Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

I really enjoyed this one! It was a fast read and had some good practical takeaways.

It made me think a lot about my teaching and management style, and also how I approach conversations and projects. I think I'll refer back to it in the future, as well.

You can just tell this dude is annoying lmao

I don't remember why I thought I wanted to read this one. I remember seeing it around for a while and kept thinking “that one's on my to-read list.” And when I finally checked it out, I found it wasn't. Strange, I was sure I put it there. Going into the introduction chapter with an open mind, since I had been looking forward to this, I ended up with that same thought: “why exactly did I want to read this?” I could not remember why I thought I'd needed this book, and the author did nothing to convince me of that idea as I sat through and repeatedly brought my hand to my forehead.

You aren't convincing if your best arguments involve redefining 100+ year old metaphors to fit your conclusion. You aren't convincing if your “samples” include fetisizing impostor's syndrome, which causes real problems for the people who have it. You aren't convincing if your arguments stand on shaky legs to begin with, and then you pull a bait-and-switch with your sample: “A full grown man debated a small child and won! Even though the audience agreed with the child!” Wow, no shit? “Just kidding! The child was actually a robot!” What? That opens up SO many other factors that COULD be going on here. But you were so ready to fit it to your conclusion, you didn't rethink that.

If you've ever in your life had a thought and then reconsidered it, this book is useless. I don't remember anything about how to actually teach yourself to enjoy being wrong, which is probably what got me to think I wanted to read it; it was mostly just him talking about people who do feel that way and what their attitude about it is. That doesn't automatically make it my attitude.

Did not finish.

Great argumentation of a fairly trivial topic/message: you need to be able to change your mind.

solid book with very practical and important takeaways; some case studies were a bit stretched perhaps but overall very fascinating book; we did it, we thought again

Hold up, slow down, and think again. How often do we get caught up and think we know the answer? And because of this lose the chance to learn and gain greater understanding.

Can I give it 6 stars, cuz I'd like to. I don't know how to classify it, or if I need to. Psychology. Self help. Business or philosophy. The thinking behind this book wowed me as much as the writing style. It fits with my curiosity and question-everything personal style. Most importantly, it's a reference and I will need to, want to, read this again. Plus I will probably buy a copy or two for friends and family. In the end, this one passes the hardcover test, well worth the extra cost for a durable copy I will use again.

To read and reread...again.

Key takeaways:

- Challenge every assumption you have. Look for reasons you might be wrong, and learn to find joy in being wrong.
- Think like a scientist. Avoid Preacher, Prosecutor, and Politician modes.
- Ask, “What evidence would change your mind?” and, “What would need to be true for me to rethink this?”
- Grey areas are important. People are more inclined to rethink their views if they are shown issues as ‘gray' rather than just seeing the other side.
- One of the most effective ways to help people rethink: Help them consider what they would believe if they were born into a different circumstance. “How do you think you would feel about the issue of police violence if you lived in a marginalized community?”
- Effective leaders normalize vulnerability by admitting their own mistakes and times they have received feedback.
- There are too many ‘takeaways' in this book to try to narrow it down to just a small handful. I'll reread this book often.

I read this book with the self-development book club at work. I typically stay away from the “self-help” category because I tend to find much of the genre is fluff masquerading as wisdom, but this year I told myself I wanted to expand the types of literature I ingest, so I joined. The first book we read confirmed my opinions of the genre (Atomic Habits by James Clear), but I am happy to announce this book made me rethink my beliefs! badumtss

I love the way Adam Grant shares his stories and ideas. Never once did I not feel engaged during my personal reading experience, and during the book club, our 1hr session to 1 chapter ratio always felt too short for the multitude of conversations this book's contents sparked. I think I might reread this book every year to remind myself how to know what I don't know.

I am excited to continue with book club, I am excited to share this book with my friends and family, and I am excited to see where rethinking might take me next!

This is the kind of book you should read with a notebook. Very good, tons of great quote and real life, relevant examples. So much of it boils down to asking the questions: What do you believe is true, and how do you know it's true. His examples with NASA really drove the concept home. So often we assume things rather than confirming them. Highly recommend to open up your thinking and see things from other's perspective.

For a book with a pretty straightforward message it sures has a loooooong way of making every point. I feel like this is one of those books that makes people hate non-fiction books. Hundreds of little stories backing up writer's ideas. It should've been three times shorter.

Adam Grant is great but (I now realize) best consumed in IG-sized bites and interviews.

Meh. Right now I am feeling like everything in the book resolved a bit quickly and with very little reflection on how/why. I also struggle with actually being able to make an impact with what I learned in this book. It feels like it is missing the “how” though it is abundant with “why” reasoning. A good primer, I suppose, but not for anyone who wants to implement anything meaningful or tangible.

This book is about having a scientifc mindset on what you know. Its core tenent is to evaluate and reavalute what you know. Being open to ideas.

I connect this book to the idea of
* Growth mindest vs Fixed mind.
* Agile emperical thinking
* Learning organizations
* Non-violent comunication.

I value what Grant writes about Conventional vs. Alternative View of Intelligence, The Blessing of Being Wrong, Motivational Talking, The power of imposter syndrome.

The book is full of tools to help you and others to think scientifically.

In the shaper about Motivational Talking, includes the following points:
1. open-ended questions
2. reflective listening, and
3. encouragement to change.

This is a good starting point for building a growth mindset or a learning organisation.

This book is PHENOMENAL!!! It completely lives up to its tagline: “the power of knowing what you don't know.” This book helped me analyze my beliefs, further acknowledge that I can and will be wrong in life and helped to caution me against common logical fallacies while helping me separate my emotional responses to information. All of this was presented with clear and fascinating examples of each topic. I'm in awe of this book and it's earned a spot on my list of favorite non-fiction books of all time.

