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1.4. The Social Default

Doing something different means you might underperform, but it also means you might change the game entirely. If you do what everyone else does, you’ll get the same result that everyone else gets. Best practices aren’t always the best. By definition they’re average.

If you don’t know enough about what you’re doing to make your own decisions, you probably should do what everyone is doing. If you want better-than-average results, though, you’ll have to think clearly and thinking clearly is thinking independently. Sometimes you have to break free of the social default and do something differently from those around you. Fair warning: it’s going to get uncomfortable.