✒ Book read in 2021 #12
Key takeaways:
On a personal level, starts with intellectual humility — knowing what we don’t know. Be actively open-minded by thinking like a scientist: doubt what you know, be curious about what you don’t know, and update your views based on new data. When circumstances change, we change. Changing our minds is not admitting defeat or a mark of weakness, it’s a step towards the truth and a sign of intellectual integrity.
On a interpersonal level, being a “logic bully” — overwhelming your conversation partner with rational arguments — is not the best way to change someone’s mind. It’s a negotiation (dance), not a debate (battle), The experts: (1) take note of areas of agreement; (2) present fewer but more compelling points for reasoning; (3) express curiosity by asking genuine questions (‘how’ instead of ‘why’). Be reasonable in the process by showing that we can be reasoned with, and that we are open to evolving our views in light of logic and data.
On a group level, remind ourselves that many issues are not black-and-white arguments but complex problems with many shades gray, representing a number of different viewpoints. We might believe we are making progress by discussing hot-button issues as two sides of a coin, but people are actually more inclined to think again if we present these topics through the many lenses of a prism. Resist the impulse to simplify, a dose of complexity can disrupt overconfidence cycle and spur rethinking cycles. Don’t shy away from caveats and contingencies, acknowledging competing claims and conflicting results doesn’t sacrifice credibility.