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"I may be wrong. I am often wrong." I say this out loud all the time, any time my knowledge/expertise is involved, and I'm trying to be better about saying it i

by beat 8y ago

"I may be wrong. I am often wrong." I say this out loud all the time, any time my knowledge/expertise is involved, and I'm trying to be better about saying it in writing as well. It works like an affirmation, only to encourage recognizing my own fallibility, rather than boosting my confidence. Closely related... recognizing that everyone, including me, is just a thin coat of reason smeared on a dumb animal brain. Everyone's decision-making, including mine, is governed by a lot of reactionary, low-energy thinking patterns driven by instinct and bad assumptions, not reason - and our "reasoning" is often just thinking our reactionary assumptions are actually something we came to from careful thought. Recognizing that others are irrational helps me work with their interests and biases. Recognizing I'm also irrational helps me avoid the smug belief that everyone who disagrees with me is hateful, greedy, and stupid.

MattHeard 8y ago
My reasoning is often conjured ex post facto as well, with my brain tricking me into thinking I had good reasons to do something before I actually thought of the reasons. Our brains use reason to justify what we already did more than it uses it to choose what we will do.
- scarejunba 8y ago
  In The Righteous Mind, in a small section, Jonathan Haidt talks about this with the analogy that reason is a mahout riding the elephant of emotion. After reading that book and some others, I wondered if I could train my feelings so I’d respond instinctually and instantly to things in the ‘right’ way. Often when we see code, we have a feeling of ‘dirty’ or ‘clean’. An internal reaction that pushes us in some direction. It’s worth questioning why we think that about some things, but I think we eventually develop a sense of what is a good pattern and what isn’t and we actually use the emotional reasoning of our brain to guide us effectively in writing code. Perhaps we wouldn’t even be effective programmers if we had to actually think through full reason each time. Less applicable when reviewing code, of course.
  - beat 8y ago
    You're on the right path, I think. It's the same thing I do with my "I may be wrong, I'm often wrong" anti-affirmation. I'm training my mind - and training the minds of people I work with - to recognize my fallibility in advance, so it's not such a shock when I actually am wrong. Because yeah, I'm often wrong. And for my own purposes, recognizing the possibility that I might be wrong in advance, and being comfortable with it, heads off a lot of wasted effort from defending my wrongness.
- beat 8y ago
  Everyone does it. You're just aware of it. Most people think it's because they're smart, not because they're dumb.

by beat 8y ago

MattHeard 8y ago

My reasoning is often conjured ex post facto as well, with my brain tricking me into thinking I had good reasons to do something before I actually thought of the reasons. Our brains use reason to justify what we already did more than it uses it to choose what we will do.

scarejunba 8y ago
In The Righteous Mind, in a small section, Jonathan Haidt talks about this with the analogy that reason is a mahout riding the elephant of emotion. After reading that book and some others, I wondered if I could train my feelings so I’d respond instinctually and instantly to things in the ‘right’ way. Often when we see code, we have a feeling of ‘dirty’ or ‘clean’. An internal reaction that pushes us in some direction. It’s worth questioning why we think that about some things, but I think we eventually develop a sense of what is a good pattern and what isn’t and we actually use the emotional reasoning of our brain to guide us effectively in writing code. Perhaps we wouldn’t even be effective programmers if we had to actually think through full reason each time. Less applicable when reviewing code, of course.
- beat 8y ago
  You're on the right path, I think. It's the same thing I do with my "I may be wrong, I'm often wrong" anti-affirmation. I'm training my mind - and training the minds of people I work with - to recognize my fallibility in advance, so it's not such a shock when I actually am wrong. Because yeah, I'm often wrong. And for my own purposes, recognizing the possibility that I might be wrong in advance, and being comfortable with it, heads off a lot of wasted effort from defending my wrongness.
beat 8y ago
Everyone does it. You're just aware of it. Most people think it's because they're smart, not because they're dumb.