![]() We got proof in the book's anecdotes (which I very much appreciated weren't just the same dozen that appear in all the similar books) that dishonesty wasn't necessary for all the various things people think it competes with, but we never got any proof that we didn't have to choose, that there were no painful tradeoffs, that we could be like the hero in some bad TV show and manage not to have to give up anything to achieve our goals. And we can do all of this by understanding and working with what’s real, not shutting our eyes to it. We can fight effectively for social change. We can take bold risks and persevere in the face of setbacks. Beyond that injustice, its an engaging precis on some important topics by a thoughtful author, and a book that was clearly a labor of love. No, I will not be justifying that statement with an argument. To start with, it should be called just Scout Mindset, not The Scout Mindset. We can find ways to cope with fear and insecurity. Julia Galefs The Scout Mindset is not for me, in ways both big and small. Julia Galef Books Showing 1-12 of 13 How Pleasure Works: The New Science of Why We Like What We Like (Hardcover) by Paul Bloom (Goodreads Author) (shelved 1 time as julia-galef) avg rating 3. With a bit of extra effort and cleverness, we can have both. The paragraph in the conclusion I was thinking of at the end wasĪ central theme of this book is that we don’t have to choose. Galef favors what she terms the scout mindset, which means adjusting your outlook to take new information into account. It's not a summary, but I do think it's an accurate point. I answer, well isn't that convenient for you? ![]() With regard to that claim, I was a little reminded of people who adopt a vegan lifestyle because of the ethics of using animals for food who proceed to claim that veganism is the healthiest diet for a human. One could challenge that the overstatement served a didactic purpose, but, if so, it's at odds with the thesis itself. I think a much weaker claim, such as 'we suffer such harm from believing wrong things that clearly believing more-correct ones is beneficial' or 'many of the times you think you could benefit from incorrect beliefs, you can achieve the same benefits without the incorrect beliefs' would have been much better justified. I don't think that this claim was actually established book. One of the repeated claims of the book, stressed strongly at the end, was that believing true things is always better than believing false ones. This makes a lot of sense and I definitely found many of the people Galef talked about inspiring. ![]() The book was very anecdote-centered, which beefs up the pages and, (spoiler alert) serves a secret motive: to provide role models, which helps impact behavior more than mere argumentation and description. It was (no insult intended) part of its own genre of mass market non-fiction - not a whole lot of depth, and sometimes drawing a point out longer than necessary. 'With insights that are both sharp and actionable, The Scout Mindset picks up where Predictably Irrational left off.I enjoyed the book, but was not as wowed as I'd hoped for as much as I admire Galef. With fascinating examples ranging from how to survive being stranded in the middle of the ocean, to how Jeff Bezos avoids overconfidence, to how superforecasters outperform CIA operatives, to Reddit threads and modern partisan politics, Galef explores why our brains deceive us and what we can do to change the way we think. It's a handful of emotional skills, habits, and ways of looking at the world - which anyone can learn. ![]() In The Scout Mindset, Galef shows that what makes scouts better at getting things right isn't that they're smarter or more knowledgeable than everyone else. Regardless of what they hope to be the case, above all, the scout wants to know what's actually true. It's to go out, survey the territory, and come back with as accurate a map as possible. Unlike the soldier, a scout's goal isn't to defend one side over the other. From tribalism and wishful thinking, to rationalising in our personal lives and everything in between, we are driven to defend the ideas we most want to believe - and shoot down those we don't.īut if we want to get things right more often we should train ourselves to think more like a scout. In other words, we have what Julia Galef calls a 'soldier' mindset. When it comes to what we believe, humans see what they want to see. It's not easy to become (more of) a scout, but it's hard not to be inspired by this book' Rutger Bregman 'Original, thought-provoking and a joy to read' Tim Harford Julia Galef (/ e l f / born Jcitation needed) is an American philosopher of science, writer, speaker and co-founder of the Center for Applied Rationality. Winner of best smart thinking book 2022 (Business Book Awards)
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