Galef says that self-deception is sometimes seen as valuable for staying happy, coping with difficult situations, motivating oneself, or influencing others, but she argues that there are effective ways to accomplish these goals without sacrificing good judgement. Part III, 'Thriving Without Illusions', argues that the supposed benefits of overconfidence and self-deception are not convincing reasons to shy away from a scout mindset. Galef gives examples of what does and does not indicate a scout mindset, suggests ways to notice and counteract bias, and outlines strategies for quantifying and labeling levels of confidence. Part II, 'Developing Self-Awareness', discusses ways to examine one's own mindset. Galef lists several benefits of the soldier mindset, but argues that people tend to systematically underestimate the value of the scout mindset. Part I, 'The Case for Scout Mindset', describes the 'scout mindset', a style of thinking that is focused on earnestly seeking the truth, and contrasts it with the 'soldier mindset', a style of thinking that is focused on defending one's existing beliefs. The book is divided into five parts, with an introduction and a conclusion. The book was published on April 13, 2021, by Portfolio, a division of Penguin. She worked on the book for five years before it was published, because she wanted it to be supported by evidence, and because her views on the topic changed while researching and writing about it. But in 2016 she left the organization, feeling that her work there was not accomplishing as much as she wanted, and started writing The Scout Mindset.

In 2012, Galef co-founded the Center for Applied Rationality, an organization focused on educating people about rationality and cognitive bias. Galef contrasts this with a 'soldier mindset', which she says is a natural tendency to use motivated reasoning to defend one's existing beliefs instead of being open to changing them. The scout mindset emphasizes curiosity, unbiased truth-seeking, and facing reality, even if that reality is unexpected. In the book, Galef argues for what she calls a scout mindset: 'the motivation to see things as they are, not as you wish they were'. The Scout Mindset: Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don't is a 2021 non-fiction book by Julia Galef.

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