Ep. 236: Chris Darwin - On How Charles Darwin Thought and Made Decisions

12/04/24 • 78 min

Today, we talk about one of the most influential people in world history - how he thought and how he made decisions. That person is Charles Darwin, the man who caused the Western World to reassess what it thought was true. Charles Darwin had a way of thinking and deciding and hear all about that in this episode.

We obviously could not get Charles himself. However, we have fabulous conversation with his great-great grandson, Chris Darwin. Chris has very interesting background. Earlier his early life he had enough of hearing about his famous ancestor and he pursued a career in advertising. As you will hear however, he came back to Charles and how he thought and how he made decisions. Chris is based in Australia. He is an author, adventurer, and conservationist. He joins me in a stimulating, fun and insightful discussion into how Charles Darwin thought and made decisions.

Show notes:

The Darwin Challenge

Chris on finding one’s purpose

Tiny Habits by B.J. Fogg

Atomic Habits by James Clear

_ _ _ _ _ _ _

Like what you heard?

Learn more about The Decision-Making Studio: https://thedecisionmaking.studio/

Subscribe to our podcast: https://thedecisionmaking.studio/podcast

Show notes:

The Darwin Challenge

Chris on finding one’s purpose

Tiny Habits by B.J. Fogg

Atomic Habits by James Clear

_ _ _ _ _ _ _

Like what you heard?

Learn more about The Decision-Making Studio: https://thedecisionmaking.studio/

Subscribe to our podcast: https://thedecisionmaking.studio/podcast

Previous Episode

Ep. 235: Charles Hecker - On "Zero Sum - The Arc of International Business in Russia"

Today, we talk about the arc of international business in Russia over the past 30-some years. Our guest is Charles Hecker. Charles is a self-professed “Russia geek” who has written a fabulous new book entitled Zero Sum - The Arc of International Business in Russia. It largely covers the time starting from the fall of the Soviet Union to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. It's utterly fascinating on so many levels. International business in Russia, as you will hear, is almost like a huge natural experiment in decision-making. You will hear about complex to nuanced decisions, bad decisions, good decisions, and downright batshit crazy decisions.

To fully understand and appreciate a topic as complex as Russia, you need to live and breathe it, and Charles has and does. He studied in Russia during the Cold War. He was a journalist there with Moscow Times in the 1990s and also led Control Risks Russia office in the country. Control Risks is a specialist risk consultancy where Charles and I were colleagues. Charles is also a great storyteller. That will come through in this conversation and it also comes through in the book which is filled with colour. In reading it, one can almost see, and smell vodka dripping from the page and imagine oneself in Russia in the nineties and the noughties. While it's impossible to go back in time and fully understand what people were thinking and feeling when they made decisions when it comes to business decision-making in Russia, Charles's account comes about as close as you can get.

Show notes:

Charles’ website - https://www.charleshecker.com/

Zero Sum - The Arc of International Business in Russia

Charles on LinkedIn

The loans for shares scheme

The BRICS

Mikhail Khodorkovsky

Yukos

The Kursk submarine disaster

TNK-BP

The Beslan school siege

The Moscow theatre siege

Putin’s 2007 speech at the Munich Security Conference

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Like what you heard?

Learn more about The Decision-Making Studio: https://thedecisionmaking.studio/

Subscribe to our podcast: https://thedecisionmaking.studio/podcast

Next Episode

Ep. 237: Dr. Eva van den Broek and Tim den Heijer - On "The Housefly Effect"

Today, we're going to hear about something called “the housefly effect”, which is all about how little interventions affect our behaviour and how we don't even realize that. My guests are the co-authors of a fascinating book by the same name, The Housefly Effect – How Nudge Psychology Steers Your Everyday Behaviour. They are Dr. Eva van den Broek, and Tim den Heijer, both are based in the Netherlands.

Eva holds a PhD in behavioural economics and is the founder of Behavioral Insights. She works with a lot of policymakers on these topics. Tim is a creative strategist, the founder of B.R.A.I.N. Creatives and has over 20 years of experience in advertising for some of the biggest brands in the world.

And they make a great team, as you will hear. This conversation is a fun one, but it makes you think. And, as you listen to it, it's interesting to consider the choices that we make and whether or not there's something at play in these decisions that's almost imperceptible - the housefly effect. Small things can have big impacts. And if we understand that, it opens many fascinating possibilities.

Show Notes:

The Housefly Effect – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Housefly-Effect-Psychology-Everyday-Behaviour/dp/183501142X

Eva on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/evdbroek/

Tim on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/timdenheijer/

Eva’s firm Stichting Behavioural Insights - https://www.behaviouralinsights.nl/

Tim’s firm B.R.A.I.N. Creatives - https://braincreatives.nl/wie

Morioka Shoten – the Tokyo bookshop that only sells one book: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/dec/23/japanese-bookshop-stocks-only-one-book-at-a-time

Robert Cialdini - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Cialdini

Gerd Gigerenzer – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerd_Gigerenzer

Koen Smets – https://behavioralscientist.org/author/koen-smets/

_ _ _ _ _ _ _

Like what you heard?