Rules of Thinking, The

RULE 92

Facts are neutral

You need to avoid all the pitfalls of sloppy thinking, and that means you need to be on the lookout for them. These are the little errors that make us believe our thinking is sharper than it is. We don’t want to feel smart, we want to be smart. We want to spot the traps so we can take avoiding action before we fall into them.

I mentioned in Rule 76 that one of the big errors of thought is believing that the facts, the data, the stats are backing up your own viewpoint. This is known as confirmation bias, when you search out information that supports your argument, or interpret the facts that you’re presented with as backing you up. It’s a very comfortable thing to do – it makes you right, and saves you the effort or ...