If you’re going to claim that you know something, you have to be willing to admit that you could be wrong about it.
Make yourself falsifiable
- If we find evidence that seems to contradict our beliefs, we should stop to see if perhaps we need to abandon or modify our belief
Why is falsification important?
- It helps you to avoid many cognitive biases that can hinder intellectual growth and good decision making
- Makes you a clearer thinker by forcing you to be specific about what you think you know, and what evidence you have
- Boosts your creative thinking by making you naturally more receptive to new ideas and helping you more quickly process them
Putting the falsification mindset into action
- The falsifiability mindset is all about thinking through the implications of beliefs, judgments, and decisions
- Clarify what your actual belief is
- Confront the possibility that you could be wrong
- Saturate to changing your mind under specific conditions
How to adopt a falsification mindset
- For any belief you have, ask what it would take for you to change your mind.
- Be specific about what evidence would make you believe you are wrong.
- Seek out that evidence and change your belief if you find it.
- If you adopt the mindset, you should be able to see that your attitude will change.
