BIJA – The Seed of Future Results

In 805conversations by Mark Sylvester

“The answer to every problem is in your head” – Stephen’s father

  Stephen Duneier is the Founder of Bija Advisors. For nearly thirty years, he has applied cognitive science to institutional investment management. He sat down with host Mark Sylvester to talk about the common thread that runs through all of his pursuits. He has been fascinated with Decision Analysis and in this conversation will convince you that you’re probably not thinking hard enough about most challenges in your life. Stephen is also a professor at UCSB in the College of Engineering, an internationally recognized speaker, a drummer and the creative genius behind the Yarnbomber.com project. In this quick moving talk he and Mark cover a lot of ground including:
  • The difference between cognitive strain and cognitive ease and why you’ll want to pay attention to this part of the conversation very closely
  • “We don’t like to think too hard…”
  • Why you shouldn’t trust your intuition
  • Why you should think deeply, especially when you don’t have to
  • What is cognitive bias and why does it lead to systematic errors in judgment
  • Question everything
  • The belief based life vs. the fact based one
  • A simple four-point way to look at life
    • What’s the problem?
    • What can you control?
    • What can’t you control?
    • What options does that leave you?
  • Cultivating an insatiable curiosity
  • His five-year quest to find a cause worth dedicating his energy towards solving
  • The League of Professional Educators and why we should have teachers that make $1M a year
Stephen suggests that you look at the world as it really exists. The episode makes a convincing argument for this!