The Certainty Trap
Why We Need to Question Ourselves More—and How We Can Judge Others Less

This book points to the ways that too much certainty in one’s own beliefs can foster polarization—and what readers can do about it. As a journalist by profession, I loved this book’s central message to think more critically about facts that get taken for granted. The author’s arguments were largely s......more

Read this on recommendation from a friend who knows the author. The friend got a lot of insight from it, but he felt like I might not learn many new lessons. He was right. Most of the deconstruction of certainty and the reinforcement of humility in this book can be cultivated in a high school litera......more

Lots of verbiage but basically the key messages are "question your assumptions" and "keep an open mind."......more

Full review and summary. The main points of The Certainty Trap are: 1. The Dangers of Certainty: Our need to always be right has divided us, increasing political polarization, distrust, and moral outrage. Redstone argues that blind certainty traps us in narrow thinking and self-righteousness. This min......more

Redstone makes the case for re-evaluating our positions, in politics, in business and our relationships. Many of our opinions are held without thought or examination, welded to our belief that we are "right". The current polarization of our American political realm is the evidence of the dilemma. Re......more