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6 Dumb Habits Smart People Still Do
Your brain is tricking you..
Pablo Ottenwalder
November 29, 2025
Words I like: A scattered mind mistakes chaos for progress
Pablo’s Perspective:
Most people don’t ruin their lives with one big mistake. (Sometimes they do..)
They do it with a handful of tiny, stupid habits they keep repeating because “it feels normal.”
Here are the 6 worst ones…
The ones that quietly drain your time, money, opportunities, and potential.
Let’s break them down.
1. Looking busy while doing everything badly
You’re not “efficient.”
You’re a human browser with 47 tabs open 22 frozen, one blasting music, and the one you need… buffering.
The truth: Your brain can’t multitask. It can only rapid-fire switch, and every switch taxes your focus, increases mistakes, and leaves you feeling stressed but unproductive.
Pablo’s Take:
If you want to look dumb, keep pretending you can do 3 things at once.
If you want actual growth master the boring skill of one task at a time.
2. Picking Pointless Fights
Ever watch someone turn a dishwasher argument into a full blown war?
That’s reactive defensiveness mixed with boredom.
People create conflict for the same reason a cat knocks things off the counter: stimulation.
Pablo’s Take:
The more pointless arguments you engage in, the smaller your life looks.
Save your energy for real battles.
People love to say:
“Social media is toxic. My feed is garbage.”
No your feed is YOU.
You trained the algorithm like a dog.
It’s just bringing back the content you couldn’t stop tapping on.
Pablo’s Take:
Your feed is a mirror.
If you don’t like what it’s showing you… stop feeding it junk.
4. Asking for Advice Then Ignoring All of It
You know this person:
They ask for advice, they nod, walk away, and do THE EXACT OPPOSITE.
That’s confirmation bias mixed with ego protection.
They don’t want direction they want someone to validate the bad idea they’d already committed to.
Pablo’s Perspective:
If you keep asking for advice you never follow, people stop taking you seriously.
5. Pretending to Know What’s Going On
Whether it’s a meeting, a conversation, or a group chat…
People nod like they know whats going on but mean while are clueless:
Pablo’s Take:
Asking one clear question makes you look smart.
Nodding with no idea what’s happening keeps you ignorant.
6. Self Sabotage
This is when you break your own success because it feels unfamiliar.
When your results grow faster than your self-image, your brain panics.
So you start messing things up not because you’re reckless, but because your old identity is trying to drag you back to “normal.”
Pablo’s Take:
You have to actually feel like you deserve the life you’re building. P.S You do!
Alright, that’s the breakdown. Six tiny habits that quietly drag people down.
Fix even one of them this week and you’ll feel the difference.
Catch you next time.
If you’d like to watch my journey and learn from all my mistakes take a look below!
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Book i’m currently reading - Meditations: A New Translation Marcus Aurelius
Did you know? 💡
The Zeigarnik Effect might be contributing to your 'busy' problem.
This psychological phenomenon states that people remember unfinished or interrupted tasks better than completed ones.
-Pablo