Think Again Quotes

“I’m entitled to my opinion.” I’d like to modify that: yes, we’re entitled to hold opinions inside our own heads. If we choose to express them out”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“Every time they delayed a scheduled launch, they faced widespread public criticism and threats to funding. Each time they celebrated a flight that made it into orbit, they were encouraging their engineers to focus on the fact that the launch resulted in a success rather than on the faulty processes that could jeopardize future launches. That left NASA rewarding luck and repeating problematic practices, failing to rethink what qualified as an acceptable risk. It wasn’t for a lack of ability. After all, these were rocket scientists.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“Ellen recognized that at NASA, the performance culture was eroding psychological safety. “People pride themselves on their engineering expertise and excellence,” she told me. “They fear their expertise will be questioned in a way that’s embarrassing to them. It’s that basic fear of looking like a fool, asking questions that people just dismiss, or being told you don’t know what you’re talking about.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“Learning counterintuitive scientific ideas [is] akin to becoming a fluent speaker of a second language,” psychologist Deborah Kelemen writes. It’s “a task that becomes increasingly difficult the longer it is delayed, and one that is almost never achieved with only piecemeal instruction and infrequent practice.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“The greater the distance between us and an adversary, the more likely we are to oversimplify their actual motives and invent explanations that stray far from their reality. What works is not perspective-taking but perspective-seeking: actually talking to people to gain insight into the nuances of their views. That’s what good scientists do: instead of drawing conclusions about people based on minimal clues, they test their hypotheses by striking up conversations.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“you find yourself saying ____ is always good or ____ is never bad, you may be a member of an idea cult. Appreciating complexity reminds us that no behavior is always effective and that all cures have unintended consequences.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“Beware of getting stranded at the summit of Mount Stupid. Don’t confuse confidence with competence. The Dunning-Kruger effect is a good reminder that the better you think you are, the greater the risk that you’re overestimating yourself—and the greater the odds that you’ll stop improving.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“2. Define your identity in terms of values, not opinions. It’s easier to avoid getting stuck to your past beliefs if you don’t become attached to them as part of your present self-concept. See yourself as someone who values curiosity, learning, mental flexibility, and searching for knowledge. As you form opinions, keep a list of factors that would change your mind. 3. Seek out information that goes against your views. You can fight confirmation bias, burst filter bubbles, and escape echo chambers by actively engaging with ideas that challenge your assumptions.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“1. Think like a scientist. When you start forming an opinion, resist the temptation to preach, prosecute, or politick.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“They needed to rethink their technology, but they would preserve their DNA. After six months of discussion, Jobs finally became curious enough to give the effort his blessing, and two different teams were off to the races in an experiment to test whether they should add calling capabilities to the iPod or turn the Mac into a miniature tablet that doubled as a phone. Just four years after it launched, the iPhone accounted for half of Apple’s revenue.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“Every time we encounter new information, we have a choice. We can attach our opinions to our identities and stand our ground in the stubbornness of preaching and prosecuting. Or we can operate more like scientists, defining ourselves as people committed to the pursuit of truth—even if it means proving our own views wrong.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“Rethinking needs to become a regular habit.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“There’s a less obvious force that clouds our vision of our abilities: a deficit in metacognitive skill, the ability to think about our thinking.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“I’m looking for disagreeable people who are givers, not takers. Disagreeable givers often make the best critics: their intent is to elevate the work, not feed their own egos.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“We learn more from people who challenge our thought process than those who affirm our conclusions. Strong leaders engage their critics and make themselves stronger. Weak leaders silence their critics and make themselves weaker.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“What’s different about these kinds of counterfactual questions is that they invite people to explore the origins of their own beliefs—and reconsider their stances toward other groups.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“Psychologists find that admitting we were wrong doesn’t make us look less competent. It’s a display of honesty and a willingness to learn. Although scientists believe it will damage their reputation to admit that their studies failed to replicate, the reverse is true: they’re judged more favorably if they acknowledge the new data rather than deny them.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“As physicist Richard Feynman quipped, “You must not fool yourself—and you are the easiest person to fool.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“Exhausting someone in argument is not the same as convincing him.1”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“As they shifted into scientist mode, they focused less on why different solutions would succeed or fail, and more on how those solutions might work. Finally they identified problems with both of their approaches, and realized they were both wrong. “We”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“The first rule of the Dunning-Kruger club is you don’t know you’re a member of the Dunning-Kruger club.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“admitting we were wrong doesn’t make us look less competent.41 It’s a display of honesty and a willingness to learn.42”
― 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. They read widely and were as eager to learn about developments in biology, philosophy, architecture, and music as in domestic and foreign affairs. They were interested in hearing new views and revising their old ones. They saw many of their policies as experiments to run, not points to score. Although they might have been politicians by profession, they often solved problems like scientists.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“Scientists morph into preachers when they present their pet theories as gospel and treat thoughtful critiques as sacrilege. They veer into politician terrain when they allow their views to be swayed by popularity rather than accuracy. They enter prosecutor mode when they’re hell-bent on debunking and discrediting rather than discovering.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

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

“Candice and her fellow custodians were all hired to do the same job, but some of them ended up rethinking their roles. One cleaner on a long-term intensive care unit took it upon herself to regularly rearrange the paintings on the walls, hoping that a change of scenery might spark some awareness among patients in comas. When asked about it, she said, “No, it’s not part of my job, but it’s part of me.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“It’s when we progress from novice to amateur that we become overconfident.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“When we lack the knowledge and skills to achieve excellence, we sometimes lack the knowledge and skills to judge excellence. This insight should immediately put your favorite confident ignoramuses in their place. Before we poke fun at them, though, it’s worth remembering that we all have moments when we are them. We’re”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“I don’t blame Al Gore for taking that position; he was presenting rigorous data and representing the consensus of the scientific community. Because he was a recovering politician, seeing two sides to an issue must have been second nature. But when the only available options are black and white, it’s natural to slip into a mentality of us versus them and to focus on the sides over the science. For those on the fence, when forced to choose a side, the emotional, political, and economic pressures tilt in favor of disengaging or dismissing the problem.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

“The risk is that we become so wrapped up in preaching that we’re right, prosecuting others who are wrong, and politicking for support that we don’t bother to rethink our own views.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know