If Knowledge Is Gold, Knowing What You Don’t Know Is Then, Platinum.

When knowing is your blind spot and what to do about it

Sure, knowing is better than being clueless. I am not taking issue with that.

Still, it becomes way too easy to get stuck on the Illusion of knowing;

• Knowing feels good to our brains: oxytocin and norepinephrine are released when we match a pattern or we “make sense” of a situation.
• It feels so good that could even become addictive: “Addicted to being right” we lean towards the feeling of “knowing’ instead of embracing the discomfort of not knowing.

The issue with knowing is that it blocks everything else that’s behind.

Like missing the forest for the tree in front of us. When we “know” we stop inquiring. We settle our minds down for that matter, missing anything and everything else bending that “truth.”

Research shows that the higher you score on an IQ test, the more likely you are to fall for stereotypes because you’re faster at recognizing patterns. In our dynamic & chaotic world, the cognitive skill that creates more impact than knowledge is the ability to rethink and unlearn.

Breaking free from the tendency to always know, is yet not easy.

We all are inclined to listen to views that make us feel good, rather than engaging with ideas that make us think harder.

Daniel Kahneman, psychologist and Nobel Prize in economic sciences, concluded that it is easier to recognize other people’s mistakes than our own.

Partially, this is explained by intuitive heuristics: when we are faced with a difficult question, we often answer an easier one instead, usually without noticing the substitution.

It is easier for every one of us to exercise our ability to ignore our ignorance than to push through the discomfort of not knowing.

🛠 How to get a more advanced critical thinking asset to go beyond the knowing bias?

Thinking like a scientist

This process goes beyond remaining open-minded, staying curious, and not getting married with our first solutions (even if all those things are good)

The process requires to behave as conducting experimentation: here’s how

1. Inquire about reasons for which you might be wrong, rather than cherry-picking reasons for why you must be right.

2. Revise your views based on what you’ve learned from 1. This will give you “a map” of the situation, instead of looking for “the right answer”.

3. Make a habit of observing and judging the work, never the person. Like a crime detective, witness the scene, do not react to what you see.

All of us are prone to overestimate how much we understand the world; thinking like a scientist, will help you see yourself and the world, more as it is and less of how you’d like it to be.

#CongnitiveBias #Noise #SeeingClear