, not doing it as flattery. Everyone, how badly he may be perceived by the world, has some good qualities.

Try this and see the world changing around you. People will start praising you.

I’ll share only one incident (though I experienced numerous such incidents)-

As a teacher, I had this naughty teenage student confronting me on the very first day of my class. I know teenagers are always attention-deficit. I praised him for his observation (Though I knew he was trying to grab attention and create nuisance). Then I repeated his name several times during the class when putting across a point or giving examples (Assume X (his name) is driving a car at 60 kmph and so on). After the class I met him in person. Had a chat conversing about his interests, background etc and in the end said, “I really liked your class and you especially. I will try to contribute as much as I can in your endeavor of becoming a great human being.”

I continued praising him. Gradually he was totally changed. He always behaved as the best student and passed with good grades.
I know I was not telling him the truth on the very first day, but eventually it never remained a lie anymore. He become a better human being and is one.

I have used it —

In Interviews, ” I have been to many interviews, but never had such a distinguished panel of Interviewers”, or ” Its great interacting with people like you who have made a name for themselves in (respective field)”.

At Ticket counters and restaurants, ” I really like the way you serve people.”

and at every single place I could.

How it works? –
Underlying assumption is – “Everyone is inherently good, only the circumstances make them otherwise”. That’s how it won’t come out as flattery but respect.

and

” To protect their own perceived image of self-respect, they will always be kind and respectful to you.”

You will never get ‘No’ as an answer for reasonable offers/ demands.

And your efforts result in creating better people, better beings.

Start doing it. And you will be surprised to see the world changing around you!!

What are some of the real life things we should not wait to happen and why?

Posted on నవంబర్ 15, 2015 by Partha

స్పందించండి

Rishabh Jain, MIT PhD, Co-founder/CEO OpenLab app, Indian

81.6k Views • Upvoted by Priyanka Peeramsetty • Ganesh Chandra Lakkaraju • 5 others you follow

Rishabh has 10+ answers in Life Advice.

Do Not Wait For Anything.

I recently went to a talk by Jeff Taylor (founder of Monster.com) and at some point in the talk, when talking about ‘luck’ he pulled out a $20 bill and asked the audience ‘who wants this?’

Most people raised their hands, some starting shouting ‘me.’ However, there were 2 people in the audience of 400 that got out of their chairs and ran to the stage to grab the bill.

The guy who grabbed it first got the $20.

Don’t wait for anything – seize opportunities (literally if need be)!

(Note: This actually happened at this talk – was pretty cool!)

Posted 3 weeks ago by Siva Prasad

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Oct

27

How is psychology used to manipulate and influence people in their daily lives?

Laxmi Iyer, Short circuited

85k Views • Upvoted by Nanjundeshwara Nanjappa • Navin Kulkarni • 2 others you follow

Sorry if this has been mentioned earlier.

1. Foot-in-the-door (FITD) technique is a compliance tactic that involves getting a person to agree to a large request by first setting them up by having that person agree to a modest request.

2. Door-in-the-face (DITF) technique is a compliance method where the persuader attempts to convince the respondent to comply by making a large request that the respondent will most likely turn down, much like a metaphorical slamming of a door in the persuader’s face.

I personally like the second one, works well with parents.

For example:
Situation: My parents are on groom hunting for me, but I have a boyfriend and I want my parents to get convinced for love marriage.
Parents: We found a really nice guy for you, talk to him and see if something works out well.
Me thinking: (Dafuq! How do I handle this pressure! I need to confess about my affair now)
Me: Umm…Mom! Dad! I need to confess something.
Parents: Yeah sure , go ahead
Me: Please don’t get mad at me, I like girls, I don’t like guys.
Parents: What!!! Are you out of your mind?
Me: I know, but I can’t help it. It’s hormones, you see 😦
Me: But….Apart from girls, there’s this one guy I like, my friend XYZ, remember I used to keep talking about him. I like that guy. I don’t mind having him as my partner if you are fine with him.
Parents: Hmm…may be we can think about this, but for God’s sake don’t keep announcing to people that you like girls!
Me (Yeayy finally I confessed!): Ok 🙂

This was just a funny thought that came to my mind. I am not against girls who like girls. This situation did not happen for real. May be if such situation comes up, then I shall apply this technique 😀
Please don’t get offended and write hate comments down there, I’ll cry! 😦
Just Kidding…Please share your thoughts. I won’t cry 😀

Posted 3 weeks ago by Siva Prasad

What psychological tricks and hacks are useful to know?

Posted on నవంబర్ 15, 2015 by Partha

స్పందించండి

Christian Bonilla, Software designer; Author; Successful Career switch in my 20s

105k Views • Upvoted by Joseph Wong • Manoj Memana Jayakumar

Answer featured in Inc and 1 more.

Christian is a Most Viewed Writer in People Skills.

