Think Like a Rocket Scientist: Simple Strategies You Can Use to Make Giant Leaps in Work and Life

by Ozan Varol

When we seclude ourselves from opposing arguments, our opinions solidify, and it becomes increasingly harder to disrupt our established patterns of thinking. Aggressively mediocre corporate managers remain employed because we interpret the evidence to confirm the accuracy of our initial hiring decision. Doctors continue to preach the ills of dietary cholesterol despite research to the contrary. University students maintain their beliefs even when those beliefs violate the laws of physics. Recall that it was Galileo who discovered, through a thought experiment, that objects of different masses fall at the same rate in a vacuum. In one study, university students were asked whether they thought heavier objects fell faster than lighter ones.6 After they recorded their answers, the students then observed a physical demonstration where a metal and a plastic of the same size were dropped from the same height in a vacuum. Although the two objects fell at the same rate, the students who initially believed the heavier metal would fall faster were more likely to report that the metal did fall faster.