That’s a good point, though I do still think you need the right motivation. Where you’re convinced you’re right, it’s very easy to skim past passages that are ‘obviously’ incorrect, and fail to question assumptions. (More generally, I do wonder what’s a good heuristic for this—clearly it’s not practical to constantly go back to first principles on everything; I’m not sure how to distinguish [this person is applying a poor heuristic] from [this person is applying a good heuristic to very different initial beliefs])
Perhaps the best would be a combination: a conversation which hopefully leaves you with the thought that you might be wrong, followed by the book to allow you to go into things on your own time without so much worry over losing face or winning.
Another point on the cause-for-optimism side is that being earnestly interested in knowing the truth is a big first step, and I think that description fits everyone mentioned so far.
That’s a good point, though I do still think you need the right motivation. Where you’re convinced you’re right, it’s very easy to skim past passages that are ‘obviously’ incorrect, and fail to question assumptions.
(More generally, I do wonder what’s a good heuristic for this—clearly it’s not practical to constantly go back to first principles on everything; I’m not sure how to distinguish [this person is applying a poor heuristic] from [this person is applying a good heuristic to very different initial beliefs])
Perhaps the best would be a combination: a conversation which hopefully leaves you with the thought that you might be wrong, followed by the book to allow you to go into things on your own time without so much worry over losing face or winning.
Another point on the cause-for-optimism side is that being earnestly interested in knowing the truth is a big first step, and I think that description fits everyone mentioned so far.