Thinking Space

‘Trust your first instincts is the key learning we get early in our life, especially for educational settings; while giving an exam. We carry this learning or a similar form; ‘leaning on the popular beliefs’ in our personal and professional lives when things start looking complex. The latest psychology research has proved that when students review their answers and change during the revision process majority of them were moved from wrong to right. We need to bring this learning to our personal and professional decision-making. As Adam Grant notes that we don’t hesitate to rethink our answers, we hesitate at the very idea of rethinking.

Part of the problem is cognitive laziness. We often prefer the ease of hanging on to old views over the difficulty of grappling with the new ones. Questioning ourselves makes the world more unpredictable. Reconsidering something we believe deeply can threaten our identities.

We update our possessions. We refresh our wardrobes when they go out of style and renovate our kitchens. But, when it comes to our knowledge and opinions, though, we tend to stick to our guns.
John Maynard Keynes, the influential economist was accused of being inconsistent with his opinions but he wasn’t ashamed of this, he famously quoted ‘When facts change, I change my mind – what do you do, sir?’.