Adam Grant in his groundbreaking book, “Think Again” walks the audience through an interesting journey of learning, unlearning, and rethinking. This book consists of interesting examples, studies and a bunch of the author's personal experience; why we need to let go of knowledge and opinion that no longer serve us. As well as how we should equip ourselves with flexibility rather than consistency to thrive in a fast paced world we live on. All in all, it is a great book to enhance our lives, mindsets, as well as leadership skills.

“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” – George Bernard Shaw.

The crucialness of adaptation to changes and rethink was illustrated beautifully on the fable of BlackBerry. Adam Grant analyzes the journey BlackBerry had and in retrospect he concluded what caused the organization to thrive also become the reason for their failure. Being good at thinking makes us worse at rethinking, and the brighter we are the harder it is to see our own limitations is among the reasons why good thinkers might be more vulnerable to adjust course. Hence the cognitive blind spot is something we all need to be reminded of and try to be aware of it. Strong leaders engage their critics and make themselves stronger. Weak leaders silent the critics and make themselves weaker. According to research, CEOs of poorly performing firms that indulge flattery and conformity become overconfident and instead of changing course they stick with their existing strategy plan which sets them on a collision course with failure. We learn more from people who challenge our thought process rather than those who affirm our conclusions.

“If knowledge is power, knowing what we don't know is wisdom” – Adam Grant

How to debate effectively has been covered in an interesting fashion. We usually fall under one or more of below four modes when we debate: preacher, prosecutor, politician, or scientist. We go to the preacher mode when our beliefs are questioned. Prosecutor when we recognize flaws in other person reasoning. And going to politician mode when we want to convince the audience. He illustrates why the first three modes are not only inefficient but detrimental especially when the stack is high. Scientist mode is the most useful mode that we could use for a debate. Within scientist mode you must be aware of the limits of your understanding, expect to doubt what you know, be curious about what you don't know and update your views based on your data. Debating on scientist mode it is more on intellectual ground rather than emotional one.

Adam Grant articulates how debate champions and effective debaters convey their message and how we can learn from them. What it takes to win a debate and how experts treat debate as a dance rather than a war is narrated in multiple stories with some element of surprises. Finding a rhythm is a first move on effective debates. Finding a common ground and representing your case. Also, strong debaters do not dilute the strong arguments with weak ones is something that Adam Grant illustrated with multiple studies. Asking questions is among the strongest tools within a debate. How to construct your question and who delivers it make a huge difference on the outcome of the debate. Sustain talk which is a commentary to keep the status quo versus change talk which refers to the tendency to make an adjustment is among other techniques the author discussed within this book.
“Exhausting someone in argument is not the same as convincing him” – Tim Kreider

Several biases and syndromes have been analyzed within the book, chief among them: Confirmation bias, Desirability bias, Binary bias, Imposter syndrome, Armchair Quarterback syndrome, Anton syndrome and Dunning–Kruger effect. These are and more are the main reasons why we need to revisit our perceptions and rethink our positions. Adam Grant has performed an interesting interpretation of Imposter syndrome and how within significant cases it was among the reasons for improvement. And provide more sense of humility and being grounded. On the other hand, how Armchair Quarterback syndrome could give false confidence and eliminate the need to improve. Detaching your present from your past and detaching your opinion from your identity are techniques that could widen our horizon and be less vulnerable to the biases around us. Basing our identity based on your values rather than opinions could give us a slight age.

“People who are right a lot listen a lot, and they change their mind a lot. They wake up and reanalyze things and change their mind. If you don't change your mind frequently, you're going to be wrong a lot.” – Jeff Bezos

The psychology of constructive conflict is another interesting topic which has been covered in depth within this book. It has illustrated the relationship conflict in comparison with the task conflict. Compare the disagreeableness versus agreeableness and elaborate the need for a challenging network to bring us to the next level. Interesting result of several studies revealed in this section how task conflict is essential for innovation and how relationship conflict could be detrimental for the project and organization in large. When there is a task conflict there is Intensity rather than hostility and the argument is mainly about how rather than why.

“Many leaders shield themselves from task conflict. As they gain power, they tune out boat-rockers and listen to bootlickers. They become politicians, surrounding themselves with agreeable yes-men and becoming more susceptible to seduction by sycophants.” _ Adam Grant

Outcome and Process accountability have been covered in later chapters of this book. It elaborated what is psychological safety and who it needs to be mixed with accountability for the best result. As Adam Grant put it, when there is psychological safety but not accountability people tend to stay in their comfort zone and when accountability but not safety people tend to stay silent and within their anxiety zone. Learning zone is when psychological safety will be combined with accountability. The importance of disagreeable people within the organization have been highlighted. Especially disagreeable givers which they do not criticize because they're insecure but because they care. Rethinking is more likely to happen in learning culture that the growth is the core value.


“Presented with someone else's argument, we're quite adept at spotting the weaknesses,” journalist Elizabeth Kolbert writes, but “the positions we're blind about are our own.”

When we're insecure, we make fun of others. If we're comfortable being wrong, we're not afraid to poke fun at ourselves. Laughing at ourselves reminds us that although we might take our decisions seriously, we don't have to take ourselves too seriously. The purpose of learning is not to affirm or believe but to evolve them. And change your mindset from prove yourself to improve yourself. We don't have much luck on changing others minds If we refuse to change ours. One of the suggested approaches to be able to change our mind is listing down the condition in which you are going to change your mind, stay on course.