Think Again Quotes

“unlearning’ things to avoid being ignorant.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“No matter how nicely we ask, other people don’t always want to dance. Sometimes they’re so attached to their beliefs that the mere suggestion of getting in sync feels like an ambush.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“As important as the quantity and quality of reasons might be, the source matters, too. And the most convincing source is often the one closest to your audience.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“people tend to see quantity as a sign of quality. The more the topic matters to them, the more the quality of reasons matters.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“Recent experiments show that having even one negotiator who brings a scientist’s level of humility and curiosity improves outcomes for both parties, because she will search for more information and discover ways to make both sides better off. She isn’t telling her counterparts what to think. She’s asking them to dance. Which is exactly what Harish Natarajan does in a debate.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“Progress is impossible without change; and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.—George Bernard Shaw”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“That’s the beauty of task conflict. In a great argument, our adversary is not a foil, but a propeller. With twin propellers spinning in divergent directions, our thinking doesn’t get stuck on the ground; it takes flight.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“Can we debate?” sends a message that you want to think like a scientist, not a preacher or a prosecutor—and encourages the other person to think that way, too.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“Rethinking depends on a different kind of network: a challenge network, a group of people we trust to point out our blind spots and help us overcome our weaknesses.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“It’s called agreeableness, and it’s one of the major personality traits around the world. Agreeable people tend to be nice. Friendly. Polite. Canadian.* My first impulse is to avoid even the most trivial of conflicts.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“Although productive disagreement is a critical life skill, it’s one that many of us never fully develop. The problem starts early: parents disagree behind closed doors, fearing that conflict will make children anxious or somehow damage their character.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“If you don’t change your mind frequently, you’re going to be wrong a lot.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“we’re comfortable being wrong, we’re not afraid to poke fun at ourselves. Laughing at ourselves reminds us that although we might take our decisions seriously, we don’t have to take ourselves too seriously. Research suggests that the more frequently we make fun of ourselves, the happier we tend to be.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“Who you are should be a question of what you value, not what you believe. Values are your core principles in life—they might be excellence and generosity, freedom and fairness, or security and integrity”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“If you don’t look back at yourself and think, ‘Wow, how stupid I was a year ago,’ then you must not have learned much in the last year.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“Being wrong is the only way I feel sure I’ve learned anything.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“But it’s worth remembering that the means are a measure of our character. When we succeed in changing someone’s mind, we shouldn’t only ask whether we’re proud of what we’ve achieved. We should also ask whether we’re proud of how we’ve achieved it.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“This success isn’t unique to her: there’s evidence that people are more interested in hiring candidates who acknowledge legitimate weaknesses as opposed to bragging or humble-bragging.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“When we point out that there are areas where we agree and acknowledge that they have some valid points, we model confident humility and encourage them to follow suit. When we support our argument with a small number of cohesive, compelling reasons, we encourage them to start doubting their own opinion. And when we ask genuine questions, we leave them intrigued to learn more. We don’t have to convince them that we’re right—we just need to open their minds to the possibility that they might be wrong. Their natural curiosity might do the rest.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“They found that in many situations, those who can’t . . . don’t know they can’t. According to what’s now known as the Dunning-Kruger effect, it’s when we lack competence that we’re most likely to be brimming with overconfidence.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“You’ve probably met some football fans who are convinced they know more than the coaches on the sidelines. That’s the armchair quarterback syndrome, where confidence exceeds competence.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“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.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“impostor syndrome. Feeling like an impostor is typically viewed as a bad thing, and for good reason—a chronic sense of being unworthy”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“The antidote to getting stuck on Mount Stupid is taking a regular dose of it. “Arrogance is ignorance plus conviction,” blogger Tim Urban explains. “While humility is a permeable filter that absorbs life experience and converts it into knowledge and wisdom, arrogance is a rubber shield that life experience simply bounces off of.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“Knowing what you don’t know is often the first step toward developing expertise.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“It takes confident humility to admit that we’re a work in progress. It shows that we care more about improving ourselves than proving ourselves.* If that mindset spreads far enough within an organization, it can give people the freedom and courage to speak up.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“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?”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“psychologically safe teams reported more errors, but they actually made fewer errors. By freely admitting their mistakes, they were then able to learn what had caused them and eliminate them moving forward. In psychologically unsafe teams, people hid their mishaps to avoid penalties, which made it difficult for anyone to diagnose the root causes and prevent future problems. They kept repeating the same mistakes.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“Rethinking is not just an individual skill. It’s a collective capability, and it depends heavily on an organization’s culture.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“What he lacked is a crucial nutrient for the mind: humility. The antidote to getting stuck on Mount Stupid is taking a regular dose of it. “Arrogance is ignorance plus conviction,” blogger Tim Urban explains. “While humility is a permeable filter that absorbs life experience and converts it into knowledge and wisdom, arrogance is a rubber shield that life experience simply bounces off of.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know