Insight: Chunking explains a lot of high performers with specific memory patterns and quick decision making.
Insight: Elite athletes and high performers instinctively recognise patterns through repetition and chunking.
Reference: William G. Chase and Herbert A. Simon (1973) repeated a study conducted by de Groot, but instead included positions that would never happen in chess - showing that experts could no longer rely on meaningful patterns and chunking, and in this case performed similar to novice players.
Definition: The tendency of problem solvers to only use familiar methods, even if there are alternatives or better ones available.
Definition: People have a tendency to only consider familiar uses for objects.
Example: The Candle Problem. Fix a candle to the wall with a box of tacks and matches.
Insight: When the tacks are presented outside the box, participants in the candle problem are more likely to solve it, as they see the box as separate from its usual function, to hold the tacks.
Reference: Seth Godin: quitting takes more guts that continuing. Humans hate quitting something we have investing time or money in, feeling that we have wasted it, even though it is already gone.
