Standard Deviations with Dr. Daniel Crosby

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• Why is it that we hate uncertainty even more than bad news?
• How does our dread of uncertainty impact our decision making process?
• If a client comes in agitated vs. paralyzed, does the means by which we resolve this uncertainty look different from reaction to reaction or do they share a common solution?
• Is normalization part of regulating your clients emotionally whether it is deeply hot or deeply passive?
• What are t...

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• Why does Dr. Stutman use a behavioral, rather than a psychological, approach to leadership? What are the differences between these two approaches?
• What are some of the common qualities shared by many of the world’s best leaders? Also, were any of these particularly surprising or unexpected?
• What role does admiration play in effective leadership?
• How do great leaders strike a balance between adhering to first princi...

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• What life experiences put Jane on a path to become a listening coach?
• What is generative listening and how does it differ from other forms of listening?
• In what ways did becoming familiar with generative listening transform Jane’s life?
• What does Jane mean when she says “listening to ignite thinking in others?”
• What role does empathy play in the process of being a generative listener?
• What are the five levels of list...

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• What makes women so uniquely good as behavioral investors?
• Why have many thought of women as particularly risk averse for so many years and what systems, on the trading floor and elsewhere, have perpetuated this misconception?
• Some book recommendations on women in investing and its history.
• Examples of how insidious the bias against women in finance can be.
• What can we do to attract more women to financial services ...

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• How might financial planning conversations need to change in light of the new longevity many will experience?
• How will the “100 year life” affect the 3 life stages (education, work and retirement) that used to be more clearly delineated?
• How might we be able to give more salience and power to our mental image of a future self? What does Dr. Mathar’s research around this topic suggest?
• What are the differences betwe...

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• What did Philip’s research on the drivers of financial advice seeking uncover? Additionally, what might stand in the way of clients taking advice?
• What can the industry do to reduce economic barriers to entry for getting advice?
• What about reducing emotional barriers to entry for getting advice?
• What mistakes do advisors make when it comes to changing behavior and what could we be doing better as an industry?
• What i...

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• What lead Dr. Griner to focus his work and research around compassion specifically?
• When clinicians like Dr. Griner talk about compassion, what are they talking about exactly and how might this differ from the popular conception of compassion?
• How do we balance our desire to want to end someone’s suffering without falling into the trap of just wanting to fix everything or go directly to solutions?
• What are some exa...

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• What is the “Dumb Ways to Die” music video and why was it originally created?
• Was the above an effective behavioral intervention or did it fall short?
• Why is buy-in for employer sponsored retirement savings plans so low and what might be done to remedy this?
• Why might marketing campaigns with behavioral interventions outperform more overt, standard marketing approaches?
• What did Charlie Munger say was a differentiat...

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• What were some of Nikola Tesla’s eccentricities?
• What is “The Spotlight Effect” that Morgan Housel observed when working as a valet at a high-end hotel in Los Angeles?
• What is Morgan Housel’s “Man in the Car Paradox” and what lessons can be learned from it?
• What is the psychological principle “The Anchoring Effect?”
• Why does ego driven spending do so little to sate our desire to belong?
• How social media may be playin...

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• What strategy did Alexander the Great use to overtake Tyre in 332 BC? Why did this military victory leave Alexander feeling more grief stricken than triumphant in the end?
• Why did Hephaestion’s death mark a turning point for the Macedonian Empire?
• What are “The Top Five Regrets of the Dying?”
• What makes up Martin Seligman’s “PERMA” model of well-being and how can we apply this in our own lives?

Links

• The Sou...

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• What common ground, if any, can be found across nearly all spiritual and religious traditions on the globe?
• What does academic research have to say about the benefits that accrue to those who are generous?
• Why doesn’t spending money on ourselves bring about long-lasting joy and what role does the “hedonic treadmill” play in this?
• Why do the benefits of giving transcend economic and cultural boundaries?
• It is clear t...

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- With all of the possibilities out there, why has Jon landed on his current path and why does he think that pro bono work is so vital?

- Jon’s organization just completed a very comprehensive study on pro bono financial planning. Were there any results that really stood out or surprised him?

- What did Jon’s research unearth about the moral case for doing financial planning?

- What case can be made for doing pro bono ...

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- If so much of what accounts for our behavior is habitual, what hope do we have and how can we change that as we look to the New Year?

- Why do such small bits of friction have an outsized influence on our behavior?

- Does publicly stating your goals have any drawbacks or does it help you stay accountable?

- What is the rhyme-as-reason or fluency effect and how might understanding these effects impact your client educ...

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- Why do overly linear, or bullet-pointy, stories tend to fall short? What are the risks of making your backstory too similar to a resume?

- What is the psychological principle “peak-end rule” and how can it be applied to better your backstory?

- Why is knowing your audience such an important part of effective storytelling?

- Why “time of possession” is so important, especially in discovery meetings

- Why is differentia...

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- Why will AI, automation and algorithms likely lead to an increase in human centered connection in the financial services industry and beyond?

- What is one of Thomas Hobbes’ most famous remarks and how do people take it out of context?

- Why loneliness has far reaching implications for longevity that exceed even obesity.

- How did Volvo make their cars more safe for women in particular?

- How did France address the pr...

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- Why do only 13% of American millionaires describe themselves as wealthy? Why don’t we recognize our abundance for what it is?

- What is wealth confidence and what are its broader implications within portfolio management?

- Wealth confidence is definitely somewhat correlated with portfolio performance, but why is net worth alone not a sufficient measure for one’s wealth confidence?

- Is there a sense in which $1,000,0...

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- Why does Daniel Staker call his new book “a book from a breakdown?”

- Why is behavior such a fundamental building block of marketing?

- How do we get to the bottom of what our clients really want when they are often so bad at articulating it for themselves?

- What does Daniel Staker mean when he says that “people often fail to respect reality?”

- How can we get people to accept reality when emotions are so powerful at...

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- We frequently hear the term “emotional intelligence” thrown around pretty loosely, but what is a deeper dive into its definition?

- Does Dr. McCarthy see people frequently using emotional intelligence towards Machiavellian ends or is this quite uncommon in her experience?

- Why is EQ so important for leaders and individuals more broadly and why is it extra important in the context of financial services?

- What did Dr...

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- What is all weather investing and what are its behavioral underpinnings?

- Does Eric strategically rebalance the all weather portfolios or are the allocations fairly static? If they are dynamic, what signals do they look for when making a change?

- What is the trend-oriented global macro program that Eric implements?

- How can one strike a balance between the realities of trying to sell product, run a business and ma...