Explanatory Depth and Growth Mindset (with Daniel Greene)

May 26, 2021 1h 18m 14 insights Episode Page ↗
In this episode, Spencer Greenberg speaks with Dan Green about the illusion of explanatory depth, mental models of belief, expertise, and growth mindset. They explore how articulating beliefs can moderate extreme views and discuss the ethical application of social science.
Actionable Insights

1. Cultivate Skepticism & Seekingness

To improve your truth-seeking ability, actively seek out diverse ideas (seekingness) while carefully vetting new information before accepting it (skepticism). This prevents uncritically adopting bad ideas or becoming stuck in your current worldview.

2. Adopt a Growth Mindset

Believe that your intelligence and abilities are malleable and can improve with effort and strategy. Interpret difficulties and feedback as opportunities to learn and adapt, rather than as indicators of fixed ability.

3. Articulate Beliefs to Uncover Ignorance

To improve your thinking and understand your true knowledge, try to explain how something works in causal steps. This process often reveals gaps in your understanding and can reduce overconfidence.

4. Write Out Your Beliefs

Regularly write down your beliefs, attitudes, and positions on various topics. This practice helps you discover your own ignorance and decide where to deepen your understanding or moderate your opinions.

5. Engage in Collaborative Discussions

For productive discussions on controversial topics, use a structured, one-on-one format without an audience. Each person explains their view until the other can restate it to their satisfaction, then they collaboratively identify the source of disagreement.

6. Embrace Learning from Mistakes

Cultivate a mindset that welcomes mistakes and opportunities to learn, rather than becoming defensive when flaws in reasoning are pointed out. This fosters a more productive and open learning environment.

7. Develop Growth Mindset of Interest

Understand that interest in new fields or hobbies often grows over time as you develop skills and knowledge, rather than being an immediate passion. This perspective can help you persist through initial challenges and avoid giving up prematurely.

8. Moderate Extreme Views

To reduce partisanship and moderate extreme attitudes, explain an issue in causal terms. This process can decrease overconfidence in your understanding and make your positions less extreme.

9. Evaluate Experts Critically

When seeking expert opinions, prioritize individuals who are emotionally calm, can dispassionately explain opposing views, have “skin in the game” (lose something if wrong), and are willing to update their opinions with new information.

10. Value Disagreeable Individuals

Recognize the important role of disagreeable individuals in intellectual discussions, as they are often willing to directly challenge bad ideas and prevent groupthink, even if their approach is not always gentle.

11. Apply Ethical Social Influence

When using social science or any influence, ensure your actions help individuals achieve their own goals, and that those goals are not harmful to others. This principle guides ethical intervention.

12. Acknowledge Intervention Variability

Understand that interventions (like growth mindset programs) have highly variable effects across individuals; some may be life-changing for a few, while others are unaffected. This suggests implementing a range of low-cost interventions and looking for outlier wins.

13. Consider Power Posing

If you are highly reactive to body posture, try adopting powerful stances (e.g., hands on hips, standing tall) before stressful situations. This can lead to self-reported increases in feelings of power, confidence, and improved mood.

14. Articulate Intuitive Knowledge

Recognize that intuitive knowledge, gained from experience, is often hard to articulate. Actively try to put this “deeper in your bones” understanding into words or communication to discover and refine its underlying reasons.