Permission to Speak Freely

11

BE GENUINELY CURIOUS

We don’t see the world as it is; we see it as we are.

—ANAÏS NIN

REMEMBER BACK A FEW CHAPTERS AGO when we explored the topic of judgment and disapproval? None of us are all that good at judging others (especially their intentions). Let’s play a little game to reinforce the idea that our minds work in mysterious ways: please take out a piece of paper (or write in the margins of this book) and answer this question:

Is the tallest redwood tree more or less than 1,200 feet?

Next question:

What is the height of the tallest redwood?

Nobel Prize–winning economist Daniel Kahneman shares this experiment in his book Thinking, Fast and Slow. The question’s content is immaterial. It could be Gandhi’s age at his death, the depth of ...