Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know by Adam Grant (sad books to read txt) 📕

Pink gave excellent input on framing the idea and tips on relevant research. My colleagues at Wharton—especially Rachel Arnett, Sigal Barsade, Drew Carton, Stephanie Creary, Angela Duckworth, Cade Massey, Samir Nurmohamed, and Nancy Rothbard—modeled many of the principles in the book and led me to think again about many of the points I was making. I am also grateful to Phil Tetlock for the preacher-prosecutor-politician framework and referrals to Kjirste Morrell and Jean-Pierre Beugoms; Eva Chen, Terry Murray, and Phil Rescober for the analysis of Jean-Pierre’s forecasts; Bob Sutton for putting Brad Bird on my radar and analyzing his Incredibles leadership so perceptively, as well as Jamie Woolf and Chris Wiggum for opening the Pixar door; Karl Weick for introducing me to Mann Gulch; Shannon Sedgwick Davis and Laren Poole for putting me in touch with Betty Bigombe and sharing background on her story; Jeff Ashby and Mike Bloomfield for the referrals to Chris Hansen and Ellen Ochoa; Eoghan Sheehy for the connection to Harish Natarajan; and Douglas Archibald for recommending Ron Berger (props to Noah Devereaux and the Strive Challenge for that serendipitous conversation). Early on, Eric Best showed me how rethinking could help people raise the bar, and Brian Little, Jane Dutton, Richard Hackman, and Sue Ashford taught me to see rethinking as one of the great joys of being an organizational psychologist.

Every day, being a parent shows me that we all have the innate capacity to change our minds. As I finished writing this book during the pandemic, Henry wondered if the water supply might be affected and was eager to rethink where we get running water (Is there a tube that connects the ocean to our house? We might get an octopus!). When I asked how she convinces me to rethink things, Elena opened my eyes to a persuasion technique I had completely overlooked (Puppy dog eyes! Works every time!). When we were considering various optical illusions for the jacket of this book, Joanna came up with a better idea (What about a candle with a flame that’s water instead of fire?). I came away rethinking where creative ideas come from: if our twelve-year-old can come up with the perfect image for my book jacket, what else can kids do? I love how happily and effortlessly our children think again—and how they coax me to do it more often, too.

My deep gratitude goes to Allison Sweet Grant for her love, advice, and humor every step of the way. As always, she helped me rethink many of my assumptions and put up with countless trivial questions, random requests, and unnecessary debates. I still pronounce it man-aze, not may-o-naze, but she makes a compelling point that no one says “Please pass the man”; it’s “Please pass the mayo.” For the record, I don’t even like mayonnaise.

NOTES

Prologue

The smarter you are: Frank L. Schmidt and John Hunter, “General Mental Ability in the World of Work: Occupational Attainment and Job Performance,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 86 (2004): 162–73.

the faster you can solve them: David C. Geary, “Efficiency of Mitochondrial Functioning as the Fundamental Biological Mechanism of General Intelligence (G),” Psychological Review 15 (2018): 1028–50.

the ability to think and learn: Neel Burton, “What Is Intelligence?,” Psychology Today, November 28, 2018, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/hide-and-seek/201811/what-is-intelligence; Charles Stangor and Jennifer Walinga, Introduction to Psychology (Victoria, BC: BCcampus, 2014); Frank L. Schmidt, “The Role of Cognitive Ability and Job Performance: Why There Cannot Be a Debate,” Human Performance 15 (2002): 187–210.

“exercise great caution if you decide to change”: A Systematic Approach to the GRE (New York: Kaplan, 1999).

the majority of answer revisions: Ludy T. Benjamin Jr., Timothy A. Cavell, and William R. Shallenberger III, “Staying with Initial Answers on Objective Tests: Is It a Myth?,” Teaching of Psychology 11 (1984): 133–41.

counted eraser marks: Justin Kruger, Derrick Wirtz, and Dale T. Miller, “Counterfactual Thinking and the First Instinct Fallacy,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 88 (2005): 725–35.

those who do rethink their first answers: Yongnam Kim, “Apples to Oranges: Causal Effects of Answer Changing in Multiple-Choice Exams,” arXiv:1808.10577v4, last revised October 14, 2019, arxiv.org/abs/1808.10577.

considering whether you should change it: Justin J. Couchman et al., “The Instinct Fallacy: The Metacognition of Answering and Revising during College Exams,” Metacognition and Learning 11 (2016): 171–85.

The speaker taught them: Charles M. Slem, “The Effects of an Educational Intervention on Answer Changing Behavior,” Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, August 1985, eric.ed.gov/?id=ED266395.

we’re mental misers: Susan T. Fiske and Shelley E. Taylor, Social Cognition: From Brains to Culture, 2nd ed. (Los Angeles: Sage, 2013).

seizing and freezing: Arie W. Kruglanski and Donna M. Webster, “Motivated Closing of the Mind: ‘Seizing’ and ‘Freezing,’” Psychological Review 103 (1996): 263–83.

better off in the slow-boiling pot: James Fallows, “The Boiled-Frog Myth: Stop the Lying Now!,” The Atlantic, September 16, 2006, www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2006/09/the-boiled-frog-myth-stop-the-lying-now/7446/.

“On a big fire”: Norman Maclean, Young Men and Fire, 25th anniversary ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2017); see also www.nifc.gov/safety/mann_gulch/event_timeline/event6.htm.

Under acute stress, people typically revert: Barry M. Staw, Lance E. Sandelands, and Jane E. Dutton, “Threat Rigidity Effects in Organizational Behavior: A Multilevel Analysis,” Administrative Science Quarterly 26 (1981): 501–24; Karl E. Weick, “The Collapse of SenseMaking in Organizations: The Mann Gulch Disaster,” Administrative Science Quarterly 38 (1993): 628–52.

twenty-three wildland firefighters perished: Ted Putnam, “Findings from the Wildland Firefighters Human Factors Workshop,” United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Technology & Development Program, November 1995.

Storm King Mountain: John N. Maclean, Fire on the Mountain: The True Story of the South Canyon Fire (New York: HarperPerennial, 2009).

could have moved 15 to 20 percent faster: Ted Putnam, “Analysis of Escape Efforts and Personal Protective Equipment on the South Canyon Fire,” Wildfire 4 (1995): 34–39.

“Most would have lived”: Ted Putnam, “The Collapse of Decision Making and Organizational Structure on Storm King Mountain,” Wildfire 4 (1995): 40–45.

“dropped their packs”: Report of the South Canyon Fire Accident Investigation Team, August 17, 1994.

“Without my tools, who am I?”: Karl E. Weick, “Drop Your Tools: An Allegory for Organizational Studies,” Administrative Science