“You are far more likely to believe something is commonplace if you can find just one example of it, and you are far less likely to believe in something you’ve never seen or heard of before.”
– David McRaney in his book “You Are Not So Smart”
He calls it the “Availability Heuristic.”
A heuristic is defined by Wikipedia as: any approach to problem solving or self-discovery that employs a practical method that is not guaranteed to be optimal, perfect, or rational, but is nevertheless sufficient for reaching an immediate, short-term goal or approximation.
I guess if “reaching an immediate, short-term approximation” is what drives us — we can drop this topic.
Most people that click on or subscribe to a blog for Difference Makers have deeper drivers.
Just because information is so readily available today does not mean it’s accurate. One of my favorite quotes of all time is Larry The Cable Guy‘s “42.7% of statistics are made up on the spot,” he says.
13 years ago this article in The Atlantic called the question: does the Internet make us dumb? If we’re not careful, it dang sure might!
So, what do we do? Reading McRaney’s book is a decent start. He challenges a lot of what we think we know, in an approachable and compelling manner. Just like in yesterday’s post; moving closer to the truth by seeking evidence to the contrary. Seeking contrary evidence is worth devoting time and energy to in an effort to both know and understand.
These days, speed is often rewarded at the expense of thoroughness. That’s ok if you’re catching a ball thrown at your face, but not so valuable if you’re contemplating a strategic shift that may impact the careers of the people with whom you work.
In times like these — pandemics, masks, rules, trends, stay-at-home / work-from-home / return-to-normal (whatever the heck “normal” even means!) — the discerning mind will go beyond the available because “proof” does not equal just one example.
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