Adam Grant

Polling people and saying, you know what, I don't know that I'm thinking about this in the right way, or I don't know that I've considered all the information, and I want to take that in to pressure test my hypothesis,

That is not politic and that's thinking more like a scientist.

But, you know, as you read this to me, I'm like, okay, so are you asking me to rethink think again?

Because it would be ironic if I weren't willing to.

You did, you actually made me rethink something in it when we were talking about these ideas, which is, I think sometimes, you actually made me rethink two things, three things, three things.

We could talk about all of them, but the first one is sometimes I'm too harsh on preaching, prosecuting, and politicking.

And I forget to acknowledge there's a time and a place for those.

Preaching is marketing.

We all need marketers in our lives.

I think prosecuting is often how we prevent bad ideas from seeing the light of day.

And I think politicking is sometimes necessary for getting a coalition to support something unproven.

And I think you said, hey, wait a minute.

Let's not just say we should always go into scientist mode.

Let's make sure that people recognize there is value in having a skill in each of these areas.

I love prosecutors when I'm writing a book.

They are my challenge network.

They are the people who question arguments that aren't well-supported and push me to make a stronger case.

I need that.

I don't think either of us could have given a TED Talk if we didn't learn a little bit from preachers about how to advance an idea and communicate it and make it worth spreading.

And so...