Scientific Definition
We remember the past as better than it was.
Plain-English Definition
We remember the past as better than it was.
Feynman Explanation
The good old days were neither.
Core Principle
We remember the past as better than it was.
Mechanisms
We remember the past as better than it was.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
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Inputs (Triggers)
Pending editorial review.
Outputs (Behaviors)
Pending editorial review.
Behavioral Signature
The good old days were neither.
Examples
- Pining for a pre-AI workflow that wasn't actually working then either.
- Restorative strategies that recreate problems we'd actually solved.
Pending editorial review.
Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- Time-stamped data beats memory. Always.
Measurement Approaches
Pending editorial review.
Evidence
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
The Perverse Incentive Lens™
How this behavior is exploited — and how to redesign around it.
- Time-stamped data beats memory. Always.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Interactive Mini Network
Click any neighbor to re-center the graph and follow the threads of connection.
Knowledge Graph Neighbors
Auto-linked to the rest of the Human Behavior Taxonomy by family, domain, dimension, and shared keywords.
We judge frequency by how easily examples come to mind.
We remember our past choices as better than they were.
Believing past events were obviously predictable once we know how they ended.
We judge experiences by their peak moment and how they ended.
Overweighting whatever just happened.
Doing something feels safer than doing nothing — even when nothing wins.
Feelings act as shortcuts for facts.
We prefer known risks to unknown ones, even when the unknown is better.
Over-reliance on the first number that hits the table.
Perceiving meaningful connections in unrelated things.
We ignore underlying probabilities in favor of vivid specifics.
People look better in groups than as individuals.