On: Ask YC: What have you learned that rocked your world?

[rugoso]

hey ericb, can you tell us how you learned social psychology? maybe what books, sites ... etc ?

also im checking the material that FleursDuMal mentioned ;)

[ericb → rugoso]

Absolutely. I was a psych major. Another huge thing I learned, btw, was that my persistence (stubbornness, if you ask my wife ;) lets me learn most anything, which is how I came to be a developer.

Instead of how I learned it, I'll point you to some topics in social psych:

Read Cialdini, the psychology of influence.

This doubles for attracting investment and women: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_proof

Social skills-the parens are part of the link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirroring_(psychology)

Halo Effect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_effect

Interesting experiments:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment

http://www.prisonexp.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asch_conformity_experiments

If an area I listed here or in the original post is of particular interest, let me know and I'll reply with the specifics of what I meant, or pointers to some info on it.

[rugoso → ericb]

thanks!, supercool! ;)