The Scout Mindset: Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don't

Intelligence and knowledge are just tools. You can use those tools to help you see the world clearly, if that’s what you’re motivated to do. Or you can use them to defend a particular viewpoint, if you’re motivated to do that instead.

scout mindset is emotionally rewarding. It’s empowering to be able to resist the temptation to self-deceive, and to know that you can face reality even when it’s unpleasant. There’s an equanimity that results from understanding risk and coming to terms with the odds you’re facing. And there’s a refreshing lightness in the feeling of being free to e

“I predict one day Amazon will fail . . . If you look at large companies, their life-spans tend to be thirty-plus years, not a hundred-plus years.”

To be willing to consider other interpretations—to even believe that there could be other reasonable interpretations besides your own—requires scout mindset.

This is the biggest problem with the self-belief approach to motivation. Because you’re not supposed to think realistically about risk, it becomes impossible to ask yourself questions like, “Is this goal desirable enough to be worth the risk?” and “Are there any other goals that would be similarly desirable but require less risk?” It implicitly ass

APPRECIATE THE EMOTIONAL REWARDS OF SCOUT MINDSET

REALIZE THAT TRUTH ISN’T IN CONFLICT WITH YOUR OTHER GOALS Many people actively resist viewing reality accurately because they believe that accuracy is a hindrance to their goals—that if they want to be happy, successful, and influential, it’s better to view themselves and the world through a distorted lens.

The “self-belief” model of motivation assumes that if you acknowledge the possibility of failure, then you’ll be too demoralized or afraid to take risks. In that model, people who believe that failure is unthinkable are the ones who try the hardest to succeed. Yet in practice, things often seem to work the other way around—accepting the possibility