I have two great psychological tricks for projecting yourself as a leader no matter your experience or age:

1) If You Want to Be a Leader, Never Act Surprised

Presentation matters. So does poise. Be the steady hand people crave in a crisis, and your stock in any organization will soar.

2) Know When to Share versus Hold onto Information

If the following conditions are met, it may be better to hold off explaining a new problem to your manager:

The situation does not require immediate intervention (i.e. no laws broken, no lives at risk, no bank accounts being drained, etc.)
You’re waiting on additional information that will make the scope of the issue clear
You control the flow of information, and your audience won’t learn about the issue from other sources
It’s possible that the situation can be fixed soon, allowing you to communicate both the problem and solution together
You suspect there may be related problems lurking that should be disclosed together

I also recommend reading: Want to Be Taken Seriously? Start Communicating Like a Boss

If you found this interesting, I’d invite you to come check out smartlikehow.com

Written 21 Oct • View Upvotes

Rohit Kapoor, An introvert who taught himself to be socially adept

16.5k Views • Upvoted by Veijay Jain

Rohit is a Most Viewed Writer in Communication.

What good is a hack if it’s too hard to apply it. Remember it’s much more useful to have 5 tools that you are really skilled with than 500 tools that you don’t really know how to use.

There are countless books, online articles on our psychological biases and how they impact us. Instead of paraphrasing all that, I will give out a few links for those interested in the end.

Look people in the eyes to appear confident and honest.
Smile with your eyes to appear charismatic and friendly. (Go to a mirror and notice how your eyes look when you smile. Try to have maintain that look in the eye)
Wink and flirt with eyes to flirt confidently.
Use eye contact as a way to direct the conversation in a group setting. One simple rule is that in a group, the person getting the most eye contact becomes the leader. You can twist it the other way around too. One way to wrestle control back is to refuse to look at the speaker who has an opposing view to yours. When he/she talks, look directly at someone else next to him but not at him. When you talk, look at everyone in the eye with a passing glaze. This can work even in a 2 person situation if you want to dominate. Look at the other person in the eye when you speak but look them in the face when they speak. (It’s a bit subtle and mean but hopefully you are not an ass to use it with your girlfriend).

https://blog.udemy.com/psycholog…

Comments2+

T. Mahashweta Raina, Learner . Believer

18.3k Views

– Men are more attracted to women who possess a bone structure that resembles that of their mothers. This is known as “sexual imprinting”; which is a term coined by researchers.

Written 10 Sep • View Upvotes

Comments6+

Curtis Blackmore, Entrepreneur, Reader, Traveler, Creator.

2.8k Views

A few effective psychological tricks that I try to apply to my daily life are:

Visualization
I look at myself in the mirror each morning and visualize myself as a confident, successful, attractive, and valuable/helpful individual.

I go over key traits mentally each day, the traits that I wish to improve upon the most.

Making Your Bed
This one is so simple you might think it’s stupid, but making your bed first thing in the morning gives you a feeling of accomplishment. It sets the tone for the day.

There you have it. Four simple psychological tricks that you can easily follow and develop into daily habits.

Alex Mombo, Live life, take notes.

336.9k Views • Upvoted by Veijay Jain • Surekha Ravi • 4 others you follow

Alex is a Most Viewed Writer in Social Psychology.

Want to get people to people to listen to you intensely at a moment’s notice?

Snap your fingers before speaking.

It’s been demonstrated that when people experience an unexpected event, their brain momentarily goes into a state of shock that lasts less than a second.

A state in which the brain becomes highly influenciable.

Street hypnotists exploit this loop-hole in the human mind to perform all kinds of crazy stuff, it’s called a pattern interrupt.

A pattern interrupt is an action you do that interupts a person’s normal daily pattern.

It’s like what happens when you hear a sudden loud noise, you instantly turn and face the direction from which it is coming, and pay attention to what is happening there.

It’s a survival instinct, and I suggest you only use it to convey important information, nobody likes false alarms. 🙂

EDIT:

Yes, kind of arrogant unless you have a good reason! 🙂

” (snap snap) Hey guys, I think the building is on fire, we better run! ”

This will work to get their attention. And they will love you for it.

” (snap snap) Hey guys, can I say something? ”

Now you’re just being a jerk.

As in all things, use your common sense. 🙂

Updated 23 Oct • View Upvotes

Comments22+

People with Psychopathic Traits Are Less Likely to ‘Catch’ a Contagious Yawn than Empathetic Folks, Study Finds

Mira Zaslove, Quora Top Writer ’14&’15

60.1k Views • Upvoted by Joseph Wong

Mira is a Most Viewed Writer in Communication.

Want to get some insight into whether that crazy someone is, in fact, a psychopath? Try this quick psychological trick: yawn and see if they yawn back.

