Yeah, you just gave a good opinion. But I think mine is better.

Dan Ariely mentioned in his book that people adore their own opinion/idea/invention more than other people’s opinion/idea/invention. He called this the Not-Invented-Here bias.

He simply put it as the fact that everyone wants a toothbrush, everyone needs one but nobody wants to use anyone else’s.

If we are aware of this not-invented-here bias, perhaps we can give ourselves two to three minutes of thinking time after somebody throws out an idea in a brainstorming meeting.

Perhaps, we can take that person’s idea and look at it from an objective point of view, not from our limited, “i-think-i-have-better-idea” bias point of view.

Perhaps, we can encourage our employees/teammates/colleagues to put extra hard work by making them come out with their own work ideas. After all, human beings are in love with their own fruit of thoughts. They will take their opinions to heart. Hence, willingly committed to execute it.

Perhaps, in every day life, mothers can let children plant their own veggies in small pots in the kitchen. Children will love their own inventions (in this case, green veggies in the pots) and willingly eat them at lunch or dinner.

Read: The Upside of Irrationality by Dan Ariely.

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