Think Again

I am a long-time fan of Adam Grant. He is an organizational psychologist and a great storyteller.

• How hard is it for you to change your mind once you have made up your mind?

• Do you have difficulty handling constructive criticism?

• What makes you insist on doing things the same way, even when a different, often better way is available?

• Are you unwilling to discuss things with those who disagree with you?

In today’s world, information gets updated almost daily. As a result, we need to constantly update our opinions and beliefs. As Malcolm Gladwell noted in his interview with Channel 4 News: Part of what it means to be human in the world and a thinking person is to constantly be correcting your beliefs.

Rather than focusing on what we already know, Adam Grant challenges us to become comfortable being wrong and rethinking what we believe to be true. It is important to be able to rethink our decisions, even if it means giving up something we have invested a lot of time and effort into. Here are two quotes from this book that I found particularly insightful:

It takes humility to reconsider our past commitments, doubt to question our present decisions, and curiosity to reimagine our future plans. What we discover along the way can free us from the shackles of our familiar surroundings and our former selves. Rethinking liberates us to do more than update our knowledge and opinions it’s a tool for leading a more fulfilling life.

Keep a rethinking scorecard. Don’t evaluate decisions based only on the results; track how thoroughly different options are considered in the process. A bad process with a good outcome is luck. A good process with a bad outcome might be a smart experiment.

Overall, a very interesting book about a subject that is very relevant to today’s society. I enjoyed listening to the audiobook, which was narrated by the author.