Updated 27 Oct • View Upvotes

Comments16+

Shraiya Malik, Life is a song, sing it

36.9k Views • Upvoted by Joseph Wong

Originally Answered: What are some useful psychological hacks for every day living?

The phone wallpaper hack

Written 6 Nov 2014 • View Upvotes

Comments7

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Rick Cormier, I’m a semi-retired psychotherapist, now writing a book on the subject.

39.4k Views • Upvoted by Anita Sanz, psychologist • Tejasvita Apte

Originally Answered: What are some psychological tips and tricks I can use in everyday life?

Always do what you’re afraid to do.

Here’s one more argument: The fears you avoid get stronger. The fears you confront get weaker while YOU get stronger.

Your choice. You can expand your world or shrink it.

Updated 23 Jun • View Upvotes

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Viknesh Manohar, Forex Department,RBI,Chennai

16.1k Views

The type of music you listen to affects the way you perceive the world….

How many times have we felt that the world is suddendly a much better place to live in after listening to our fav song in our headphones….

Music and mood are closely interrelated — listening to a sad or happy song on the radio can make you feel more sad or happy. However, such mood changes not only affect how you feel, they also change your perception. For example, people will recognize happy faces if they are feeling happy themselves.
A new study by researcher Jacob Jolij and student Maaike Meurs of the Psychology Department of the University of Groningen shows that music has an even more dramatic effect on perception: even if there is nothing to see, people sometimes still see happy faces when they are listening to happy music and sad faces when they are listening to sad music.

Smileys

Expectation

Credits: @Music Alters Visual Perception ,
Why do Song Lyrics Sound Significant and Profound When We Hear Them in Songs?

Written 6 Sep • View Upvotes

Rahul Khanvilkar, Opposite of a party animal

14.9k Views • Upvoted by Joseph Wong

Originally Answered: What are some useful psychological hacks for every day living?

Persuasion techniques you can use everyday:

While the FITD technique differs from DITF, it is also a persuasion technique that increases the likelihood a respondent will agree to the second request.

Taken from the wiki page: Door-in-the-face technique.

Please check the wiki page for social experiments conducted for the above techniques.

Written 9 Nov 2014 • View Upvotes

Comments2

Nathan Thomas, Edits ExisleEmpowerment.com, writes for Intrepid Times

9.3k Views

Originally Answered: What are some psychological tips and tricks I can use in everyday life?

1: You Don’t Have to Be Happy All the Time

2: Let Fear Motivate you to Take Action;

3: Accept Your Problems Before Changing Them

From: Self Acceptance – How to Be OK with Being You

4: Realise that Everyone Else Is Just as Confused as You Are.

5: Surround Yourself with Evidence of Positivity

6: Focus on Purpose, Not Just Goals

7. New Beliefs, Habits and Attitudes Take Time

There are some more resources here:

All the best,
Nathan
Should point out: articles linked to above include links to Exisle Empowerment, which is a blog I edit.

Written 26 Jun • View Upvotes

Comment1

Jagdish Sathyadeep, preoccupied.

10k Views

Originally Answered: What are some useful psychological hacks for every day living?

Lucid dreaming

The person most widely acknowledged as having coined the term is Dutch psychiatrist and writer Frederik (Willem) van Eeden (1860–1932).

Written 27 Apr 2014 • View Upvotes

Comments5+

Rochak Khandelwal, Power of belief !

22.5k Views

Sharing my answer of “What are some clever uses of the placebo effect?”

References:
1. http://jgh.ca/uploads/Psychiatry…
2. “Bounce” by Matthew Syed

Updated 16 Sep • View Upvotes

Comments1+

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Pranjul Gupta, potpourri of thoughts, NITian

17.4k Views

The following hacks will take your threshold of pain to another level:

Take a crocodile pin and do this

Next grab a pair of binoculars and see the mark

Stopped hurting,right? It can also be done with a glass.

It works because your brain thinks that your hand is detached as the image is formed far away. Thus the blood flow to the part stays the same and your brain is tricked.
This is one of the best hacks because it deals with

next time you get an injection,cough at the same time the injection is administered.

This happens because different sensations take different time to reach the brain.

Yellow is cough
Red is syringe
The brain gets involved in the cough and does not feel the pain of the syringe.
3. When you wish to get rid of anxiety, hypertension, elevated heartbeat do this

5. This is last but not the least.

next time you have brain freeze stick your tongue to the roof of your mouth it will bring it down quickly.

This provides warmth to your brain and turns down the effect of brain freeze.

P.S. This answer is a total ripoff of the amazing natgeo pain and gain episode of the series you cant lick your elbow. Its awesome; watch it, to learn more tricks and hacks.

Written 17 Jul • View Upvotes • Asked to answer by Shridhar Kurani

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Surendra Sharma, Lawyer

44.2k Views

Originally Answered: What are some psychological tricks that everyone should know?

Written 3 Oct 2014 • View Upvotes