Stephen J. Dubner Quotes

I don't know how you can understand other people or yourself if you haven't read a lot of books. I just don't think you're equipped to deal with the demands and decisions of life, particularly in your dealings with other people.

Objective leaders identify their unproductive mental models and tweak them for greater effectiveness.

You have to do a lot of listening, you don't just learn out of yourself.

And I like asking questions, to keep learning; people with big egos might not want to look unsure.

I try not to be overly analytical.

The most useful piece of learning for the uses of life is to unlearn what is untrue.

I don't read reviews and I don't know what to do with opinions, so I just lose them. They take up space, they become a process of manufacturing a persona, which I want to avoid.

There is no substitute for accurate knowledge. Know yourself, know your business, know your men.

When you have a problem, rules don't solve your problem. It's caring and education.

To be conscious that you are ignorant is a great step to knowledge.

Being unbiased is a lot like being humble: as soon as you think you are, you aren’t. Neither are a finite state of being but a continuous struggle to not allow our perspectives poison our opinions.

Put your choices in perspective.

We're all biased, right, in many different ways - politically, religiously, ideologically, the way our family raised us - and that's fine. Nobody wants to live in a world where everybody thinks exactly the same. The key, though, is to try to figure out where your biases are holding you back from solving problems.

All through my life, when faced with a difficult decision, I always ask myself - where can I learn more. Make the choice to learn.

I built a career out of knowing what I don't know.

Making assumptions taught me a lot as a producer, because it's something I never do now.

I think we have a cultural difficulty with looking at our problems.

When I was at school, one of my teachers had two statements hanging from the board all year: 'Be observant' and 'Be empathetic.'

Learn to control ego. Humans hold their dogmas and biases too tightly, and we only think that our opponents are dogmatic! But we all need criticism. Criticism is the only known antidote to error.

The unexamined life is not worth living.

I'm raised to actually think, to use my brain.

The truth won't set us free - until we develop the skills and the habit and the talent and the moral courage to use it.

I have looked back on situations and thought that I could have handled a few differently and probably better.

The efficient man is the man who thinks for himself.

Concentrate and think upon the problem in mind until a satisfactory conclusion is reached, and then finally go ahead. If you have made a mistake, all right. Never find fault with a man because he has made a mistake. It is only a fool that makes the same mistake the second time.