debate by outshouting their opponents. But holding fast to one
idea and arguing blindly and vehemently for it is, ironically, not
thinking at all.
A good way to practice real thinking is to seek out intelligent
people who hold opposite viewpoints. Listen carefully to their
arguments, without trying to debate. Get in their shoes. Challenge
yourself to understand deeply how an intelligent person could hold
this opposite opinion. Use the skills of the sensing and thinking
types to objectively dissect the arguments and see exactly where
you disagree. This approach takes courage. Most of us don’t want
to rock the foundation of our belief systems, but this adventure is
what creative thinking is all about. Sometimes it makes you sweat.
Much of what we believe to be good thinking comes from our
knowledge of high-school debates and television courtrooms. In
both cases, there is a competition and a goal: to win. Returning to
our discussion of types for a moment, remember that “thinking”
types prefer competition, whereas “feeling” types prefer coopera-
tion. Hence, in both the legal and investment fields the dominant
form of thinking is a competitive debate. We get ego points for
looking smart and making our points.
This ego-stroking behavior was the subject of a study that used
New York Times theatrical reviews. Participants were asked to read
reviews and place them in one of two piles: smart writer or not-so-
smart writer. Invariably, the reviews that ended up in the “smart”
pile were scathing criticisms, whereas the “not-so-smart” pile was
filled with complimentary reviews. The trick to the study was that
all the reviews had actually been written by the same person—
showing that we tend to view critical thinking as smarter than
complimentary thinking. Our culture definitely favors the debat-
ing model. It strokes our egos. We get rewarded for being critical.
However, the really creative investors must be skillful in both
types of reasoning. They can debate when appropriate and they
can undertake dialogue about subjects when the goal is new ideas
and different mental models. The art of dialogue—the kind that“A” Is for Assume Nothing 16514-25 ware 165 1/19/01, 1:15 PM