Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

When we dedicate ourselves to a plan and it isn’t going as we hoped, our first instinct isn’t usually to rethink it. Instead, we tend to double down and sink more resources in the plan. This pattern is called escalation of commitment.6 Evidence shows that entrepreneurs persist with failing strategies when they should pivot,7

In performance cultures, people often become attached to best practices. The risk is that once we’ve declared a routine the best, it becomes frozen in time. We preach about its virtues and stop questioning its vices, no longer curious about where it’s imperfect and where it could improve.

I believe that good teachers introduce new thoughts, but great teachers introduce new ways of thinking.

psychologists find that one of the hallmarks of an open mind is responding to confusion with curiosity and interest.30 One student put it eloquently: “I need time for my confusion.”31 Confusion can be a cue that there’s new territory to be explored or a fresh puzzle to be solved.32

Experiments show that simply framing a dispute as a debate rather than as a disagreement signals that you’re receptive to considering dissenting opinions and changing your mind,39 which in turn motivates the other person to share more information with you.

If we’re comfortable being wrong, we’re not afraid to poke fun at ourselves. Laughing at ourselves reminds us that although we might take our decisions seriously, we don’t have to take ourselves too seriously.

I’ve watched too many leaders shield themselves from task conflict. As they gain power, they tune out boat-rockers and listen to bootlickers. They become politicians, surrounding themselves with agreeable yesmen and becoming more susceptible to seduction by sycophants. Research reveals that when their firms perform poorly, CEOs who indulge flattery

Most people immediately start with a straw man, poking holes in the weakest version of the other side’s case. He does the reverse: he considers the strongest version of their case, which is known as the steel man.10 A politician might occasionally adopt that tactic to pander or persuade, but like a good scientist, Harish does it to learn.

The opposite of armchair quarterback syndrome is impostor syndrome, where competence exceeds confidence.