Practising Scepticism Without Falling Into Cynicism
Launch library · evergreen read
Take a source you already generally trust quite a great deal and deliberately look quite hard for its genuine weaknesses, and then take a source you generally distrust and deliberately look hard for anything it actually gets right despite that distrust. This exercise builds the muscle of proportionate judgement rather than blanket loyalty or blanket rejection either way.
Notice quite carefully how uncomfortable this whole exercise can feel initially, since it runs directly against the natural pull toward simply confirming views you already hold. That discomfort itself is a genuinely useful signal that the exercise itself is actually working exactly as originally intended for you.
Repeating this practice across many different sources over time builds a considerably more evenly calibrated sense of trust overall, one based firmly on evidence and track record rather than on which sources merely happen to feel familiar or unfamiliar to you personally at the outset.