Liminal Thinking: Create the Change You Want by Changing the Way You Think

by Dave Gray

So what makes a good theory, anyway? A scientist and philosopher named Karl Popper spent a lot of time thinking about this. Here’s the test he came up with, and I think it’s a good one: Does the theory make a prediction that might not come true? That is, can it be proven false? What makes this a good test? Popper noted that it’s relatively easy to develop a theory that offers predictions—like a horoscope—that can never be disproven. The test of a good theory, he said, is not that it can’t be disproven, but that it can be disproven. For example, if I have a theory that you are now surrounded by invisible, undetectable, flying elephants, well, there’s no way you can prove me wrong. But if my theory can be subjected to some kind of test—if it is possible that it could be disproved, then the theory can be tested. He called this trait falsifiability: the possibility that a theory could be proven false.