In Trevor Noah’s words: ‘It’s a never a good thing when the solution to your problem SOUNDS like a problem.’

We’re the first to point out holes in others’ ideas…but will never—ever—accept the slightest fault in our own.

Wharton professor Adam Grant outlines four distinct thinking styles we use to approach problems

• Preacher: “When we’re in preacher mode, we’re convinced we’re right,” explains Grant. From the salesman to the clergyman, this is the style you use when you’re trying to persuade others to your way of thinking.
• Prosecutor: “When we’re in prosecutor mode, we’re trying to prove someone else wrong,” he continues.
• Politician: It’s no shock that “when we’re in politician mode, we’re trying to win the approval of our audience.”
• Scientist: When you think like a scientist “you favor humility over pride and curiosity over conviction,” Grant explains. “You look for reasons why you might be wrong, not just reasons why you must be right.”

“I think too many of us spend too much time thinking like preachers, prosecutors, and politicians,” Grant insists.

Grant mentions one Italian study which taught budding business owners to view their plans as hypotheses for testing. Compared to a control group “those entrepreneurs that we taught to think like scientists brought in more than 40 times the revenue of the control group,” he reports (40 times!).

Grant has a point.

The truth works.

All of this is just another way to convey the importance of a learning mindset.

What can I do to be a better scientist? Why is it so hard to be a good scientist?