“What a man wishes, he also believes. Similarly, what we believe is what we choose to see. This is commonly referred to as the confirmation bias. It is a deeply ingrained mental habit, both energy-conserving and comfortable, to look for confirmations of long-held wisdom rather than violations. Yet the scientific process – including hypothesis generation, blind testing when needed, and objective statistical rigor – is designed to root out precisely the opposite, which is why it works so well when followed.
The modern scientific enterprise operates under the principle of falsification: A method is termed scientific if it can be stated in such a way that a certain defined result would cause it to be proved false. Pseudo-knowledge and pseudo-science operate and propagate by being unfalsifiable – as with astrology, we are unable to prove them either correct or incorrect because the conditions under which they would be shown false are never stated.”- Shane Parrish
“The tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms one’s preexisting beliefs or hypotheses, while giving disproportionately less consideration to alternative possibilities.” (related: cognitive dissonance)” – Gabriel Weinberg
“It is the peculiar and perpetual error of the human understanding to be more moved and excited by affirmatives than by negatives.” — Francis Bacon
Source:
Shane Parrish’s Farnam Street Mental Model Guide
https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/mental-models/
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Gabriel Weinberg’s Mental Models I Find Repeatedly Useful
https://medium.com/@yegg/mental-models-i-find-repeatedly-useful-936f1cc405d
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Thucydides via 13 Mental Models Every Founder Should Know
https://medium.com/the-mission/13-mental-models-every-founder-should-know-c4d44afdcdd
