When learning about the cognitive errors associated with heuristics (unscientific rules of thumb), it is easy to start to assume that heuristics are always wrong or are useless in some way. However, small life decisions, such as which route to take to work when there is a little extra traffic, would take way too long if algorithims (rules based on formulas) were used for everything. Therefore, heuristics tend to be faster and algorithims more accurate, but the situation determines which is going to be best to use. 

Convergent thinking looks at obtaining one solution to a problem. Divergent thinking is more often associated with creativity and creative thinking because it seeks to find several different solutions to the same problem.

A heuristic does not guarantee a correct answer, but it typically leads to one. It is like a "rule-of-thumb" that is helpful in solving a problem, but may not provide the correct result. The two main kinds of heuristics are Availability Heuristics (basing one's assessment on prior comparable experiences, rather than judging that situation individually) and Representativeness Heuristics (basing one's assessment on common knowledge, stereotypes, or prototypes).

All four of these are common obstacles to making judgments. Fixation refers to being unable to look at a situation from any other perspective. Belief perseverance is the tendency to continue believing something even after evidence supporting it has been contradicted. Belief bias is the tendency to view that which conflicts with one's own bias as illogical, or believing something illogical in order to support a preexisting belief. Overconfidence refers to overestimating the accuracy of one's own judgments.

Framing refers to the way that a problem is presented to someone, and it can drastically change that person's view or reaction to the problem. In this case, the two approaches by Jean's boyfriend both lead to them breaking up, but how Jean handles it is different because of how each scenario was framed. Effectively framing a negative outcome can lessen the negative emotional impact of the event, and poor framing can exacerbate that emotional impact.

Functional fixedness is the tendency to see things only in their usual function. So, Jared only thought of the wire hanger as a hanger and not also a lock-pick.

The availability heuristic leads people to make decisions based on how available information is inside their brains. After recently watching shark-attack programs, this readily available information influenced John's judgments of the likelihood of shark attacks.

The sunk-cost fallacy is the idea that one must go through with something or continue one's investment even if it is hopeless or detrimental to oneself. This occurs when one has invested money or time in something and feels obligated to continue to use resources on it. In this case, the man has already paid money for the ticket; therefore, he feels that he must attend the game even though he will be miserable. If he rationally thought about it, he is paying money to be miserable in the rain when he could just be relaxing at home, since the money is already gone.

A heuristic is a general rule based on our experience that we use to judge and make decisions. More commonly referred to as "rule of thumb", they are rules that very broadly apply that we've used and have worked in the past.  Sometimes our heuristics can be biased and thus lead to irrational decision-making. 

They are not "idiosyncratic" because heuristics tend be general and lend themselves to many different situations. Heuristics are not only inspired by hate, but are adopted based off of many situations. And although heuristics may be used to evaluate other people, this is not exclusive, and more often than not they are used to evaluate situations, problems, and decisions.

Divergent thinking is when one thinks of new solutions to problems. It's how people innovate and address recurring issues with new solutions that may actually fix the problem. It is not stereotypical, sadistic, or emotional, and rather engages the creative thinking processes. An example of divergent thinking would be the development of electric cars in response to the air pollution problems.