Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

There are two powerful reasons to read this book. One: You’ll learn a lot. Two: This book will be mentioned in articles and discussions. It will make the short list of books every manager should read. I bought Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know by Adam Grant because I’ve learned a lot from his books, blogs, and articles. I expected the same level of lucid writing and penetrating insight that I got from Originals and Give and Take. For me, this was the best book yet. Think Again is the best book Grant has written for business leaders. That VUCA world we keep hearing about requires flexibility and unlearning. Most of the books I’ve seen on the kind of learning you need for today’s world focus on corporate cultures, on creating “learning institutions.” Think Again is different. Think Again is about the learning culture between your ears. Here’s how Grant states the purpose of the book. “This book is an invitation to let go of knowledge and opinions that are no longer serving you well, and to anchor your sense of self in flexibility rather than consistency. If you can master the art of rethinking, I believe you’ll be better positioned for success at work and happiness in life. Thinking again can help you generate new solutions to old problems and revisit old solutions to new problems. It’s a path to learning more from the people around you and living with fewer regrets. A hallmark of wisdom is knowing when it’s time to abandon some of your most treasured tools—and some of the most cherished parts of your identity.” The first section of the book is about opening your mind. It’s about what “thinking again” really means. The second part of the book looks at ways to encourage others to think again or to think along with you. The third section is about creating communities of lifelong learners. A key to getting the most from this book is the different mindsets that Philip Tetlock discovered. Here’s Grant’s brief description from Think Again. “Two decades ago my colleague Phil Tetlock discovered something peculiar. As we think and talk, we often slip into the mindsets of three different professions: preachers, prosecutors, and politicians. In each of these modes, we take on a particular identity and use a distinct set of tools. We go into preacher mode when our sacred beliefs are in jeopardy: we deliver sermons to protect and promote our ideals. We enter prosecutor mode when we recognize flaws in other people’s reasoning: we marshal arguments to prove them wrong and win our case. We shift into politician mode when we’re seeking to win over an audience: we campaign and lobby for the approval of our constituents. The risk is that we become so wrapped up in preaching that we’re right, prosecuting others who are wrong, and politicking for support that we don’t bother to rethink our own views.” Grant uses Tetlock’s terms for the different mindsets. I found digging around on the web and in the scholarly literature for more on the mindsets helped me squeeze even more value from this book. This is not a book where you can skip around and get much value. The description of thinking in the first section sets up later lessons and insights. The second section builds on the first and applies the lessons to debate and persuasion. The third section builds on the first two. It extends the basic mindset idea to groups. Suggestion. As a warmup for Think Again, take a minute to read a Farnam Street blog post: "Jeff Bezos on Why People that Are Often Right Change Their Minds Often." In A Nutshell Think Again is an excellent book that will give you techniques you can use to think more effectively at work and everywhere else. You’ll get more from the book if you do a little bit of homework. Learn about Tetlock’s mindsets and the general idea of changing your mind as a way of thinking.

​Adam Grant argues that in a world that’s changing faster than ever, the most important skill isn't intelligence—it’s rethinking. It’s a masterclass on how to stay open-minded, let go of "best practices" that no longer work, and embrace the joy of being wrong.

This is a great book from which I have learned a great deal that will aid in my teaching and practice. However, the author fails to take into account the perspective of evolutionary psychology, which is an umbrella or meta-theory over the entire field of psychology. Nothing in the field of psychology makes sense without an evolutionary perspective. The author is an organizational psychologist. Adding an evolutionary perspective to his work would make him an evolutionary organizational psychologist. One cannot accurately explain the human mind and human behavior absent an evolutionary perspective. Why? What scientific evidence is the author missing by failing to take into account the science of evolutionary psychology? In Chapter 6, Bad Blood on the Diamond, Diminishing Prejudice by Destabilizing Stereotypes, the author seeks to explain the origins of tribalism and its viciousness in the treatment of out groups. The answer is that humans are born with brain modules for tribalism because our ancestors had to be tribal in order to survive. Modern humans still possess the same brain modules. We still practice tribalism because in the past it had evolutionary advantages. Now the question is what can be done to improve the human condition? That answer lies in the relatively new science of positive psychology. Evolutionary psychology explains human conflict. Positive psychology gives us the science to mitigate human conflict. The author has apparently not studied these new fields of psychology and therefore lacks the perspective of the most current science. I would like to see him brand himself as a Positive Evolutionary Organizational Psychologist by taking the evidence from these new fields to recalibrate his view of human behavior. Please see Evolutionary Psychology by David Buss, How the Mind Works by Steven Pinker, and Positive Psychology by Alan Carr.

