It is helpful to think of your mind as having limited shelf space. If you fill that space with negative thoughts, it will set your mental filters to negativity and poor health, and there will be no space left for healthy, productive, and uplifting thoughts. – Scott Adams
As humans, we all look for shortcuts…in fact our minds are tuned to look for patterns to speed up the decision making process. Unfortunately, most of us are actually very bad at identifying accurate patterns. Worse yet is the fact that we tend to believe the opposite. Of course, like everything, we can learn and improve. For that reason, consider reading Scott Adam’s 2019 book, Loserthink: How Untrained Brains Are Ruining America.
Throughout the book, readers will take a tour of the many manifestations of loserthink – defined as “sneaky mental habits trapping victims in their own bubbles of reality.” For example, loserthink includes the delusion of mindreading. There is always the temptation to believe that one can read the minds of others…even others across the globe or on television. In reality, we can never know all the reasons someone says or does something, so it is fruitless to assume that you can know the reason(s) why.
Perhaps more challenging to some readers is the warning that we cannot necessarily assume that what the experts say will come to pass. We ought to take serious heed when considering the words of “experts”. First, there are experts on both sides of most equations. Second, the more complicated the topic, the more likely it is that the opinions of experts are evolving and changing as learning continues.
The point here is to avoid allowing yourself to be trapped by mental models or thinking patterns that are not open or flexible enough to consider the options. Even the old axiom that the simplest explanation is probably the correct one may itself be too simple.
The sweet spot for self-confidence involves operating with a belief that you can do more than the available evidence suggests, but not so much more that it would be crazy. – Scott Adams