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Julia Galef
Psychology & Personal Growth
Julia Galef is an American writer, speaker and co-founder of the Center for Applied Rationality whose work explores belief and accurate thinking.
Biography
Julia Galef is an American writer and speaker born on July 4, 1983. She is a co-founder of the Center for Applied Rationality. From 2010 to 2021, she hosted Rationally Speaking, the official podcast of New York City Skeptics. She shared hosting duties with philosopher Massimo Pigliucci, and Benny Pollak produced the show until 2015.
In The Scout Mindset, Galef examines why people defend beliefs they want to be true rather than seek an accurate understanding of the world. She contrasts this defensive approach with a willingness to investigate what is actually true. Her account emphasizes emotional skills, habits and perspectives that people can learn, rather than superior intelligence or knowledge.
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Books by Julia Galef
Scout Mindset
The Scout Mindset contrasts a “soldier” mindset that defends preferred beliefs with a “scout” mindset that seeks an accurate view of reality. Galef explores why people deceive themselves and describes learnable emotional skills and habits for thinking more accurately.