The Scout Mindset — Julia Galef

by | 2022-04-10

The framing of the book is the contrast between the “Scout Mindset” versus the “Soldier Mindset”.

Describes the concept of “motivated reasoning”. The motivation can be “Must I believe this?” versus “Can I believe this?” versus “What is the truth?”. The soldier uses must/can versus the scout’s what.

She uses a lot of anecdotes to explain many cognitive biases and methods to avoid them. Lot of anecdotes about people who broke out of their cognitive bubbles.

The book has good reviews, but I found it simplistic in its approach. A disappointment.