Notes from: Julia Galef's Scout Mindset
"...knowing how to reason wasn't the cure-all I thought it was."

My approach has three prongs:
1. Realize that truth isn't in conflict with your other goals.
2. Learn tools that make it easier to see clearly.
3. Appreciate the emotional rewards of scout mindset.

Motivated reasoning = soldier mindset

A scout isn't indifferent, they hope for a particular state of affairs, but above all they want to learn what's really there.

In scout mindset, there's no such thing as a "threat" to your beliefs.

Soldier mindset: Must I believe this? Can I believe this? Scout mindset: is it true?

What the soldier is protecting...
-personally:
Comfort, self-esteem, morale,
-interpersonally:
persuasion, image, belonging.

What doesn't make you a scout: feeling objective, or being smart and knowledgeable.

When one is actually a scout, you:
1. Tell other people when you realize they were right.
2. Welcome criticism and act on it.
3. Prove yourself wrong
4. Take precautions to avoid fooling yourself.
5. Can point to people you consider good critics.
6. Can point to occasions in which you were in a soldier mindset.

Thought experiments (as tools for scout mindset)
1. The double standard test: Are you judging one person or group by a different standard than you would use for another person or group?
2. The outsider test: How would you evaluate this situation if it wasn't your situation?
3. The conformity test: If other people no longer held this view, would you still hold it?
4. The selective skeptic test: If this piece of evidence actually supported the other side, how credible would you judge it to be?/
5. The status quo bias test: If your current situation was not the status quo, would you actively choose it?

Coping strategies: Venn Diagram
(
-Self justification: it wasn't my fault because...
-Denial: This is fine
-False fatalism: it's hopeless
-Sour grapes: That skill isn't worth having anyway
     (
Coping strategies that don't require self-deception:
-Count your blessings
-Notice how far you've come
-Remember you can't do more than your best
     )
)

An accurate picture of your odds helps you choose between goals.
An accurate picture of your odds helps you adapt your plan over time.
An accurate picture of your odds helps you decide how much to stake on success.
Accepting variance gives you equanimity.

Important to distinguish two types of confidence: Epistemic and social confidence. The former is not the latter.

Two kinds of uncertainty:
1. Due to your ignorance or inexperience.
2. Due to reality being messy and unpredictable.

Best practices:
-Change your mind a little at a time.
-Recognize when you are wrong
-Admitting a mistake vs Updating: Do not be humbled or otherwise think negatively about changing a belief. It's empowering. A scout is not humbled by updating, and does not apologize.
-Look out for seasons when your mind stops changing.

Lean into confusion. Be willing to stay confused.

If you want to become better at predicting other people's behavior, then shrugging off the times when they violate your expectations is exactly the wrong response.

Escaping your echo chamber:
-Listen to people you find reasonable.
-Listen to people you share intellectual common ground with.
-Listen to people who share your goals.
-Arguing with people you don't respect is bad for your mind.
-It's harder than you think; We misunderstand each other's views, bad arguments inoculate us against good arguments, and our beliefs are interdependent (changing one requires changing others)

Signs a belief might be an identity:
1. Using the phrase "I believe"
2. Getting annoyed when an ideology is criticized
3. Defiant language: I'm an unapologetic/Fearless/proud x.
4. A righteous tone: "Period. Full stop. End of story. It's that simple. You are part of the problem"
5. Gatekeeping: You can't call yourself x if...
6. Schadenfreude: If you enjoy when a group is thwarted, owned, or saddened by events.
7. Epithets
8. Having to defend your view: The more you talk about a view, the more you feel you have taken a position in the eyes of peers, and you will start to feel the need to defend the view on a new level.

Keep your identify small: you are not your beliefs. (You can still be an activist.)

"I'm more of a person who agrees with most ideas that are part of the x consensus." This is a better way to characterize your existing beliefs.

Try an ideological Turing Test.

If you identify less strongly then you are paradoxically more persuasive.

Understanding the other side makes it possible to change minds.

A scout identity:
-Choose online communities of scouts.
-Choose role models who are scouts.