Luca Dellanna @luca-dellanna.com · 12/10/2026How cannon ball trajectories were depicted before Galileo discovered parabolic motion. Despite how common it was to just observe similar throws. A great example of people’s tendency to represent events as they can explain them, rather than as they witnessed them happening. 000
Luca Dellanna @luca-dellanna.com · 07/10/2026If you are in Turin for the Italian Tech Week, come meet me: 000
Luca Dellanna @luca-dellanna.com · 05/10/2026Counter-intuitively, playing long-term games is not only better over the long term but also over the short term (if you adopt a holistic view instead of cherry-picking a single narrow metric). Long-term games are more enjoyable. They don't delay gratification; they produce it. 000
Luca Dellanna @luca-dellanna.com · 30/09/2026A more important question than whether this or that subsidy should exist is whether subsidies should be visible on ticket prices, and the answer is an overwhelming yes. luca-dellanna.com/posts/incen... 000
Luca Dellanna @luca-dellanna.com · 29/09/2026"Health insurance companies only make $34 profit per customer PER YEAR? So, it's not their greed that drives prices high?" Yes Even if insurers made 0 profit and their executives paid themselves 0 salary & bonuses, premiums would still be high bc healthcare itself is expensive 000
Luca Dellanna @luca-dellanna.com · 28/09/2026The trick to managing scale is to use methods that don’t scale. True of both companies and countries. 000
Luca Dellanna @luca-dellanna.com · 23/09/2026The point is not whether LLMs can do a therapist's or an expert's job. It's that they enable bringing to a therapist or an expert *every single little doubt you have,* instead of only one a week. They're like that extra lane on the highway: no increase in speed, but capacity. 000
Luca Dellanna @luca-dellanna.com · 23/09/2026My simple solution to fix politics using AI (this week's blog post) 000
Luca Dellanna @luca-dellanna.com · 21/09/2026On this day in 1788: history’s craziest battle, Karánsebes. TL;DR: The Austrians were drunk and, in the fog, mistook part of their own army for the enemy and started shooting at each other. Two days later, the Ottomans arrived, found dead and wounded soldiers, and took the town 000
Luca Dellanna @luca-dellanna.com · 16/09/2026My latest essay, "Solved by engineers or activists?" luca-dellanna.com/posts/engin... 000
Luca Dellanna @luca-dellanna.com · 09/09/20267 tips for more effective training sessions luca-dellanna.com/posts/train... 000
Luca Dellanna @luca-dellanna.com · 02/09/2026Toyota showed that raising quality can lower costs. Governments could apply the same logic to public services. My latest essay: Luca-dellanna.com/posts/cheap... 000
Luca Dellanna @luca-dellanna.com · 26/08/2026Profit per person per use: A Simple Way to Think About Corporate Greed Luca-dellanna.com/posts/profi... 000
Luca Dellanna @luca-dellanna.com · 19/08/2026Cultures can be values-based (defined by ideals) or virtues-based (defined by behavioral rules). The latter create less friction and ambiguity and are more likely to persist over time without degenerating into something pernicious. luca-dellanna.com/posts/virtu... 000
Luca Dellanna @luca-dellanna.com · 12/08/2026Factors determining whether an organization's culture survives its founder: 1) Who’s in charge of it, HR or Managers? 2) Is it values-based or virtues-based? 3) Is it about the WHAT or also the WHY? 4) Is it a factor or a blocker in decisions/promotions? luca-dellanna.com/posts/cultu... 010
Luca Dellanna @luca-dellanna.com · 19/07/2026We designed the school system under a set of assumptions (academic skills must be taught; social ones can be easily self-learned) that only fit part of the student population; the rest is left behind. (an excerpt from next week's newsletter issue) 100
Luca Dellanna @luca-dellanna.com · 14/07/2026Too many people believe that bullying antifragilizes kids. But that's true only if the amount is moderate and "hits" them in the green area (pic below). If it's higher than that and "hits" them in the red area, it has long-term fragilizing effects. 100
Luca Dellanna @luca-dellanna.com · 13/07/2026A self-correcting democracy would have launched a major incident investigation + corrective actions during the second legislature in which this happened. Because it's obvious that re-electing such a congressman is a bug. Sadly, Italy is not a self-correcting democracy. 010
Luca Dellanna @luca-dellanna.com · 01/07/2026Skills are trained better through supervisor-led coaching, rather than group training sessions (which transfer information, not skills or behaviors). Luca-dellanna.com/posts/team-... 000
Luca Dellanna @luca-dellanna.com · 17/06/2026Learnings from the fertility crisis that extend to how we use money, time, and productivity. Luca-dellanna.com/posts/wealt... 000
Luca Dellanna @luca-dellanna.com · 10/06/2026"As a general principle, more context helps until the goldfish’s working memory is full. Beyond that point, additional context often becomes counterproductive." Luca-dellanna.com/posts/goldf... 000
