Julia Galef - The Scout Mindset (Piatkus, 2021) ***

This book has nothing to do with the "boy scouts", but the scout refers to the one finding the right way to your destination.  She puts them in the opposite space as "the soldier", who will do anything to claim he's right, in full disregard for the facts and logic. The author, Julia Galef is co-founder of the Center for Applied Rationality. She holds a BA in statistics from Columbia University. "The organization also gives workshops to train people to internalize and use strategies based on the principles of rationality on a more regular basis to improve their reasoning and decision-making skills and achieve goals" (according to Wikipedia).

Galef presents a number of situations, games and tests to help you overcome the traditional flaws of insufficient facts to decide, too narrow perspectives, insufficient self-awareness, prejudice, etc. She presents the different tests more as a do-it-yourself guide to personal improvement rather than a more scientific overview of what can be done to overcome the current societal problems that we encounter daily on Twitter or other social media. I do believe that most readers interested in the topic will already know - and hopefully apply - the content of the book. On the downside, it is a sometimes arbitrary list of tests and ideas, without a comprehensive overview of the biological, psychological, social, cultural and historical reasons why we reason as we do. Many of the flaws in our reasoning also have a positive purpose (such as fast generalisations). She also does not pay enough attention to probability and logic, which seem to me quite essential to make decisions when facts are scarce or fully present. It is written with best of intentions, but sometimes the approach is too much addressed to younger audiences. 

The topic is possibly the most important topic to be written about. This book is not very scientific but its easy access may be a good educational tool, especially for young people.