The Scout Mindset: Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don't
Scout mindset is what allows you to recognize when you are wrong, to seek out your blind spots, to test your assumptions and change course. It’s what prompts you to honestly ask yourself questions like “Was I at fault in that argument?” or “Is this risk worth it?” or “How would I react if someone from the other political party did the same thing?”
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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
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As the late physicist Richard Feynman once said, “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself—and you are the easiest person to fool.”
Julia Galef • The Scout Mindset: Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don't
our judgment isn’t limited by knowledge nearly as much as it’s limited by attitude.
Julia Galef • The Scout Mindset: Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don't
Motivated reasoning is so fundamental to the way our minds work that it’s almost strange to have a special name for it; perhaps it should just be called reasoning.
Julia Galef • The Scout Mindset: Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don't
LEARN TOOLS THAT MAKE IT EASIER TO SEE CLEARLY
Julia Galef • The Scout Mindset: Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don't
Venture capitalist Ben Horowitz argues, in The Hard Thing About Hard Things, that there’s no point in thinking about your odds of success when building a company. “When you are building a company, you must believe there is an answer and you cannot pay attention to your odds of finding it. You just have to find it,” he writes. “It matters not whethe
... See moreJulia Galef • The Scout Mindset: Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don't
When you think of someone with excellent judgment, what traits come to mind? Maybe you think of things like intelligence, cleverness, courage, or patience. Those are all admirable virtues, but there’s one trait that belongs at the top of the list that is so overlooked, it doesn’t even have an official name. So I’ve given it one. I call it scout min
... See moreJulia Galef • The Scout Mindset: Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don't
Being in scout mindset means wanting your “map”—your perception of yourself and the world—to be as accurate as possible.