The Power of the Walk-Through

Looking down through the trees in Wellington Botanic Gardens as the sun sets over house-clad hills in the distance

There are many cognitive biases waiting to trip us up. Sunk Cost Fallacy, The Curse of Knowledge, Confirmation Bias, the list goes on[1]. A cognitive bias is a common flaw in our thinking that leads to an irrational judgement or decision.

I think I’ve found a new cognitive bias.

My experience tells me that people fail to read documents, even when they know they should and would benefit from doing so. Yet, despite this, I still hold an unfounded expectation that when I write a document, people will read it. I suspect others do too. Is this a cognitive bias?

Let’s look at the underlying issue:

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