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A quotation from Dr de Bono that often springs to mind is “You cannot dig a hole in a different place by digging the same hole deeper.” Intelligent people/experts can be very effective diggers of single deep holes. Unleash your greatest potential! Better insights, better results! Learn proven practices for mind, body, emotions, career, finance, relationships, spirituality, and fun. Growth. Resilience. Strength.
Our self-perceptions of expertise mean we have gained the right to be closed-minded and to ignore other points of view.Resistance to change and new ideas by intelligent people, is one of the main reasons change management and improvement initiatives don’t always get traction. We don’t help things along either as we have a strong tendency to defer to the views of those who can mount a convincing critical argument. Critical assessment however is only a part of the thinking that we need to embrace and use going forward. Criticism is a powerful weapon in the hands of those who suffer the intelligence trap. Criticism however is easy, it’s a simple matter to pull a new idea to pieces or critique an as yet unproven concept. British Journal of General Practice is an editorially-independent publication of the Royal College of General Practitioners Smart people are not only just as prone to making mistakes as everyone else, they may be even more susceptible to them. This is the "intelligence trap," the subject of David Robson’s fascinating and provocative book.
This is a good book describing the most common mistakes and biases in our decision making progress. Author focuses on highly intelligent people, but I think similar mistakes are committed by average Joe. Most presented studie results can be probably extrapolated to the general population. Attentional control is important to focus our attention on the task at hand and avoid distractions. It’s this rapid pivot of perspectives that I believe helps ensure an Agile mind, and reinforce a Growth Mindset. Be Careful of Playing the Devil’s Advocate
Don’t critique yourself along the way, simply dump out all the positive points that you can think of. Step 2. Consider the Minus Points of the Situation.
The unconscious tendency to apply our brainpower only when the conclusions will suit our predetermined goal. It may include the confirmation or myside bias (preferentially seeking and remembering information that suits our goal) and discomfirmation bias (the tendency to be especially sceptical about evidence that does not fit our goal). In politics, for instance, we are far more likely to critique evidence concerning an issue such as climate change if it does not fit with our existing worldview. He then presents a number of ways that you might go about tripping yourself up so as not to fall into the intelligence trap. Mostly, these are things from the books I’ve mentioned earlier – well, and also mostly Thinking: Fast and Slow.
Stanovich emphasizes that dysrationalia is not just limited to system 1 thinking. Even if we are reflective enough to detect when our intuitions are wrong, and override them, we may fail to use the right “mindware”—the knowledge and attitudes that should allow us to reason correctly. If you grow up among people who distrust scientists, for instance, you may develop a tendency to ignore empirical evidence, while putting your faith in unproven theories. Greater intelligence wouldn’t necessarily stop you forming those attitudes in the first place, and it is even possible that your greater capacity for learning might then cause you to accumulate more and more “facts” to support your views.
The writing is very easy to follow and the pace on how the book is presented makes a lot of sense - it is divided into four parts. The first explains the downsides of intelligence on how a high IQ, education and expertise can fuel stupidity. The second part goes over how to escape the intelligence trap going over reasoning and decision making. Third part presents how wisdom can improve memory and principles of deep learning, and finally the last part presents how teams and organizations could avoid disasters and how to create a dream team for success. An inquisitive, interested, questioning attitude; a hunger for information. Not only does curiosity improve learning; the latest research shows that it also protects us from motivated reasoning and bias. Robson is a brilliant writer who presented this idea on how and why intelligent people make stupid mistakes and how to avoid it. This book, “The Intelligent Trap” should be required reading for any professional or expert in any field from business, to healthcare or academia and anything else in between.I would have to say because of all the examples and stories, this book made it fun to read. While reading this book, you will realize, this book is actually making you smarter while you are enjoying this wonderful read. Moving on, the author recaps a good deal of the content of Surely you must be joking, Mr. Feynman? which would be great if I hadn't read it, but I had. This makes me think that he has similarly recapped the content of other books which I have not read and which are referred to in the text. So the value of this volume will depend on one's prior reading.
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