Cognitive Biases in Practice and Performance

15 posts in this series

Reading Order

1 of 15 — 9 min read

The Towards-and-Away-From Bias: How Fear of Loss Controls Your Practice Without You Knowing

I spent years in hotel rooms running through routines I already knew, convinced I was being disciplined. It took a framework from practice methodology research to show me I was being controlled by a bias I did not even know existed.

2 of 15 — 9 min read

Loss Aversion in Practice: Why You Spend All Your Time Protecting What You Have

I used to believe that running through my existing repertoire every night was responsible practice. Then I realized I was not maintaining my skills -- I was hoarding them.

3 of 15 — 9 min read

Why Humans Are Twice as Motivated to Avoid Loss as to Pursue Gain

The two-to-one ratio is not a metaphor. It is a measurable feature of the human brain. And it explains why the most disciplined practice sessions can produce the least progress.

4 of 15 — 9 min read

How the More You Achieve, the More Conservative You Become (and Why That's a Trap)

I was at my most creative when I had nothing to lose. The moment I built something worth protecting, a quiet conservatism crept in that I did not recognize until it had reshaped my entire approach.

5 of 15 — 9 min read

The Intuitive Path Is Almost Always the Wrong Path in Practice

Everything I instinctively did when I started practicing magic was wrong. Not slightly wrong. Systematically, predictably, almost perfectly wrong. And that pattern is not unique to me.

6 of 15 — 9 min read

Why the Herd Mentality in Practice Keeps Everyone Average

When I started looking at how most performers practice, I noticed something disturbing: everyone does essentially the same thing. And that sameness is not a coincidence. It is a cognitive bias with a name.

7 of 15 — 9 min read

The Sunk Cost Fallacy in Your Repertoire: Keeping Tricks You Should Have Cut Years Ago

I spent six months perfecting a routine that never got more than polite applause. The thought of cutting it felt like throwing away all that work. That feeling has a name, and it is lying to you.

8 of 15 — 9 min read

Confirmation Bias: How You See Only Evidence That Your Practice Is Working

For two years, I was convinced my practice method was effective. I had evidence. Lots of evidence. The problem was that my brain had been curating that evidence without telling me.

9 of 15 — 9 min read

The Dunning-Kruger Effect in Magic: When You Don't Know What You Don't Know

Six months into learning card magic, I was certain I was good. Not just improving -- actually good. It took a single video recording in a Salzburg hotel room to show me I was trapped in the most dangerous cognitive bias a performer can have.

10 of 15 — 9 min read

How I Identify My Own Cognitive Biases Using Weber's Videotape Method

Ken Weber insists that performers must watch themselves on video at least five times before they believe what they see. I thought that was overkill until I discovered that every viewing peeled back a different layer of self-deception.

11 of 15 — 9 min read

The Bias Toward Complexity: Why Performers Choose Complicated Over Effective

I spent months learning a technically demanding card routine when a far simpler effect would have gotten a stronger reaction. The bias toward complexity is one of the most common traps in magic, and it is rooted in the performer's ego, not the audience's needs.

12 of 15 — 9 min read

The Familiarity Trap: Why Your Favorite Trick Might Be Your Worst

I performed the same card routine for over a year, convinced it was my strongest piece. When I finally asked someone to tell me honestly, I discovered that familiarity had blinded me to something every audience member could see.

13 of 15 — 9 min read

How Naturals Bypass Cognitive Biases Without Knowing They Exist

The best performers I have studied do not read psychology papers about cognitive bias. They have never heard of Dunning-Kruger or confirmation bias. And yet they avoid these traps consistently, through instincts they cannot explain.

14 of 15 — 9 min read

Overcoming the 'But That Looks Too Easy' Bias Against Simple Effects

Every time I considered adding a simple, direct effect to my set, a voice in my head said it was not enough. Not impressive enough. Not worthy of performance. That voice was a cognitive bias, and it was costing me the strongest reactions of my career.

15 of 15 — 9 min read

The Planning Fallacy: Why Everything Takes Longer Than You Think (Especially Mastery)

I told myself I would have a polished thirty-minute show within a year. Three years later, I was still refining it. The planning fallacy does not just affect project timelines -- it fundamentally distorts how we think about mastery.