When faced with a complex decision, the mind asks: "What similar situation have I encountered before?" This is the recognition heuristic.

Satisficing beats maximizing in a world of limited time and attention - good enough now is often better than perfect later.

The availability heuristic makes us fear rare dramatic events more than common silent killers.

Our brains are prediction machines that prefer quick, confident answers over slow, uncertain truths.

Heuristics work beautifully in their native environment - until the environment changes.

The affect heuristic: we judge risks and benefits with our emotions first, our logic second.

Take-the-best is nature's algorithm: use the most reliable cue and ignore the rest.

Heuristics are the cognitive equivalent of compression algorithms - they lose some data to save space and time.

The mind is a lazy scientist - it prefers patterns to probabilities, stories to statistics.

Anchoring shows we don't think in absolutes - we think in adjustments from arbitrary starting points.

Less is more, especially in decision-making: fewer options often lead to better choices.

The fluency heuristic: if it's easy to process, we assume it's true, familiar, and good.

Heuristics are the reason we can navigate complex social situations without conscious calculation.

Our intuition is just heuristics we've practiced until they became automatic.

The representativeness heuristic makes us see patterns where there is only randomness.

Fast and frugal heuristics prove that you can be smart by being simple in the right ways.

Heuristics are the mind's way of making 80% of the right decisions with 20% of the effort.

The planning fallacy occurs because our heuristics are optimistic by design - they help us act despite uncertainty.

Ecological rationality: a heuristic isn't smart or stupid in itself - only in relation to its environment.

We use social proof because copying others is usually safer than thinking for ourselves.

The scarcity heuristic makes us value what's rare, even when rarity doesn't equal worth.

Heuristics are why experts can make rapid decisions in their domain - they've compressed years of experience into patterns.

Our confidence in a heuristic often exceeds its actual accuracy.

The default heuristic: we stick with what's chosen for us because thinking takes energy.

Heuristics work because the world is structured, not random - there are patterns to exploit.

The recognition heuristic proves that ignorance can be beneficial - sometimes knowing less helps you decide better.

We don't need to be rational to be effective - we just need heuristics that work in our particular world.

The beauty of heuristics is that they turn complex problems into simple rules of thumb.

Heuristics are the cognitive equivalent of jazz improvisation - structured enough to work, flexible enough to adapt.