Monday, June 3, 2013

It is easy...

Bob Freund, CA
...to concoct stories explaining the past or to become confident about dubious scenarios for the future. That there are traps in such endeavors doesn't mean we should not undertake them. But we can work to immunize ourselves against our errors of intuition. We can learn to view both explanations and prophecies with skepticism. We can focus on the ability to react to events rather than relying on the ability to predict them, on qualities like flexibility, confidence, courage, and perseverance. And we can place more importance on our direct impressions of people than on their well-trumpeted past accomplishments. In these ways we can resist forming judgments in our automatic deterministic framework.

--Leonard Mlodinow, The Drunkard's Walk

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