The library

    What is actually known about why people and companies do what they do, each entry graded honestly. Some hold up. Some are argued over. Some are famous and false. Every one names its source, and the shelf grows every week.

    Famous, but false

    The 10,000 hour rulefamous, but falseThe Hawthorne effectfamous, but falseThe Maslow pyramidfamous, but falseThe Mehrabian mythfamous, but falseThe Stanford prison experimentfamous, but false

    Real, but debated

    A&W's third pound burgerdebatedAffective forecastingdebatedAlgorithmic monoculture in hiringdebatedAttention residuedebatedBrooks's lawdebatedEasy money, the bead tradedebatedField and Binet: the 60/40 ruledebatedHeidi versus HowarddebatedJazz improvisation in the fMRI scannerdebatedListerine, the asset was already in the buildingdebatedLoss aversiondebatedMotivation crowding out, the blood donor studydebatedObliquitydebatedOmission biasdebatedParkinson's law, the one that is not about deadlinesdebatedPeter Thiel's contrarian questiondebatedReciprocity, the chocolate studydebatedRory Sutherland: the opposite of a good ideadebatedSchlitz, saying what everyone doesdebatedSolomon's paradoxdebatedThe Abilene paradoxdebatedThe Cincinnatus patterndebatedThe framing effectdebatedThe jam study and choice overloaddebatedThe Jevons paradoxdebatedThe Lindy effectdebatedThe marshmallow testdebatedThe minority ruledebatedThe ostrich effectdebatedThe Peltzman effectdebatedThe Peter PrincipledebatedThe Pygmalion effectdebatedThe Shirky PrincipledebatedThe winner's cursedebatedThin-slice judgmentdebated

    Holds up

    Adam Smith's pin factoryholds upAntifragility and the Shackleton caseholds upApollo 13 and improvisation under constraintholds upAvis, the strength in admitting weaknessholds upBerkson paradoxholds upByron Sharp: penetration beats loyaltyholds upCharisma is learnable, and misleadingholds upChesterton's fenceholds upCialdini's liking principleholds upConfirmation bias in evaluationholds upConway's lawholds upCulture fit as class signalingholds upDefensive decision-makingholds upDiamond Shreddies, the frame is the valueholds upDo failed founders do better next timeholds upDouble jeopardyholds upEverest 1996, does it get saidholds upGoodhart's law: rewarded metrics get gamedholds upHaidt's elephant and riderholds upHindsight biasholds upHoover's free flights, 1992holds upImplementation intentionsholds upInformation cascadesholds upInterview anxiety corrupts the signalholds upKahneman and Klein: when expert intuition worksholds upKennedy's ExComm and the Cuban missile crisisholds upLittle's Lawholds upMoral hazardholds upNatural frequenciesholds upNegativity biasholds upNormalization of devianceholds upNorman doors, blame the designholds upOgilvy and the Rolls-Royce electric clockholds upOutcome biasholds upParkinson's law of trivialityholds upRegression to the meanholds upSimpson's paradoxholds upSkin in the game, Hammurabi's codeholds upSolow's productivity paradoxholds upSony and the silo effectholds upSpence's signaling theoryholds upStack ranking and the Microsoft collapseholds upSubutai and the Mongol meritocracyholds upSurvivorship biasholds upTacit knowledge, the articulation trapholds upTetlock and the limits of expert predictionholds upThe anchoring effectholds upThe Asch conformity experimentsholds upThe Barnum effectholds upThe Chinese imperial examinationsholds upThe cold start problemholds upThe curse of knowledgeholds upThe decoy effectholds upThe default effect: opt in versus opt outholds upThe endowment effectholds upThe fundamental attribution errorholds upThe good face, Moneyballholds upThe halo effectholds upThe hot-cold empathy gapholds upThe IKEA effectholds upThe law of small numbersholds upThe lemons problemholds upThe Matthew Effectholds upThe McNamara fallacyholds upThe mere exposure effectholds upThe music lab, success is partly luckholds upThe peak-end ruleholds upThe planning fallacyholds upThe pratfall effectholds upThe replication crisisholds upThe Ringelmann effect, the hidden tax on team sizeholds upThe Roman cursus honorumholds upThe strength of weak tiesholds upThe sunk cost fallacyholds upThe Venetian Arsenaleholds upThe wisdom of crowdsholds upThe Wright brothers and Langleyholds upTournament theory, the prize is for everyone elseholds upVia negativa, subtraction beats additionholds upWhat actually predicts job performanceholds up