Miguel Lima

“Of course, all maps are imperfect simplifications of reality, as a scout well knows. Striving for an accurate map means being aware of the limits of your understanding, keeping track of the regions of your map that are especially sketchy or possibly wrong. And it means always being open to changing your mind in response to new information. In scout mindset, there’s no such thing as a “threat” to your beliefs.”
― Julia Galef, The Scout Mindset: The Perils of Defensive Thinking and How to Be Right More Often

“None of these approaches have shown much promise in changing people’s thinking in the long run or outside of the classroom. And that should not surprise us. We use motivated reasoning not because we don’t know any better, but because we’re trying to protect things that are vitally important to us—our ability to feel good about our lives and ourselves, our motivation to try hard things and stick with them, our ability to look good and persuade, and our acceptance in our communities.”
― Julia Galef, The Scout Mindset: The Perils of Defensive Thinking and How to Be Right More Often

“The problem with identity is that it wrecks your ability to think clearly. Identifying with a belief makes you feel like you have to be ready to defend it, which motivates you to focus your attention on collecting evidence in its favor. Identity makes you reflexively reject arguments that feel like attacks on you or the status of your group.”
― Julia Galef, The Scout Mindset: The Perils of Defensive Thinking and How to Be Right More Often

“If you find out you were wrong about something, great—you’ve improved your map, and that can only help you.”
― Julia Galef, The Scout Mindset: The Perils of Defensive Thinking and How to Be Right More Often