In The Scout Mindset: Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don’t, Julia Galef argues that we don’t need to deceive ourselves in order to feel good, motivated, or persuade others. The book also offers practical tips to see the world more accurately.

As usual, the key takeaways are below, and you can find the full summary by clicking the link above.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• We’re in soldier mindset when we try to defend the views we already hold or wish are true. We’re in scout mindset when we try to suss out the actual lay of the land.
• It’s not binary—no one is entirely soldier or entirely scout. But some people are more scout-like than others.
• A common myth is that we need self-deception to cope with reality, motivate ourselves to do hard things, or persuade others to trust us. However:
  • There are other coping strategies like reframing or perspective-taking that don’t require deluding ourselves.
  • You can be motivated to take moon shots by thinking in expected value terms without overestimating your odds of success.
  • You can be socially confident and epistemically humble —and social confidence is what inspires trust.
• Overall, we probably use scout mindset less than would be optimal. We have far more choice today than in the environments humans evolved in, so accurate judgments are more valuable than ever.
• How to become more of a scout:
  • Assign probabilities to your beliefs and update incrementally. Changing your mind doesn’t have to be embarrassing and you shouldn’t have to apologise.
  • Learning from disagreements is hard. We can give ourselves a better chance of success by finding the right representatives for the other side.
  • Hold your identity lightly so it doesn’t get in the way of accurate beliefs. Better yet, identify as a scout and take pride in being able to spot errors in your own thinking.

You can find the full detailed summary on the website (estimated reading time: 32 mins). If you found this summary useful, consider forwarding to a friend you think might enjoy it.

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​To Summarise​