Think Again Quotes

“I hated the Yankees with all my heart, even to the point of having to confess in my first holy confession that I wished harm to others—namely that I wished various New York Yankees would break arms, legs and ankles. . . . —Doris Kearns Goodwin”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“The skilled negotiators rarely went on offense or defense. Instead, they expressed curiosity with questions like “So you don’t see any merit in this proposal at all?”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“simply framing a dispute as a debate rather than as a disagreement signals that you’re receptive to considering dissenting opinions and changing your mind, which in turn motivates the other person to share more information with you.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“Motivational interviewing starts with an attitude of humility and curiosity. We don’t know what might motivate someone else to change, but we’re genuinely eager to find out. The goal isn’t to tell people what to do; it’s to help them break out of overconfidence cycles and see new possibilities. Our role is to hold up a mirror so they can see themselves more clearly, and then empower them to examine their beliefs and behaviors.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“we live in a rapidly changing world, where we need to spend as much time rethinking as we do thinking.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“Great thinkers don’t harbor doubts because they’re impostors. They maintain doubts because they know we’re all partially blind and they’re committed to improving their sight. They don’t boast about how much they know; they marvel at how little they understand. They’re aware that each answer raises new questions, and the quest for knowledge is never finished. A mark of lifelong learners is recognizing that they can learn something from everyone they meet. Arrogance leaves us blind to our weaknesses. Humility is a reflective lens: it helps us see them clearly. Confident humility is a corrective”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“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

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

“If you choose to make fun of yourself out loud, there’s evidence that how people react depends on your gender. When men make self-deprecating jokes, they’re seen as more capable leaders, but when women do it, they’re judged as less capable. Apparently, many people have missed the memo that if a woman pokes fun at herself, it’s not a reflection of incompetence or inadequacy. It’s a symbol of confident humility and wit.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“status quo bias: we would have to walk away from reality as we know it.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“writing out a plan for your life “is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“Meanwhile, students who changed their actions by joining a new club, adjusting their study habits, or starting a new project experienced lasting gains in happiness. Our happiness often depends more on what we do than where we are. It’s our actions—not our surroundings—that bring us meaning and belonging.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“As Ernest Hemingway wrote, “You can’t get away from yourself by moving from one place to another.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“We can take you on a hike. We cannot turn you into someone who likes hiking.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“A third potential factor is that when we hunt for happiness, we overemphasize pleasure at the expense of purpose.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“One possibility is that when we’re searching for happiness, we get too busy evaluating life to actually experience it. Instead of savoring our moments of joy, we ruminate about why our lives aren’t more joyful. A second likely culprit is that we spend too much time striving for peak happiness, overlooking the fact that happiness depends more on the frequency of positive emotions than their intensity.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“If we’re not careful, though, the pursuit of happiness can become a recipe for misery.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“I think it’s better to lose the past two years of progress than to waste the next twenty.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“students who are the most certain about their career plans at twenty are often the ones with the deepest regrets by thirty.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“When it comes to rethinking, though, grit may have a dark side. Experiments show that gritty people are more likely to overplay their hands in roulette and more willing to stay the course in tasks at which they’re failing and success is impossible”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“Researchers have even suggested that gritty mountaineers are more likely to die on expeditions, because they’re determined to do whatever it takes to reach the summit.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“Escalation of commitment happens because we’re rationalizing creatures, constantly searching for self-justifications for our prior beliefs as a way to soothe our egos, shield our images, and validate our past decisions.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“the long hours and red tape undercut his enthusiasm.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“Motivational interviewing pioneers Miller and Rollnick”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“Amy Edmondson finds that when psychological safety exists without accountability, people tend to stay within their comfort zone, and when there’s accountability but not safety, people tend to stay silent in an anxiety zone.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“We preach about its virtues and stop questioning its vices, no longer curious about where it’s imperfect and where it could improve.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

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

“What set great presidents apart was their intellectual curiosity and openness.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“No matter how much brainpower you have, if you lack the motivation to change your mind, you’ll miss many occasions to think again.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“And experiments have shown that when a speaker delivers an inspiring message, the audience scrutinizes the material less carefully and forgets more of the content—even while claiming to remember more of it. Social scientists have called this phenomenon the awestruck effect, but I think it’s better described as the dumbstruck effect.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know