This book is all about changing the way we think in a world that has more and more information available that is constantly updating and changing.
The key point I took away from this book is that to manage all this information we need to treat our views as hypotheses, and that there are plenty of risks with holding an opinion too strongly. In some societies holding a firm conviction is an almost necessary trait in a leader, but this book shows the value in a good rethink based on new information.
There are plenty of good examples in this book, and it was written last year so it includes information about the pandemic and recent elections. The book is organized into several main sections: individual rethinking, interpersonal rethinking, and collective rethinking. Moving from inwards to outwards, there are a lot of ideas for improving how your mind works, and tools for dealing with a dynamic environment of information, tribalism and division.
I recognized a lot of the advice as things that most Japanese people already do in the collectivist society that they live in, and to a certain extent some of those habits have already been absorbed into my interpersonal relationships. The key for me will be to stick to these when dealing with other people and new situations.
The writer has an easy-to-read style and I hope that style will help it to be read more widely. The world could use more people thinking (and rethinking) flexibly.
Next I am going to read The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson.
