The availability heuristic is why one vivid story beats a year of clean data — your brain mistakes how easily something comes to mind for how often it’s actually true.
This is 1 of 52 biases in my book “Convenient Truths: The Stories You Tell Yourself” — free on Kindle Unlimited: https://the3minutementor.com/books/ | Weekly essays: nigeldessau.substack.com
One bad hire from a particular university, one project that failed the last time you tried it, one customer who shouted loudest in the QBR — each of these gets weighted far above the data sitting in the deck, because it’s easier to recall. The availability heuristic doesn’t feel like bias from the inside. It feels like experience.
In this episode: why vividness beats frequency in your head, how meetings systematically reward the person with the best story rather than the best evidence, and the one question to ask before you let a memorable example override a number.
#AvailabilityHeuristic #CognitiveBias #DecisionMaking