Think Again I Cant Stop Now

Think Once again: The Ability of Knowing What Yous Don't Know

Think Again

RETHINKING tin cause uncertainty. Make usa uncomfortable. Feel uneasy. It tin threaten our identities. Just rethinking can also aid us observe solutions to erstwhile problems, deepen our perspective, release us from inherited dogma and other people's opinions, and empathize how our closely held values relate and are applied to our changing surround.

Adam Grant challenges us to Retrieve Again—to question what we think we know. "Unfortunately, when it comes to our ain knowledge and opinions, we often favor feeling correct over being correct."

Grant's colleague Phil Tetlock discovered that when nosotros think and talk (and scan social media), we tend to slip into the mindsets of three unlike professions: preachers, prosecutors, and politicians. "The risk is that we get so wrapped up in preaching that we're right, prosecuting others who are wrong, and politicking for support that we don't bother to rethink our ain views." (Grant offers a curt Call up Again quiz on his website.) The approach to ideas and opinions that we need to exist gravitating to is the scientist mindset. It is a mindset of curiosity and a search for truth rather than becoming defensive, offensive, or appeasing.

Think Again Mindsets

Rethinking is non a question of how smart you are. "The brighter you are, the harder it tin be to run into your own limitations. Being practiced at thinking can brand the states worse at rethinking."

What does matter is how curious and actively open-minded you lot are. Actively in the sense that nosotros are searching for reasons why we might be wrong.

A key to rethinking is being able to detach yourself from your beliefs. This takes two forms: "detaching your present from your past and detaching your opinions from your identity."

Who you are should be a question of what you value, non what y'all believe. Values are your core principles in life—they might be excellence and generosity, freedom and fairness, or security and integrity. Basing your identity on these kinds of principles enables you lot to remain open-minded nigh the best ways to advance them.

It is quite common for differences of opinion to turn into a relational disharmonize—personal and emotional—filled with animosity and vindictiveness. Task conflict is often desirable in order to get to the best answer. "The absence of conflict is not harmony, it'southward aloofness."

When a disharmonism gets personal and emotional, we get cocky-righteous preachers of our own views, spiteful prosecutors of the other side, or single-minded politicians who dismiss opinions that don't come up from our side.

While it'due south nice to take people around the states that agree with us, successful people need a challenge network —people nosotros trust that tin point out blind spots, doubt our knowledge and be humble near our expertise. In short, people who volition question us and concord us accountable for rethinking our perspectives. Wilbur Wright one time wrote, "Honest argument is merely a process of mutually picking the beams and motes out of each other's eyes so both can see clearly."

Grant notes that "research suggests that nosotros desire people with dissimilar traits and backgrounds but similar principles. Variety of personality and feel brings fresh ideas for rethinking and complementary skills for new ways of doing."

In a fence, it is best to brainstorm with finding mutual ground. It'south a dance. "When nosotros concede that someone else has made a proficient indicate, we betoken that we're not preachers, prosecutors, or politicians trying to advance an calendar. Nosotros're scientists trying to get to the truth."

At the same time, continue your argument simple. As well many, and you will dilute the power of each and every i. "We don't have to convince them that we're right—nosotros just need to open their minds to the possibility that they might exist wrong."

When we know that we might not really know, rather than investigating, "we go mental contortionists, twisting and turning until we detect an angle of vision that keeps our current views intact." And nosotros can become quite hostile. No surprise in that location.

It'due south hard to get others to change. It's ameliorate to help them observe their own reason to change. And the all-time way to do that is to listen—ask questions. What nosotros have to avert is the righting reflex—"the desire to fix problems and offer answers."

There are a skilful number of issues in the globe where there is more than going on than we know. The problems are complex and non binary—yeah or no. Admitting the complexity of an outcome is often a sign of credibility. And skeptics are non deniers. They are curious.

If you find yourself saying _____ is always good or _____ is never bad, you may exist a member of an idea [or personality] cult. Appreciating complication reminds united states of america that no behavior is ever effective and that all cures have unintended consequences.

Grant gives u.s.a. many more reasons to rethink what we recollect than I have covered here. His concern is that by reading the book, we don't shut the book on the issue of rethinking. The book brings awareness to our man nature, but it doesn't brand usa do anything nigh it. It'southward easy to look at our loosely held behavior and rethink them. The challenge is to rethink those deeply held ideas and behavior that tend to divide us—especially those ideas that we have blindly accepted from others. We—collectively—have outsourced far too much of our thinking. Information technology'south time to recall again.

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