Fellow traveler,
Here is this week’s edition of The Joy List. Hope you find it worthwhile.
With joy,
Bolu.
If you are willfully oblivious to your flaws, you can’t correct them. As my colleague Steven Pinker, the author of the new book Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters, reminded me by email, “Whatever advantages self-deception may have in motivation … it has to be balanced against the obvious downside of not learning from mistakes.” Research shows that self-deception is associated with an inability to see our own flaws, which makes self-improvement harder. Refusing to admit that I am a bit neurotic might make me feel better in the moment, but it also discourages me from undertaking efforts to change for the long-term good of myself and those around me.
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