The Bestselling Author Who Admitted: ‘I placed too much faith in underpowered studies.’
Daniel Kahneman, a world-renowned psychologist and economist, is one of the most celebrated Israelis.
His work on the psychology of judgment, decision-making, and behavioral economics earned him a Nobel Prize in 2002. And Daniel’s book Thinking, Fast and Slow won the National Academies Communication Award for best creative work that helps the public understanding of topics in behavioral science, engineering, and medicine.
In 2011, Daniel was named by Foreign Policy magazine in its list of top global thinkers and, in 2015, The Economist listed him as the seventh-most influential economist in the world.
So, when three seemingly random psychologists had the guts to publicly critique a portion of Daniel’s book in a blog post, the Nobel Prize winner’s response wasn’t exactly what you’d expect in the age of hyper-defensive and quick-to-deflect behaviors.
Remarkably, Daniel took the time to post a detailed response to their critique, writing:
“What the blog gets absolutely right is that I placed too much faith in underpowered studies … The argument is inescapable: Studies that are underpowered for the detection of plausible effects must occasionally return non-significant results even when the research hypothesis is true — the absence of these results is evidence that something is amiss in the published record.”
Although it’s the courageous thing to do, it’s never easy to admit error — particularly when you’re a high-profile scientist. Yet Daniel’s approach teaches us two things about chutzpah.
The first and obvious one is be open to critique. But the second, and perhaps more important one is, your work and anything else you do in your life is not who and what you are.
Whereas many people today fail to differentiate between what they do (behaviors) and who they are (identity), it becomes astronomically easier to hear and acknowledge critique when you separate your actions from your identity.
Just because an idea of yours fails doesn’t mean you’re a failure. Just because your relationship is broken doesn’t mean you are broken. Just because you did something stupid or foolish doesn’t mean you are stupid and foolish.
When you live with more chutzpah, you become more open to critique, which allows you to learn and grow, and you quickly understand that a critique on what you’ve done is not a critique on who or what you are.
To living with more chutzpah -
Josh
