We are all blind — all of us. Even worse? We’re blind to our blindness.

We’re all victims to a wide range of cognitive biases that impair our decision making. But in my experience, the single most impactful cognitive bias that affects our business decisions is the “Availability Heuristic”.

Unfamiliar with the concept? We can reduce it, more or less, to a very simple phrase: “What I see is all there is”.

More formally, it’s this: we tend to think that things that come to mind quickly are the best representations of reality.

We can’t avoid it. It’s hardcoded into our primitive brain, which has to jump to conclusions fast and make decisions to survive.