The Scout Mindset: Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don't

Learn how to combat biases and make smarter decisions by adopting a 'scout' mindset

The human brain is designed to lie to us. Over the years, it has evolved to help us ignore mistakes we make, fuelling our own irrational, biological instincts. But what if we could train our minds to make more rational decisions, without the blow to our confidence?

In The Scout Mindset, Julia Galef explores two different modes of thinking, the 'soldier' and the 'scout' mindset, and explains why the 'scout' mindset helps us make much better decisions. Unfortunately, most of us naturally have a 'soldier' mindset. We protect our beliefs aggressively and ignore any evidence that we might be wrong. But to be right more often, we need to approach ideas less like a soldier and more like a scout. A scout surveys the land, seeking accuracy and understanding to find all available information - good and bad - to gain a more truthful picture. While the soldier and the scout are both essential to the functioning of an actual army, a scout mindset will benefit most of us more in decision-making.

With fascinating stories ranging from Warren Buffett's investing strategies to subreddit threads and modern partisan politics, Galef explores why our brains deceive us and what we can do see things more clearly and be right more often.

Julia Galef is the Co-founder and President of the Center for Applied Rationality (CFAR), a non-profit organization training people in cognitive science-based strategies for improved decision-making. She is the host of the hit podcast Rationally Speaking for which she has interviewed everyone from Neil DeGrasse Tyson to Philip Tetlock.