The Scout Mindset

The biggest flaw for me in the book is the title which made comprehension difficult when the author referred to it.

The author uses the word scout as someone who sees’s things for how they are, not how they want them to be. If a scout reports a bridge 2 miles away or an assembling army of 500 soldiers, that must be a fact. The scout cannot convince himself of this and report it. The author compares that to human behavior in us making decisions based on interpreting the world the way that we want or is most convenient for us.

However, I think of a scout and a soldier (another type of mindset the author refers to) as something totally different. For me, a scout is a tiny pawn in the grand scheme of a strategy. A scout sees a tiny little piece of the overall plan. And a soldier is not supposed to think. They’re supposed to act based on training.

Both of these mindsets can lead to flawed decision making.