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Showing posts from September, 2019

Seven habits towards highly effective minds

Lately I’ve been thinking about how my thinking works, and how it can be improved. The simplest way to do so is probably to nudge myself towards paying more attention to various useful habits of mind. Here are the ones I've found most valuable (roughly in order): Tying together the act of saying a statement, and the act of evaluating whether I actually believe it. After making a novel claim, saying out loud to myself: “is this actually true?” and "how could I test this?" Being comfortable with pausing to reflect and thinking out loud. Trying to notice when my responses are too quick and reflexive, as a sign that I'm not thinking hard enough about the point I'm addressing. Asking for  specific examples , and using more of my own. Tabooing vague abstractions and moving away from discussing claims that are too general. Being charitable and collaborative, both towards new ideas and towards conversational partners. Trying to rephrase other people’s arguments and