Review: Scout Mindset — Sympolymathesy, by Chris Krycho
Assumed audience: Other orthodox (note the little ‘o’!) Christians, or people interested in what folks like us think. This is an appreciative review, and it absolutely assumes a Christian worldview, and it is about my response to this book as a Christian.
Much better than average in the “how to be a better thinker” space, and worth a read. Her view on “identity” is almost right, but worth a closer look—especially if, like me, you think identity framed rightly is extremely important!
I’d had Julia Galef’s Scout Mindset on my mental to-read list ever since Dan Luu recommended it a few years ago. I don’t always agree with Dan, but I do always find him interesting and thoughtful, so when he recommends a book like this, I pay attention. I read it earlier this week, and I think I largely share Dan’s take on it! This was better than I expected, and I am not only primed to like things like this but I was primed to like this in particular because Dan said exactly that when he recommended it. I still mostly liked it better than I thought I would!
Galef’s book is a quick1 survey of not only how we end up misled by various cognitive biases — familiar territory if you have read Thinking, Fast and Slow or anything from the rationalist community or have heard of the replication crisis — but also helpful ways of actually addressing those biases in very practical terms. As she notes early in the book, plenty of us are aware that we have various biases, but most of us are not very good at doing anything about them.
