This is a Lexicon entry: the mechanism, when it shows up, and the countermeasure. The full correction, with real-world cases and the audit prompt, hasn't been written yet.
Definition
People are consistently better at solving other people's problems than their own - because emotional distance from a problem produces the objectivity needed to reason clearly about it. Kross et al. (2014) found that viewing oneself in the third person produces the same detachment: asking "what would a wise friend advise me to do?" measurably improves the quality of reasoning over asking "what should I do?"
When it shows up
Giving clear advice to friends while stuck on your own similar problems. The wise-from-a-distance phenomenon.
Failure mode
Distance from a problem enables clearer thinking; involvement degrades reasoning. Your own problems benefit from the posture you have toward others'. Instead, you apply to them the posture you wish you could apply to yourself.
Countermeasure
When stuck on your own problem, pretend a friend brought it to you with identical facts. What would you tell them? That advice usually applies to you too.
Related traps
Also connected in the mapThe Bias Blind Spot·The Introspection Illusion·1 more, locked
Credit & first seen
DiscoveredKahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, Fast and Slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux source ↗
Read next
Entry #81 of 631 in The Lexicon · see the full Lexicon