Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know

Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know is a popular psychology book written by Adam Grant and published in 2021. Grant, an organizational psychology professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, as well as a podcast host and entrepreneur, argues for the power of rethinking and unlearning to better understand our world and ourselves. His prior books include Give and Take (2013), Originals (2016), and Option B (2017), cowritten with Sheryl Sandberg.

Plot Summary

Part 1 focuses on being able to rethink at an individual level. In Chapter 1, Grant introduces four archetypes to which he’ll return throughout the book: preacher, prosecutor, politician, and scientist. When we make decisions and engage with others, Grant believes that we tend to adopt the style of a preacher, prosecutor, or politician. We preach to protect and promote our own ideas, prosecute to prove others wrong, and politick when we lobby for others’ approval. In these modes, we’re so focused on defending our own beliefs that we are often unable to listen to others or recognize the flaws in our thinking. He argues that we should adopt the mode of scientist more often, which encourages us to doubt our own ideas, be open to new ideas, and update our beliefs in response.

In Chapter 2, Grant writes that we suffer from imposter syndrome when we doubt our own expertise. Grant suggests that although we need to have confidence in ourselves, imposter syndrome can be useful, and that we must strive for a kind of confident humility.

In Chapter 3, Grant goes in search of people who enjoy being wrong. Most people feel very uncomfortable when they have their core beliefs questioned; however, some people delight in discovering that they were wrong about something because it means they have an opportunity to learn something new. A key takeaway is that it’s important not to let our core beliefs become part of our identity; instead, we must learn to separate our identity from our beliefs, and then we will be more open to having those beliefs challenged.

In Chapter 4, Grant tackles conflict. He differentiates between relationship conflict and task conflict. While relationship conflict is typically detrimental to interpersonal dynamics, task conflict can be productive under the right conditions. The key is not to let task conflict become relationship conflict by thinking about it as a debate rather than a disagreement; this way, the conflict feels less personal and easily overcome.

Part 2 focuses on what he calls “interpersonal rethinking,” or the art of persuasion. In Chapter 5, Grant analyzes successful debate tactics in order to understand how to effectively persuade people. What he found in his research was that people too often take an adversarial approach in persuasion and try to overwhelm their opponents; the better approach is to find common ground, ask questions, and limit arguments to a few key points.

Chapter 6 focuses on how to overcome stereotypes and prejudice, which he identifies as versions of overconfidence cycles. His main frame is that of racial prejudice. Combined with counterfactual thinking, which asks us to explore the origins of our beliefs, he describes instances in which people have been able to successfully overcome their racism.

Chapter 7 applies these ideas to vaccine hesitancy and substance abuse. Grant explains the concept of motivational interviewing, which was developed to address substance abuse issues; rather than taking on a forceful, adversarial tone, motivational interviewers ask open-ended questions to identify the client’s reasons to change. Grant argues that people must find their own motivation(s) to change, so if our goal is behavioral change, if the two parties have common goals, motivational interviewing is more effective than typical persuasion.

Part 3 considers how we might apply the principles of the book to society in order to create broad social change. In Chapter 8, he addresses the increased polarization of society in the age of the internet. Merely being exposed to the opposing side is not enough to open people up to compromise. Instead, we must avoid oversimplifying issues and instead emphasize the complexity of those issues.

Chapter 9 looks at pedagogy and the US education system. Grant suggests that students are too often conditioned to simply accept what they learn in school; instead, they should be taught to question what they learn and think in new ways. This is typically called “active learning,” and he argues that although this is a more difficult form of learning—and one that students tend to enjoy less—it is a more effective and productive form of learning.

In Chapter 10, Grant focuses on the difference between performance and learning cultures in work environments. Many organizations adopt a performance culture which emphasizes and rewards outcomes above all else; the problems with this kind of culture are that it tends to stifle dissent and ignore the kinds of processes that lead to good outcomes. Instead, he advocates for a learning culture which emphasizes process as well as outcomes and rewards rethinking cycles.

Grant concludes the book by looking at how rethinking can benefit our personal lives in ways that might not be obvious. The big area is in our careers; Grant argues that we’re frequently expected to decide what we want to be at a young age, but that this is very limiting and closes us off to other possibilities by naturally escalating our commitment to the original plan as time goes on. He claims that we live in open systems which are constantly in flux; as a result, we need to be open to pivoting when necessary. He recommends counterbalancing the impulse to escalate our commitment by doing a life check-in a couple times each year to make sure our path is still the right one for us.