The Person You Mean to Be Book Summary

You learn how to avoid cognitive biases in The Person You Mean to Be. These biases can limit your ability to form genuine connections with other people and to fully experience your surroundings by either causing you to make incorrect assumptions about them or by firmly grounding you in preconceived notions.

The Person You Mean to Be Book Summary
The Person You Mean to Be Book Summary

Even though you might not be aware of it, you too frequently engage in cognitive biases when interacting with others. Relax; you’re not alone, and it doesn’t sound as horrible as it is.

Our brains use cognitive biases as mental shortcuts to hasten decision-making. Our brains can quickly process information from our surroundings and generate solutions to problems.

These mental shortcuts are helpful because they enable us to make decisions quickly without expending a lot of time and effort on carefully considering every aspect of each circumstance.

These quick cuts, though, can occasionally mislead us and keep us from seeing things clearly. The Person You Mean to Be by Dolly Chugh will examine the best techniques so far identified by scientists for overcoming negative cognitive biases.

We need to acknowledge our biases and have an open mind in order to overcome them.

You’re probably familiar with confirmation bias, which is the propensity to look for and accept information that supports your current beliefs while rejecting information that contradicts them. But did you realise that we are all susceptible to a variety of additional cognitive biases?

In fact, Harvard studied this issue and even developed an online quiz (the IAT test) to show how everyone has unconscious biases that influence their thinking. This test was groundbreaking, even for the most liberal folks.

The majority of respondents appear to identify males with jobs and work, women with childcare, and black individuals with lethal weapons on average. Though it may sound bitter, everything is there. Therefore, how do we eliminate these biases?

Keeping an open mind or a growth mentality is one strategy. Such a thinking runs counter to a fixed mindset since it suggests that a person is willing to try new things, step outside of their comfort zone, and is open to fresh viewpoints.

For instance, a person with a fixed mindset would claim, “I was never good at singing,” whereas a person with a growth mindset might merely give it a shot. The same is true with biases; we must acknowledge our own and then take steps to overcome them. It requires active engagement and a strong internal drive to make progress.

You can start internally and publicly if you wish to focus on eradicating biases.

Each one of us encounters cognitive biases on a regular basis. For instance, you undoubtedly make assumptions about someone’s personality based on how they act and present themselves when you first meet them.

That’s just human nature, therefore it’s not necessarily a bad thing! Nonetheless, there are situations when you could be wrong in your judgements of other individuals. Consider the case of American executive Kimberly Davis, who entered a room full of attendees at an event who had the same status as her.

She entered the room feeling excluded because no one came to talk to her because everyone present was white.

They didn’t see her as one of their own because they believed that a black woman could never hold a senior management position, which does not imply that they were racist.

Educate yourself first, then people around you, to disprove these presumptions. According to the book, doing this is much more effective when you stand up for a person who isn’t like you.

In general, society expects like-minded individuals to defend one another. So, it has a greater impact if you stand up for a member of a different social group. What a surprise, right? Nobody, which makes it all the more important.

It can be detrimental to hide racial disparities in order to avoid coming off as racist.

We run the danger of missing out on opportunities for development and interpersonal connection if we act as though race is unimportant. On the other hand, acknowledging and embracing the fact of race does not entail endorsing the notion that one group is more powerful than another or treating people of various races differently.

It simply entails understanding that everyone has a racial identity, meaning that something about them (such as their appearance or ancestry) has led others to mistakenly classify them as a member of one group as opposed to another, and that having this identity can have some effects on their daily experiences.

It is simple enough to convince yourself that you are not sexist or racist. even more so if you don’t view the world through the prism of gender and ethnicity. Nevertheless, if you choose not to see those glasses at all, you are rejecting a reality.

It is insufficient for us to merely declare that we support racial and gender equality without taking any concrete action. We must admit that some social groups are more vulnerable than others due to fundamental problems in our society. Only after that can we start attempting to find solutions that will benefit all parties concerned (and ideally prevent further harm from occurring).

The Person You Mean to Be Book Review

“The Person You Mean to Be” by Dolly Chugh is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand and combat bias in their personal and professional lives. The book is a guide on how to become the person you want to be, and how to create a fairer and more inclusive world.

Chugh presents a unique approach to fighting bias, which she calls “the honest change framework.” She encourages readers to be honest with themselves about their own biases and to take active steps to change their behavior. Chugh explains how small changes in our actions and mindset can have a significant impact on the world around us.

The book is filled with practical exercises, real-life examples, and research-backed insights that make it engaging and relatable. Chugh provides clear and concise explanations of complex psychological and sociological concepts, making them accessible to readers of all backgrounds.

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