Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know by Adam Grant

Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know by Adam Grant

We often judge intelligence by our ability to learn and think.
But in a world that quickly changes, where information and knowledge develop so rapidly, is it still the right measure?

At a personal level, our culture, and our experiences are creating “blind spots” in our way of seeing the world. Sometimes it seems that the more expert we become, the more knowledge we develop, the less inclined we are to question and challenge our “blinds spots”.

We favor the comfort of conviction over the discomfort of doubt.”

That’s what Grant offers us. How to learn to think again at an individual, interpersonal, and collective level.

This book is an invitation to let go of knowledge and opinions that are no longer serving you well, and to anchor your sense of self in flexibility rather than consistency.”

Individual level

20 years ago, Phil Tetlock discovered that as we think and talk, we tend to adopt the mindset of three professions. We preach (preacher) to defend our beliefs, we prosecute (prosecutor) the flaws of others’ reasoning, and we enter the political mode (politician) to win an audience.
 In these approaches, we rarely question ourselves. Where our beliefs come from? Are they still valid? We are too occupied to defend and to convince, instead of challenging our own thoughts.
The author proposes seeing our world through a scientist’s mindset to search for the truth, including in our own ideas.

I recently listened to Jim Collins in an old podcast with Tim Ferris in episode #361. He explains how he studied himself “the Collin’s bug” like a scientific object in his whole life. 

Confident humility

You can be confident in your ability to achieve a goal in the future while maintaining the humility to question whether you have the right tools in the present. That’s the sweet spot of confidence.”

What we want to attain is confident humility: having faith in our capability while appreciating that we may not have the right solution or even be addressing the right problem.”

Halla Tómasdóttir , a businesswoman with no experience in politics, presented her candidature for Iceland’s presidency on 17 March 2016. She ran a positive campaign and ended up with 27.9% of the vote, the second-highest share after the winner. 
Grant illustrates the concept of “confident humility” through Tómasdóttir’s story.
He explains how the “impostor syndrome” that we all have could become a quality. It helps you to doubt, question, and innovate in search of the truth. It’s moving from the “know it” to the “learn it all”, like Satya Nadella in Microsoft.

Confident humility is the belief that you can do it, but allowing uncertainties on the how. It welcomes doubts, iterations, and mistakes to find the way. It contrasts with the arrogance of the leaders who think they have to know everything.

Interpersonal level

In this part, Grant evaluates how we can better communicate, and what we can learn from our different interactions.

Disagreement helps us to rethink.
We need to favor disagreements and not avoid them. The problem is most of the time, they are surrounded by too many emotions. The intellectual exercise to disagree is a good one if we can remain more on the intellectual tension versus the emotional one.

What matters is how respectfully parents argue, not how frequently”

Parents, for example, try to avoid arguing in front of their children’s. They tend to it behind closed doors. But it seems that arguing respectfully in front of children is not bad. It’s a way to teach the “rethinking process”.
The exchange in itself is a good thing, but the way we do it could be wrong.

Here again, we often too easily take shortcuts to avoid working on ourselves. It’s not the tool or the argument, it’s the way we manage it.
Focusing on ideas, content, processes versus opinions, people, and emotions helps to have a productive exchange.

 Can we debate? sends a message that you want to think like a scientist”

The authors pay a visit in the world of the great debaters. What can we learn from them?

 I think we disagree on far less than it may seem.”

He compares the negotiation to a dance. Moving, acknowledging the good things in the other, resonating, and showing curiosity with questions are used by the more talented orators.

So you don’t see any merit in this proposal at all?”

In the middle of a debate where you feel stuck, you can ask yourself and your partner. 

What evidence would change my/your mind?”

 If nothing can do it, is it worth debating?

Collective rethinking

As teachers and leaders, we may have occasions to help “think again” become a collective belief.

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

In my work, I have the chance to often review projects. The following questions are interesting to help the group rethink.

• What leads you to that assumption?
• Why do you think it is correct?
• What might happen if it’s wrong?
• What are the uncertainties in your analysis?
• I understand the advantages of your recommendation. What are the disadvantages?
• How do you know?

Conclusion

What I believe is a process rather than a finality.”
—Emma Goldman

It summarizes the book well. Thinking again and again is a process, not a finality. And as a scientist, we need to search for the truth, starting with our own beliefs. Observing and questioning what we do daily opens doors to learn and grow.

Enjoy.