I am Dumb. Thank You Adam Grant!

Mental horsepower doesn’t guarantee mental dexterity. No matter how much brainpower you have, if you lack the motivation to change your mind, you’ll miss many occasions to think again. Research reveals that the higher you score on an IQ test, the more likely you are to fall for stereotypes because you’re faster at recognizing patterns. And recent experiments suggest that the smarter you are, the more you might struggle to update your beliefs. One study investigated whether being a math whiz makes you better at analyzing data. The answer is yes—if you’re told the data are about something bland, like a treatment for skin rashes. But what if the exact same data are labeled as focusing on an ideological issue that activates strong emotions—like gun laws in the United States? 

Being a quant jock makes you more accurate in interpreting the results—as long as they support your beliefs. Yet if the empirical pattern clashes with your ideology, math prowess is no longer an asset; it actually becomes a liability. The better you are at crunching numbers, the more spectacularly you fail at analyzing patterns that contradict your views. If they were liberals, math geniuses did worse than their peers at evaluating evidence that gun bans failed. If they were conservatives, they did worse at assessing evidence that gun bans worked. In psychology, there are at least two biases that drive this pattern. One is confirmation bias: seeing what we expect to see. The other is desirability bias: seeing what we want to see. These biases don’t just prevent us from applying our intelligence. They can actually contort our intelligence into a weapon against the truth. We find reasons to preach our faith more deeply, prosecute our case more passionately…

- Adam Grant in his book Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know

Changing minds is utterly underrated while love is utterly overrated. Anyone can unleash subjective bullshit in the name of love. Changing minds requires a constant Bayesian update to one's belief, seeing reality as it is, lifelong search for truth, and living one's life with Buddha's quintessential eightfold path: 

1. Right understanding: Understanding that the Four Noble Truths are noble and true.
2. Right thought: Determining and resolving to practice Buddhist faith.
3. Right speech: Avoiding slander, gossip, lying, and all forms of untrue and abusive speech.
4. Right conduct: Adhering to the idea of nonviolence (ahimsa), as well as refraining from any form of stealing or sexual impropriety.
5. Right means of making a living: Not slaughtering animals or working at jobs that force you to violate others.
6. Right mental attitude or effort: Avoiding negative thoughts and emotions, such as anger and jealousy.
7. Right mindfulness: Having a clear sense of one’s mental state and bodily health and feelings.
8. Right concentration: Using meditation to reach the highest level of enlightenment.