The journal · original insights by theme
Thinking & decision-making
Separating facts, stories, choices and the next useful action.
These are draft editorial groupings for review, not Matt’s original sequence. Each insight keeps its source number and exact wording; entries remain in source order within each theme. Read the complete original list in order.
This personal collection includes opinions, incomplete notes and unverified attributions. Categorisation does not validate a claim or turn it into professional advice.
53 original insights · Draft grouping
- No. 001
You are what you think.
- No. 003
The quality of your choices will impact your life in every single way.
- No. 013
Think for yourself, question authority.
- No. 020
Always take the long term view.
- No. 024
Look first, ask second.
- No. 029
A problem is an Opportunity, always.
- No. 035
If your a hammer, everything you see is a nail.
- No. 042
If you can’t find the answer then you need to find better questions.
- No. 052
You live in a tax farm as free range humans.
- No. 053
Problems = opportunity.
- No. 061
Murphy’s law - the more you fear something (focus on) the more likely it will happen. (Whatever can go wrong will go wrong).
- No. 062
Kidlans law - if you can write the problem down clearly then the matter is already half solved.
- No. 065
Falklands law - when you don’t have to make a decision then don’t make a decision.
- No. 071
Option a or option b? I’ll have both thanks.
- No. 074
Perception (Lense) versus perspective. Everybody has their own perception of something; There’s no advantage in your perception. Perspective is the act or the art of observing the world from outside your own perception. There is always advantage in getting perspective.
- No. 089
Be aware of thinking errors. For instance; catastrophising, over generalising, blaming, jumping to conclusions, polarised thinking, personalisation, fallacy of fairness.
- No. 096
Be intentional about the reality you’re creating, because your mind is always looking for confirmation bias of the things you think.
- No. 116
The best way to keep a prisoner from escaping is to make sure he never knows he’s in prison.
- No. 131
Muppets become puppets.
- No. 136
Always think about what is the question to ask?
- No. 155
Until the penny drops & reality hits home understanding is merely a concept or aspiration.
- No. 157
Ask yourself the question, is this opportunity going to teach me or is it going to cheat me (of my time effort etc…)
- No. 189
Doers are people who think about things and reflect on things internally, and thinkers continue to expose themselves to the external environment.
- No. 196
Reasoning from first principles. (Don’t loose sight of the reason you started something, and always stop look back and review the first principals as you go. (Building the bridge example)
- No. 202
Where focus goes, Energy flows.
- No. 213
One of the main reason’s people don’t get what they want, is because they’re not clear about what it is they want.
- No. 217
3 sides to every coin, the front side, back side and the edge.
- No. 219
Do the opposite to what the majority do.
- No. 221
Know the difference between a general rule and a rule that is written in blood.
- No. 222
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
- No. 224
Patterns tell stories.
- No. 225
The world is full of problems that don’t exist.
- No. 247
Priorities are rare, options are everywhere
- No. 251
1) Challenge every assumption “what do I know to be true about this problem”
- No. 252
2) Break problems into their smallest parts. “What am I assuming that may not be true”
- No. 253
3) rebuild from the ground up. “Break problems into their to their smallest parts”
- No. 264
What do you do with information that when presented challenges what you think to be true.
- No. 328
What you think say and feel becomes your reality,
- No. 330
The people who can do it are doing it, the people who can’t are teaching it:
- No. 331
In the flat land every hill thinks he’s a mountain.
- No. 333
More is lost by indecision than the wrong decision.
- No. 335
A well worn path isn’t always the right track.
- No. 343
If your not asking why your not getting to the onion layers below the surface.
- No. 362
"The greatest enemy of truth, is blind respect for authority" - Albert Einstein
- No. 372
3 knows 1. what you know, 2. what you don’t know, 3. what you don’t know, that you don’t know. (The unknown) - the lesson is to understand the value of the journey into knowing number 3.
- No. 387
Your brain doesn’t know the difference between the real and the imagined this is why self talk matters so much.
- No. 388
Your brain doesn’t know what’s true it believes what your repeat your thoughts shape your feelings and your feelings drive your actions.
- No. 397
The future is already here, it’s just not evenly distributed.
- No. 399
3 coins for three words. 1- If it’s not your business don’t get involved. 2 - a if you don’t know the way don’t go that way. 3 - If you don’t know where your information comes from don’t trust it. Check the family before the marriage.
- No. 409
You don’t win with strength you win with strategy.
- No. 412
Dunning Kruger effect: is a cognitive bias in which people wrongly overestimate their knowledge or ability in a specific area. This tends to occur because a lack of self-awareness prevents them from accurately assessing their own skills.
- No. 432
Sunk cost fallacy - human nature to continue doing something even if it's not the right thing to do because so much time or money has been invested to it already so they persevere
- No. 434
People are selfish, comfort is the enemy, attention is currency, truth offends, time exposes all, scarcity drives choice, systems beat willpower, power corrupts quietly, no one is coming.