1st off, the ebook is great and works perfectly in my kindle app, no weird scanned in pages or anything like that, just wonderful book that uses the full benefits of kindle. My husband was assigned to read this book for a class he’s taking, and so I got the ebook to help read and understand it. It was just what I needed for this point in my life. I graduated college not long ago, but was feeling really hung up on what to do next. I just wasn’t excited for anything, I was really getting depressed and not enjoying having to figure out my path from here, but I found this book really helpful and a good reminder of what I felt like I knew when I was younger but found myself forgetting, to be open and curious about the world. Nothing is written in stone about our lives, and this book helped remind me of that, that the world might get me to some great points if I am open and willing to try things, that life is a journey to be enjoyed. I also liked it because it reminded me of "Crisis Management" by Steven Fink, many of the principles are the same and there are a lot of similar themes, so I would say those two go well together as books to help with figuring out life and dealing with difficult situations. I strongly suggest giving both of these books a try!

The book looked like it was used before extremely dirty, put me off

It is amazing book , concept and it is really well written- The art of question what we already know is intriguing and also exiting

Love how this books makes us aware of our own self-serving bias. If you are planning to find out how to lead better, interact better or just learn better, then this is the book for you

I liked it a lot, I liked the style of author's writing and he also provided many examples and stories that actually help readers to understand and remember the content of the book for quite some time. It changed the way that you think about conflicts and helps you to have better constructive conversation with friends that have different opinions, You will be more welcoming to change your own mind and be aware of the biases that you might have.

If we ask any person in the world to look back into the past & question if they have any regrets of having not done,or doing a thing wrongly,or missed opportunities of better growth in their life and so on, then it's no surprise, if we hear almost 100% of the people having regretting the way they did or felt that,if only they have put some more thought and done differently.They wished that they should have paused for a moment or for some time,to think differently or have done in a better way."Think Again" by Adam Grant is a book about taking time to "Rethink"..He says that or rather puts his point of view in front of us in a scientific manner telling us why "Rethinking " is necessary.The writer very vividly categorized our reactions or thinking in four differnt ways i.e preaching, prosecuting, politicking and viewing scientifically.With his rich experience as an organizational psychalogist at Wharton,extensive research,quoting examples of the notable people who failed miserably by not rethinking at the right time and the ones who succeeded extensively by constantly rethinking,has put forth his sincere views in the book with an intent to bring the readers closer to 'reasoning and more reasoning,' and not to miss the chances of "Rethinking" on a day to day basis.To be honest, for the first time,I felt that as to why I should write a review at all(as usually I do after reading a book)? Perhaps it may be because I wanted to satisfy my ego, or I wish to say something about the book like a few of the other readers do after reading a book, to feel good.Well I am not sure,but here, I am writing this review feeling happy,though to write a review on a book of this kind is far different than writing on a fictional one. I like to say that here is a book that should be read by every reader who holds interest in reading, not to promote Adam Grant but for the feel good factor for themselves and about their surroundings.Reading this book,we realize that we spend days,months,years and perhaps even decades in orthodox thinking,blind beliefs and unproductive living based on which our actions,discriminations,accusations, overthinking, jugements etc depend, without a thought or concern for the actual facts or truth,bringing misery to ourselves as well as to the people around us.We also understand that no product, experience, event etc can be considered as an ideal or ultimate and that there is always a room for improvement and the best way is always to act and think scientifically.The mention of famous personalities and how they were able to remain at the top for long, while others couldn't do so, was well illustrated with the examples like that of ' Mike Lazaridis and Black Berry(mobile phone)',the forcasting & predictions of 'Jeane Pierre vs Kjirste Morrell,the humbling British physicist Andrew Lyne(admiiting his wrong in front of a large audience),the success story of Wright brothers, Brad Bird and his failures before he won Oscar awards,the debates between Harish Natarajan vs Debra, Daryl Davis the black piano player vs a white supermacist,the innovative educator Ron Berger (*Even I wished that I should have been a student of him) and many more such real life stories of rise and fall makes the book intresting and the reading authentic.After reading the book I could find a few of the complexities with in me too which I was holding for long and realize that I too am happy for being wrong as it means that, I have come a little closer to being right.This is a book with most page markers that I have ever read.