Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know in Science and Inquiry

Jun 19, 2022 Cassandra Kay Silva rated it liked it

Shelves: self-help, psychology-sociology

Most of the anecdotes from this book can be found elsewhere, and while he did write an entirely moving non fiction piece that I think everyone already agreed with the premise before the book began. I think there is a power in realizing that there are a lot of things you don't know and that topics should be approached with a level of humility but did we need an entire book to come to that conclusion? I also think a lot of the conclusions in the book were made by looking at the experience in hind Most of the anecdotes from this book can be found elsewhere, and while he did write an entirely moving non fiction piece that I think everyone already agreed with the premise before the book began. I think there is a power in realizing that there are a lot of things you don't know and that topics should be approached with a level of humility but did we need an entire book to come to that conclusion? I also think a lot of the conclusions in the book were made by looking at the experience in hind site, which is always easy to do. You could have cherry picked counter examples where things turned out differently quite easily which made this not feel very scientific even though he said the word scientific method fifty times I don't think he once applied it to the tying in of his own anecdotes in this book.

One thing I really did like though was the brief topic of psychological safety in the workplace. That is actually a topic that I haven't read a lot about and I think I would like to read about in more depth. It really resonated with me as I have definitely worked at organisations in which I didn't have a high level of psychological safety in terms of speaking my mind and trying to work towards outcomes. My "passion on the job" was seen as me complaining and not being a team player even though I was actively trying to come up with solutions for things I saw that the organisation could have done better. There wasn't a safe space for growth or innovation as I was always on guard about what I could say. I would love to a see an analysis or a deeper review of psychological safety in government organisations. Having recently read the Gulag Archipeligo it would be interesting to see a broad review of psychological safety in dictatorial or highly socialistic regimes where there is a major power imbalance and the individuals carrying out orders are under huge psychological duress. Now that I have a term for it I can search for some more information on this topic. Or if anyone has any suggestions along this line I would love to hear your ideas. ...more

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