GRANTED: My spring book picks and a chance to test your forecasting skills

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March 2021

Saying "I was wrong" isn't an admission of incompetence. It's a sign that you have the humility to recognize your mistakes and the integrity to learn from them. The faster you acknowledge when you’re wrong, the faster you can move toward being right.

In Think Again, I explored how the world’s best forecasters excel at this skill—they even learn to enjoy discovering that they were wrong. Now I’m delighted to team up with Good Judgment to invite you to test your forecasting skills. It’s a free open challenge—you’ll get to predict how many COVID vaccines will be authorized by the end of March, whether the Tokyo Olympics will be canceled before May, and how long my book will stay on the NYT bestseller list.

If you participate, you’ll receive a free feedback report, data to benchmark your skills against other forecasters, and advice from the superforecasters profiled in chapter 3 of Think Again. The top performers will win some books. Sign up here.

Now, onto some articles I enjoyed recently:

1. Why You May Feel Guilty Resting, Even During a Pandemic (Damon Brown and Celeste Headlee, Inc.)
You might be mistaking idleness for laziness. Resting doesn't mean you lack grit or drive—it means you're human. When our mental batteries are drained, we all need to recharge.

2. Worker, Interrupted (Kermit Pattison and Gloria Mark, Fast Company)
A persistent enemy of excellence is fragmented attention. On average, we check email 74x/day and switch tasks every 10min. Computers are made for parallel processing, but humans are better at serial processing. A potential 2021 resolution: focus on one task at a time.

3. I’m A Short Afternoon Walk and You’re Putting Too Much Pressure on Me (Emily Delaney, McSweeney’s)
This cracked me up.

From my desk:

4. The Spring Books to Stretch Your Mind (LinkedIn)

My favorite new releases focus on resolving conflicts, navigating adulthood, promoting fairness, managing change, and thinking more clearly.

5. Who Won’t Shut Up in Meetings? (Washington Post)

If you think women talk too much, it may be because you expect them to talk so little. The data: a man who runs his mouth comes across as a confident expert, whereas a woman who speaks up might be seen as an aggressive b**tch. Recognizing this injustice is a step toward changing it.

6. Brené Brown on What Vulnerability Isn’t (WorkLife)

We discuss when to reveal weaknesses at work and how to set boundaries. If you want more, we continue the conversation on her Dare to Lead podcast, focusing on finding the courage to think again.

In solidarity,

Adam Grant, Ph.D.
Organizational psychologist at Wharton, author of THINK AGAIN, ORIGINALS, GIVE AND TAKE, and OPTION B, and host of WorkLife, a TED original podcast

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GRANTED: My spring book picks and a chance to test your forecasting skills

Older messages

GRANTED: Reasoning with unreasonable people

GRANTED: Testing your openness and announcing my virtual book tour

GRANTED: Your favorites of 2020 and the new books to launch 2021

GRANTED: Who to call Dr. and my least favorite buzzword

GRANTED: Why the Oxford comma is (sometimes) needed

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