Cargo-cult thinking is the mimicry, not whatever this is (being wrong, but still insisting you're right?). The way you detect cargo-cult thinking is you ask "wh

Cargo-cult thinking is the mimicry, not whatever this is (being wrong, but still insisting you're right?). The way you detect cargo-cult thinking is you ask "why did you do that?" If the answer is "because they did that" it's cargo-cult thinking. Cargo-cult thinking can also be more successful than analytical thinking over the short term, and over the long term can be subjected to analysis and improved. Cargo is still a religion in contemporary New Guinea and Vanuatu, but now it's an abstract one like the Church of England. If you accept Cargo as symbolic, but still believe in its effectiveness, you might as well be a Methodist.