Luca Dellanna @luca-dellanna.com · 20/05/2026Why do we dream? And why do we often make weird decisions? luca-dellanna.com/posts/anthr... 000
Luca Dellanna @luca-dellanna.com · 06/05/2026Moral Dilemmas: A thought experiment reveals the gap between the most moral individual choice and the most moral advice to give. My latest essay ↓ luca-dellanna.com/posts/moral... 010
Luca Dellanna @luca-dellanna.com · 29/04/2026What makes human specials? My latest essay ↓ luca-dellanna.com/posts/what-... 000
Luca Dellanna @luca-dellanna.com · 26/04/2026For my Indian readers 🇮🇳: Amazon is running a Kindle Daily Deal on my bestselling book "Ergodicity: How irreversible outcomes affect long-term performance in work, investing, relationships, sport, and beyond (3rd edition)." Just for today. 020
Luca Dellanna @luca-dellanna.com · 22/04/2026The Importance of Early Check-Ins After delegating a task, a brief check-in 1-2 days later prevents wasted effort by surfacing questions employees didn't yet know they had. My latest blog post: luca-dellanna.com/posts/early... 000
Luca Dellanna @luca-dellanna.com · 15/04/2026Habits need competence: awkward, confusing behaviors rarely become automatic My latest post ↓ luca-dellanna.com/posts/habit... 110
Luca Dellanna @luca-dellanna.com · 08/04/2026Toyota achieved great quality not (just) with incentives, but mostly by creating the habits that ensure high quality. In general, incentives are not sufficient to change behavior, and a focus on habits is necessary, too. My latest essay: ↓ luca-dellanna.com/posts/how-g... 110
Luca Dellanna @luca-dellanna.com · 02/04/2026As today is World Autism Awareness Day, a reminder that I published a book on autism 000
Luca Dellanna @luca-dellanna.com · 01/04/2026Bonuses can buy more of a behavior, but rarely create it. My latest essay luca-dellanna.com/posts/bonus... 000
Luca Dellanna @luca-dellanna.com · 16/03/2026Price discrimination is not bad in itself. It is bad when too little of the surplus from high payers is reinvested into a better product or lower prices for low payers. And what determines this is competition. Now, let's apply that to the algorithmic pricing we call taxes. 001
Luca Dellanna @luca-dellanna.com · 13/03/2026My five favorite quotes from Ben Horowitz's "What You Do Is Who You Are" 5/5 000
Luca Dellanna @luca-dellanna.com · 13/03/2026My five favorite quotes from Ben Horowitz's "What You Do Is Who You Are" 4/5 100
Luca Dellanna @luca-dellanna.com · 13/03/2026My five favorite quotes from Ben Horowitz's "What You Do Is Who You Are" 3/5 100
Luca Dellanna @luca-dellanna.com · 13/03/2026My five favorite quotes from Ben Horowitz's "What You Do Is Who You Are" 2/5 100
Luca Dellanna @luca-dellanna.com · 13/03/2026My five favorite quotes from Ben Horowitz's "What You Do Is Who You Are" 1/5 100
Luca Dellanna @luca-dellanna.com · 11/03/2026Good risk management reduces customer acquisition costs. How much of your marketing budget compensates for a product that isn't good enough? For ineffective advertising? For frustrated customers? Many of these costs are preventable with good pre-mortems. 100
Luca Dellanna @luca-dellanna.com · 11/03/2026Risk management is like car brakes. Brakes are not for slowing cars down, but to enable them to drive fast. Similarly, effective risk management doesn't just minimize downside risk. It creates opportunities for upside growth. Some examples: 100
Luca Dellanna @luca-dellanna.com · 05/03/2026Italians are going to vote on a referendum later this month, and this will be the full text printed on the voting sheet, followed by a “Yes” or “No.” No context, no explanation. Is this truly democracy? 000
Luca Dellanna @luca-dellanna.com · 25/02/2026Five simple methods to get the most out of Claude and ChatGPT. Including: - The Success Criteria Loop - The "Tidy" and "Reflect" skills - How to think higher level and longer term luca-dellanna.com/posts/6-tec... 000
Luca Dellanna @luca-dellanna.com · 24/02/2026Leaders who think organizational culture is a set of concepts attempt to change it using words and concepts, and inevitably fail. Because organizational culture is not a set of concepts, it's a track record. ♻️ 1/8 110
Luca Dellanna @luca-dellanna.com · 18/02/2026This week's blog post: luca-dellanna.com/posts/claud... 000
Luca Dellanna @luca-dellanna.com · 18/02/2026Heads, you win; tails, taxpayers lose. The Italian government will guarantee failed equity investments up to 50% of the invested value (in the cases described below). Absolute folly. 000
Luca Dellanna @luca-dellanna.com · 15/02/2026If people knew the price breakdown for paperback books, there would be a revolt against brick-and-mortar bookshops 000
Luca Dellanna @luca-dellanna.com · 13/02/2026The easiest way to get Claude to self-improve. One-minute setup to save you hours (days, even) down the road. It works even in Chat and Cowork mode. 110