Book Review: The Scout Mindset

The Scout Mindset: Why Some People See Things Clearly, and Others Don’t

By Julia Galef. Here on GoodReads. 

I've been reading several books in parallel this summer, but I've just finished Scout Mindset about how to stop self-deceiving and view the world realistically. As someone immersed in forecasting trends, this was a perfect fit. I hesitated initially for two reasons: One, I believed the book would be a rehash of other cognitive error / super forecasting literature which I have already read. Second, mindset overload. How many mindsets must one attempt to maintain at one time? There is scarcity vs. abundance, grit, ownership, and growth vs. fixed to name a few. 

However, this is an easy read and a nice digest of other great books on a similar subject matter with a few reframes that are worthwhile. I recommend it to you for that purpose. I'll summarize it for you here: 

The reason why Scout Mindset is important:

 “Life is made up of judgment calls, and the more you can avoid distorting your perception of reality, the better your judgment will be."

Benefits from self-deceptions:

• "Comfort, self-esteem, and morale are emotional benefits, meaning that the ultimate target of our deception is ourselves."

• "Persuasion, image, and belonging are social benefits; the target of the deception is other people by way of ourselves."

Several useful mindsets reframe tactics that are as straightforward as described:

• The Outsider Test: Think of a decision, or dilemma, or fact set as an outsider with no emotional attachment or history; 

• Don't brush off the other side: This is a point that top negotiators all emphasize: Don’t write off the other side as crazy; and, 

• Rethinking identities: Our beliefs can become deeply attached identities, which make people unwilling to consider or reassess alternative realities that deviate from their identity.