Why 'scout mindset' is crucial to good judgment | Julia Galef | TEDxPSU

Julia introduces a metaphor of soldiers and scouts to describe two very different approaches to thinking. To illustrate these two mindsets in action, I tell the story of the Dreyfus Affair: how one man was wrongfully convicted of treason, and how another realized this fact and fought to exonerate him.

Julia Galef co-founded the Center for Applied Rationality, a non-profit devoted to developing cognitive science-based strategies for reasoning and decision making. In addition to research, they run workshops for companies and talented individuals who want to use rationality to help them address global problems. Julia’s background is originally in statistics, and she did social science research at Columbia and Harvard Business Schools for several years before becoming a writer for venues such as Slate, Science, Scientific American, and more. For the last six years, Julia has hosted the Rationally Speaking podcast.

[Trasgu]

Let's all be scouts. Seek the truth. Question everything, even yourself. Don't let our prejudices close any open doors. Be ready to accept anything, if proven true.

[opcn]

Julia Galef is the very best. One of my favorite brains.

[bobbybannerjee]

A very necessary talk for us all. She outlined the scientific mind. And you don't have to study science to have it.

[localrachel]

Great talk. I am a scout naturally and have tweeted this talk. One of my favourite things is to change my opinion on a topic - this is where the growth happens folks!

[vfc]

What gets in the way of the scout mindset is POWER and retaining it. Those who understand the scout mindset are not influenced by power like the masses are.

[davidbuderim]

I've just started listening to Julia's podcast and enjoy them very much - Scout mindset in action.

[LukeA_]

Wow! I feel like I just watched a video that explains me
"The truth hurts but it helps" is a saying that I've had for a while now, and this video helped me realize why I think that way

[BrianTomasik]

Great talk, Julia! I like the idea that emotional resistance can be one of the biggest stumbling blocks to thinking clearly about issues. On the other hand, emotional guard rails can also be extremely useful as "bullshit detectors" or signals that something is wrong with a rational argument. It's very non-obvious how to distinguish whether a given instance of emotional resistance to logical argument is irrationality or hard-to-articulate wisdom (or some of both).

[americandream]

My father was such a soldier raising me, it turned myself and my brothers into scouts. My father is very closed minded, “old school” so to speak, where we are very open minded. If a the color is blue, to my father it’s blue. That’s it. Can’t change it. Yet my brothers and I can see how it might have be shade of purple. It’s a great trait to have. When your mind is open, you’re able to take in more information and become smarter. You can learn more because you’re open to learning more when you’re a scout. A soldiers mind is always closed.

[thetexaseagle]

Thanks for sharing! "Open minded" can only help your so far to a point; someone said make sure your brain doesn't "fall out" ! There are good people who believe in personal and moral "Boundaries" and certain "Absolutes" in life as important "reference points"! During any navigation it is good to know where the "True North" which does not change is as an important reference point!

[AnexoRialto]

Almost everybody thinks they're being a scout, when they're actually spending a lot of time as soldiers. Motivated reasoning takes less effort and feels better. If it's hard and requires extra effort to think through something, that's the scout trying to get out. "Do your own research" is meaningless if all we search for is evidence to support our beliefs and anything that contradicts those beliefs is "MSM" or "fake news".

[swirltube]

I found this while having a parallel journey of discovering what we all yearn for & a Bob Dylan song that shows a man mourning his solder mindset.
What we all yearn for is safety (preserving life) & fulfillment (protecting life). So if we dig into our emotions & find that fear & anger & desire are all about safety we can discover how we can protect life & be safe & feel safe which fulfills us in the most primal way.

[Alejandro-Te]

The best thing I did lately is coming here to check out what Julia Galef had to say. Even though I was very skeptical at first.I learnt the lesson doubly, today.

[johnjukes]

A great talk that shares the benefits of taking an emotionally balanced perspective. Brilliant work.

[williwoo]

Wow the audience is really fun and engaging.

[MotoMarios]

"Avoid the confirmation bias" is what she is basically saying. And a smart piece of advice it is too.

[FreedomMiso]

I wonder how many "soldiers" here are saying, "Yup. I knew I was a scout."

[OrisStories]

Man, tough crowd. I loved the jokes, great vid!

[claireoffer]

Military maxims like 'time spent in reconnaissance is seldom wasted' or the fact that the military appreciation structure is a fairly sound match for the thinking your talk espouses suggest you might use a better headline than the soldier mindset, the journalist mindset comes to In general institutions for whom the downside of failure is death have a decent incentive to learn, be open and grown up, put their egos away and get it right.

[DaevaB]

I know this video for years..

And i think it's now more important than ever, ideologies, ideas, they spread fast these days..